SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Computers aren't just doing hard math problems and showing us cat videos. Increasingly, they judge our character. Maybe we should be grateful.
A company in Palo Alto, Calif., called Upstart has over the last 15 months lent $135 million to people with mostly negligible credit ratings. Typically, they are recent graduates without mortgages, car payments or credit card settlements.
Those are among the things that normally earn a good or bad credit score, but these people haven't been in the working world that long. So Upstart looks at their SAT scores, what colleges they attended, their majors and their grade-point averages. As much as job prospects, the company is assessing personality.
The idea, validated by data, is that people who did things like double-checking the homework or studying extra in case there was a pop quiz are thorough and likely to honor their debts.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/26/using-algorithms-to-determine-character/
[Other Companies Involved With Similar Programs]: ZestFinance , Workday
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday July 27 2015, @09:24PM
Usually this kind of story comes from people who haven't pulled and looked at their credit report. Its a popular mythology.
The credit agencies get all excited by having bank and brokerage accounts that have been open for awhile with reasonable balances and no bounced checks. They also like a history of paying utilities. Even if you rent, you're probably paying the cable company, cell phone company (if you're on contract), probably electric and water bills... All of those payments (or non-payments) will show up on the report. They like seeing bills get paid on time.
It might be possible with great effort to live in the dorms with a non-contract cell phone and no cable or satellite and an awesome scholarship and be 22 with no record of ever paying anything ever, but its very rare and would take intentional effort.
You can pull your report every ... six months or something like that for free. Probably a good idea.
Also college students used to get $200 credit limit cards pretty much for just having a pulse. And unlike my checking account there is no cost if you use your CC and pay it off each month. Each time I write a check, and even worse, physically mail it with a stamp, I'm out something like 75 cents, but I can pay with my CC for free. I don't owe much but I use it alot. They start charging you annual fees after awhile, but usually cheaper than ordering printed checks!
This reminds me to pull my report and look at it for fun.
Some people have questionable judgment. Just saying. There's always going to be that corner of the bell curve. And in a world based on commissioned sales bonuses and extremely loose credit, if credit won't let them take out a loan, they probably never stood a chance, not a chance in hell, of paying it back, given that its a popular business model to give our thing with loans, wait for default and repo, rinse and repeat. So consider it a bullet dodged.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 27 2015, @09:28PM
No. I keep a very keen eye on my credit record and score. It is pricey to get your own actual score but is worth doing. My score is rock bottom and has zero debt entries. It certainly is not a myth as I am living it.