TRANSUNION

WOW! :shock: I did NOT know that. When is this supposed to take effect. As if people really needed this. Don't those places have to pay some type of fee to be able to report to these major CRs?

Steelers saw it in the newspaper. It dosent say when it takes effect.

I think these subprime people have paid some type of fee to join Transunion. I think that is what you have to do to be able to report with them. I am suprised.

Steelers I found it its on a website called payday loan news abc they are also going to report utility payments and cell bills. Something called a thinfile.

I know that cell bills were already being reported and in some cases utility bills. Not sure what a thin file means though, did they explain it more in the article you read?

Supposed to be to help the lenders not to get into any more trouble lending to bad consumers. Just something else to drive the credit scores down even more.

As if being subprime lenders and unscrupulous lenders makes them good people! :twisted: :evil: :twisted:

Thin files are considered credit files with fewer than four credit accounts. The industry is trying to find a way to score more people so that credit offers can be expanded. LexisNexis is one that currently evaluates thin files for clients by looking into asset ownership and address tenure for those with so called thin files. It will definitely be a growing market.

So they are actually trying to find a way to hand out more credit and help those who have no credit history?

They see an untapped market of people with no credit history and are looking for a way to move into that area. Whether good or bad, time will tell. You know there has to be something in it for them - and they'll find some kind of "gotcha". Their studies are showing that many of the people with little or no credit histories are those who are likely to default, so probably an opportunity for more subprime rates.

Like thats all this country needs more subprime rates. :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

I think this is more or less a policy change on the PDLs part, not on Transunion's end. The paydays could have previously reported to Transunion if they wanted to ... anyone can report to Transunion as long as they sign an agreement. I think the payday stores never reported because it is a pain to compile electronic tapes and follow the MetroII encoding; where with Teletrack they can simply report accounts through the website.

You won't believe this, but it doesn't cost anything to report accounts to Transunion or Experian (I have never dealt with Equifax). I report over 2,000 accounts to both bureaus every month, and they have never charged me a penny. Where Transunion makes is money is by selling credit reports.

Just went and read that article. Sounds like Transunion is just offering a new product. Thin files will be geared more toward PDLs, and probably be similar to Teletrack.

Thanks Debtcruncher! I am still lost understanding a "thinfile". But when people ask me "Who's your pimp daddy?", I tell them, "Majic Mike" :D

The bureaus offer so many products in addition to the "standard" credit report.

Here's my guess on what a thin file is:
A regular credit report, with all the bells and whistles and other add-ons, costs my company about $5.00 (add $8.50 if the file comes back as a fraud hit). This is going to show me all the credit cards, installment accounts, inquiries ... you know what's on it so I don't need to go into detail.

A payday store knows that if you're going to them for a loan, you probably don't have good credit. So they don't want to pay $5 to find out that you're not paying your credits ... that was a given when you applied to them. PDLs don't care about your credit cards.

PDLs really just want to make sure that you haven't screwed any other PDL stores.

Enter the "thin-file". My guess is that a thin file will cut out all the credit cards / bank notes / car payments, and just report all the sub-prime activity (ie PDLS). And since it is stripped of all that data, it will probably cost a lot less than a regular credit report.

For comparison, Teletrack charges about 67 cents for one of their reports. I'm sure this new "thin file" is just a way for Transunion to compete with Teletrack.

I don't understand how they can do this. I thought Teletrack was what these places used. I know in my area TransUnion is the report the lenders hit the most. This will be interesting to watch.