So do we have to watch what we say now? Meaning do our “thoughts” help determine our credit score?
Read into the article and it points out that “It’s a marketing trend as opposed to a credit score trend”
Social Networking: Your Key to Easy Credit?
By: Erica Sandberg, CreditCards.com
You probably don’t analyze the chatter or quality of your social media connections, but creditors may be doing just that.
Networking
In their quest to identify creditworthy customers, some are tapping into the information you and your friends reveal in the virtual stratosphere. Before calling the privacy police, though, understand how it’s really being used.
Data rich discussions
According to Nielsen Online, 67 percent of the global online population uses Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin or a similar social media network to stay in touch with friends, grow their business or just have fun. If you’re among them and your settings are turned to “public,” who you’re talking to and what you’re discussing is available to those wanting to sell their wares — and that includes banks and other credit issuers.
Marketing effort
“It’s a marketing trend as opposed to a credit score trend,” says Joel Jewitt, vice president of business development of Rapleaf, a San Francisco, Calif., company specializing in social media monitoring. Rapleaf hunts and gathers social networking transmissions, turning the conversations you have in your network into consumer profiles called social graphs. These graphs provide companies with insight into behavior patterns: what you like and dislike, want and don’t want, do well and do poorly. read more… Social Networking: Your Key to Easy Credit? – CNBC.
Credit is getting tougher to get and companies are quick to increase rates. Now that the Federal Reserve has stepped in we will see a few more changes.
On top of credit score, retail credit lines now ask for income, asset data
By Ylan Q. Mui Washington Post Staff Writer
Consumers will have to divulge more personal information to apply for store credit cards — possibly putting the brakes on so-called instant credit — under sweeping industry reforms finalized by the Federal Reserve on Tuesday.
The measure, which takes effect on Feb. 22, requires all credit card issuers to consider shoppers’ income and ability to pay before granting approval for a card. The rule aims to tighten the lax lending standards that helped fuel the financial crisis. Retailers say the new measure could disrupt popular promotions that incentivize shoppers, such as discounts for opening a credit card. read more On top of credit score, retail credit lines now ask for income, asset data – washingtonpost.com.
Just reported drop in 30yr rates…
30-year home loan rates drop to 5.09 percent
Associated Press
Rates for 30-year home loans inched downward last week, the first decline in a month, but remained above last month’s record lows.
Real Estate
The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage was 5.09 percent last week, down from 5.14 percent a week earlier, mortgage company Freddie Mac said Thursday. Read more: 30-year home loan rates drop to 5.09 percent.
But… Some forecasts call for increases…
Forecast calls for higher mortgage rates
BY SUSAN TOMPOR freep.com
Most economists expect the Federal Reserve to keep short-term rates low through much of the year. But mortgage rates, which began an uptick late in 2009, are likely to be a different matter.
“The risks are clearly tilted toward an environment of higher rates,” said Greg McBride, senior financial analyst for Bankrate.com.
For some consumers, such forecasts mean that it’s more essential to try to refinance an adjustable-rate mortgage into a fixed rate sooner rather than later in 2010. read more Forecast calls for higher mortgage rates | freep.com | Detroit Free Press.
