Are you are getting turned down for loans? Getting charged too much for borrowing? Your credit score might be too low. However, the full picture is more complicated.
You’re not in control of your financial identity
Your financial identity (also known as your credit profile) determines whether you get a loan. It sets the interest rates you are charged for borrowing.
Data about you feeds into computers that churn out ‘yes’ or ‘no’ decisions to your credit application. These systems know very little about the real you. Their decisions are made without human intervention using data you can’t see or control.
Credit assessment is unfair
Not being on the electoral roll. Renting your home. Paying loans back weekly. Living in a particular neighbourhood. All of these can deteriorate your standing in the eyes of lenders.
Rolling voter registration makes it harder to stay on the electoral roll. Renting might be the only option, as it’s hard to get on the property ladder. Your weekly wage could be more than someone else’s monthly income. You love your neighbourhood. It’s not your fault that some in your community don’t pay back their loans. Often it’s not their fault either.
The invisible credit profile
You can’t see your credit profile. You can obtain a copy of your credit report, but this isn’t the whole story. Lenders see more than you. What they see is mostly just data from other lenders. They don’t know that you might run a successful small business. Or how integrated into your local community you are. They have no idea that you’ve just paid back a loan to a friend without missing a payment. Or that you are a regular saver.
Sometimes what is on your file isn’t even correct. You can correct mistakes on your credit report. But there’s so much more information banks use that you cannot to review to assess whether its accurate.
There’s a better way
NestEgg is building a better way to manage and control your financial identity. We’ll help you improve how lenders see you. You can make sure the information contained in your credit profile is correct. You’ll be in charge of what information you give to banks, building societies and other lenders.
If your credit score is poor, you can choose to provide different information to improve your chances of getting a loan. For example, having a Facebook or LinkedIn account provides lenders with more certainty about your identity.
Granting split second online access to your bank account can give lenders your last 3 months’ bank statements. For many lenders, including credit unions, seeing your budget is more important than your credit score.
Get involved
We’re part of a movement of people that want to change the financial system for the better. We believe in:
- Empowerment: Where each of us owns and controls our own financial identity which paints a full picture of our unique circumstances – a transparent credit profile derived from a range of data from sources we trust.
- Transparency: Where each of us gets to choose who we share our credit profile with – on the basis of our informed consent. Equally, we each have the right to know what a lender gets to see about us and the basis for their lending decisions.
- Ethics: Each of us gets to borrow from responsible lenders who are committed to lending at a sustainably affordable rate.
Put yourself in charge of your financial identity. Make sure lenders see you in a more rounded, fairer light.
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