Credit scoring

jonnyboy_2

I've heard a lot of complaints about companies being secretive about their credit scoring practices. So, how about this for an idea..?

There starts a new section of the site where, when applying for a credit card, moneysavers are encouraged to fill in the details their income, other borrowings, other applications made etc. No personally-identifiable information is collected.

A few weeks later, the site reminds you to enter whether you were accepted for credit or not, much credit limit you were given, and at what interest rate.

After a few months, with enough statistics, we might be able to build up a picture of the credit policies of different lenders. Might this be a way of breaking their veil of secrecy?

creditscorer_2

Nice idea in theory but in practice, most issuers don't use application form answers to drive the majority of their credit policy. That's what the credit reference agencies are for.
Further to that, some scorecards have over 30 characteristics (effectively questions) which can have 15-20 different scores each. This means unless you can collect hundreds of thousands of cases, you'll only ever find the most extreme (and obvious) relationships.

Cs

jonnyboy_2

Well, it might not be possible to collect hundreds of thousands of cases, but thousands yes. We're not going to get any overnight answers, but it strikes me that if people are willing to fill in (anonymously) as much detail about their credit past as they can (truthfully) then we'd effectively be able to analyze statistically credit scores and relate that to decisions by lenders.
Or is that just the drink talking?