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View Full Version : Facebook Friends and Using ALL-CAPS Can Lower Your Credit Score




DamianTV
08-26-2013, 07:58 PM
http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/08/26/1741251/how-deadbeat-facebook-friends-and-using-all-caps-can-lower-your-credit-score


"CNN has the news that some financial lending companies claim that Facebook social connections can be a good indicator of a person's creditworthiness. One company determines if you are friends with someone who was late paying back a loan; if so, that is bad news for you. It is even worse news if the delinquent friend is someone you frequently interact with. Another company gathers information from the manner in which a customer fills out the online loan application. The chances of getting a loan improve if you spend time reading information about the loan on their website. Conversely, if you fill out the application typing in all-caps (or with no caps), you are knocked down a couple pegs in that company's eyes. A third lender requires that small business borrowers grant them access to the borrowers' PayPal, eBay and other online payment accounts (what could possibly go wrong with that?), thereby disclosing real-time sales and delivery information."

Ah yes, another way Facebook can fuck you over.

The crime you are charged with? Having Poor Friends. Because Poverty is against the Law.

CPUd
08-26-2013, 08:40 PM
CASH AND CARRY

PaulConventionWV
08-26-2013, 08:41 PM
http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/08/26/1741251/how-deadbeat-facebook-friends-and-using-all-caps-can-lower-your-credit-score



Ah yes, another way Facebook can fuck you over.

The crime you are charged with? Having Poor Friends. Because Poverty is against the Law.

The last paragraph is pretty misleading. This has nothing to do with the law, and nobody's being punished for being poor... just for being fiscally irresponsible according to that company's criteria. They can use whatever criteria they want to decide that. If you're that concerned about your credit, now you know what to do.

thoughtomator
08-26-2013, 08:54 PM
OH FUCK!


Oh wait, I don't borrow money. I don't need a credit score.

asurfaholic
08-26-2013, 09:02 PM
Right, because I check up on all my friend's finances before I befriend them - because lord knows, people who have suffered in the economy are bad influences.

Oh well, don't do facebook, and I only borrow what I know I can pay back.

TheGrinch
08-26-2013, 09:05 PM
I'll go one further. People who type in all caps should be taken out to the woods and shot with the people who type out long grammar-deficient responses from their phone.

Warrior_of_Freedom
08-27-2013, 01:46 AM
I'm still more bothered about my car insurance costing more simply because of my genitals

MoneyWhereMyMouthIs2
08-27-2013, 04:42 AM
I'm still more bothered about my car insurance costing more simply because of my genitals


Me too, but it's the price we pay for having such over-sized genitals.

rprprs
08-27-2013, 05:57 AM
Me too, but it's the price we pay for having such over-sized genitals.

My insurance premiums are bigger than your insurance premiums!
(Never thought I'd be happy to say that.) :p

DamianTV
08-27-2013, 07:04 AM
If only the banks could somehow link your Credit Score to the shit we talk about them on RPF.com

WM_in_MO
08-27-2013, 07:25 AM
If only the banks could somehow link your Credit Score to the shit we talk about them on RPF.com
Whoa don't give them any ideas.

paulbot24
08-27-2013, 07:27 AM
http://www.prwatch.org/files/images/bank-of-america.jpg DONE!!!!

KingNothing
08-27-2013, 07:41 AM
Right, because I check up on all my friend's finances before I befriend them - because lord knows, people who have suffered in the economy are bad influences.

Oh well, don't do facebook, and I only borrow what I know I can pay back.


I imagine the company found some correlation while analyzing data at their disposal. They're probably just doing what the math tells them to do.

ronpaulfollower999
08-27-2013, 10:17 AM
OH SHIT! GOOD THING I DON'T USE MY FULL NAME ON FACEBOOK!!!

Warrior_of_Freedom
08-27-2013, 12:06 PM
Me too, but it's the price we pay for having such over-sized genitals.

God knows it might dangle in our faces and we'd cause an accident.

angelatc
08-27-2013, 12:08 PM
I'm still more bothered about my car insurance costing more simply because of my genitals

Statistics are a bitch, aren't they It isn't your genitals, per se. It's more likely the testosterone.

angelatc
08-27-2013, 12:11 PM
I imagine the company found some correlation while analyzing data at their disposal. They're probably just doing what the math tells them to do.

Except that it's illegal. If I sign a paper that allows BOA to check my credit, it certainly doesn't give them legal permission to also check the credit of my friends. That's a breech of their privacy.

CPUd
08-27-2013, 12:13 PM
Except that it's illegal. If I sign a paper that allows BOA to check my credit, it certainly doesn't give them legal permission to also check the credit of my friends.

Unless your friends have signed something from them in the past...

angelatc
08-27-2013, 12:16 PM
Unless your friends have signed something from them in the past...

No, that's not how it works. Credit disclosure forms and the laws that accompany them are very specific. You can't just sign your legal rights away forever with one simple form. And there would be no way to determine if my friend had even signed such an agreement without violating the law, anyway.

dannno
08-27-2013, 12:20 PM
John Ulzheimer, a credit expert at CreditSesame.com, says "To me, using social media is a little bit dangerous."

CPUd
08-27-2013, 12:47 PM
No, that's not how it works. Credit disclosure forms and the laws that accompany them are very specific. You can't just sign your legal rights away forever with one simple form. And there would be no way to determine if my friend had even signed such an agreement without violating the law, anyway.

Maybe they are doing it indirectly:

Suppose a bank offered Product A, and they only approve applications for this product from customers whose credit score is within a certain range. While offering this product, they ran a promotion on their facebook page, where if people liked a post, they could win a free cruise. Now, they make a database from the profiles of all the people who entered the promotion, and put it aside until later. For each person applying for Product A, they query their database to find a match, and if so, will make a record of the disposition of their application for Product A.

Now they have all they need to run learning algorithms on it, to find which rules are the most diagnostic. By this point, they no longer need any identifying information, as the rules they have discovered are diagnostic for the general case. So when they run a similar promotion for Product B, they can just add the rules to their approval process. Applying the same technique over and over, they can extend these rules to include the applicant's friend network.

Philhelm
08-27-2013, 01:24 PM
Statistics are a bitch, aren't they It isn't your genitals, per se. It's more likely the testosterone.

I wonder if there are any notable statistics regarding race.

AFPVet
08-27-2013, 01:26 PM
The friends you make or the manner in which you communicate has no bearing on your credit worthiness. If you pay your bills on time and continue to earn credit, that's what matters most.

RickyJ
08-27-2013, 01:54 PM
This should be illegal since there is no way to verify if someone actually has a facebook account or is being spoofed by someone else.

MoneyWhereMyMouthIs2
08-27-2013, 02:21 PM
My insurance premiums are bigger than your insurance premiums!
(Never thought I'd be happy to say that.) :p


Imagine Snowden's premiums....

Warrior_of_Freedom
08-27-2013, 04:35 PM
This should be illegal since there is no way to verify if someone actually has a facebook account or is being spoofed by someone else.
Do you think companies who's sole job is to make your life miserable give a shit?

DamianTV
08-27-2013, 05:47 PM
Do you think companies who's sole job is to make your life miserable give a shit?

They have no incentive to make your life better. They also dont have any incentive to fix errors on your credit history either.

Credit Reporting Agencies are just another example of Unaccountable Authority.