Anyone know anythin about PRBC?

[Client9]

http://prbc.com/

You register with them and they report to the bureaus your timely (or untimely) payment history with your rent, phone, utilities, etc.

I stumbled across it.  Anyone try it?  Good/Bad/Indifferent?

[haulingthescoreup]

They've partnered with FICO to try to address the problems of those with very little credit history, so that their rental, utilities, etc history can be reported and considered. Here's their blurb, taken from your link:

PRBC - FICO Press Release

Working in the medical field, whenever I see "PRBC", I think "packed red blood cells," as in blood transfusions!

[Anonymous]

It's one thing to show up on the report, but will the FICO scoring formula pay any attention to such bills?

[MattH]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:
Working in the medical field, whenever I see "PRBC", I think "packed red blood cells," as in blood transfusions!

---

I'm in pharmaceutical R&D myself, and my wife is a medical writer, so I fully grok
where you're coming from

There's a large trucking company called Proline Carriers, which I suppose they
pronounce to rhyme with "Crow Line" where the "Pro" means "Professional," but
my wife and I think of the amino acid which is pronounced to rhyme with
"Crow Lean" first.

PS: I'm showing my age here, but when I think of "PRBC" I think also of a group from
the 1970s calling itself "Peoples Revolutionary Bicentennial Commission" or some
such whose stated goal was to start a new American Revolution against corporations,
which of course didn't happen!

Message Edited by MattH on 04-25-2008 04:20 AM

[haulingthescoreup]

And there are also the members who abbreviate utilization as "UTI", which as we all know, stands for urinary tract infection.

I always flinch a bit when I read, "I love my UTI! My UTI is the best it's ever been!!!"

Oh, well, silly brain tricks.

For the poster who asked about these showing up on standard reports, I don't think that they will. I think that it will be a separate database, or a separate credit report, I suppose would be the more precise term.

[RobertEG]

Apparently, they are only providing the ability to input data from non-traditional sources that normally dont report to the CRAs, and the data they provide only enters into the mortgage enhanced FICO score, and not the traditional FICO score.  So their value appears only to be for mortgage apps, and not other apps.  Correct?

But what I dont understand is how an agreement with FairIsaac, who does not generate or maintain credit reports, can affect the entry of credit data into the files of the CRAs????  Are the CRAs also a part of this agreement?  What entices these non-traditional sources to report to the CRAs?  Does PRBC give them a kickback?

I  kinda dont understand what is going on here, so would be leary until I understood the system.

Message Edited by RobertEG on 04-25-2008 10:04 PM

Message Edited by RobertEG on 04-25-2008 10:11 PM

Message Edited by RobertEG on 04-25-2008 10:12 PM

[MattH]

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@RobertEG wrote:

But what I dont understand is how an agreement with FairIsaac, who does not generate or maintain credit reports, can affect the entry of credit data into the files of the CRAs???? Are the CRAs also a part of this agreement? What entices these non-traditional sources to report to the CRAs? Does PRBC give them a kickback?

I kinda dont understand what is going on here, so would be leary until I understood the system.

---

From poking around their website, it appears there are two ways things like rental
payments can get into their database: either the creditor can report to them, or the
consumer can use an affiliated online bill-paying service and capture transaction
data automatically. I expect the most common mechanism for getting such data into
a PRBC report is that way, because in that case the consumer who is thinking of
buying a house in the future does have an incentive to build a history.

As for the Fair Issac aspect, I believe the idea there is that Fair Isaac will be
using their algorithms to analyze data from PRBC in much the same manner as they
use their algorithms to analyze data from the Big Three CRAs, so prospective
mortage lenders will have some basis on which to evaluate "non-traditional"
applicants. With Fair Isaac involved, I believe this is legit, but of course
the 64-thousand-dollar question is whether and how mortgage lenders will make use
of these PRBC-derived FICO Expanded scores in making lending decisions. In the
current credit crunch I wonder how willing bank executives will be to place bets
on something new like this.

Big company execs are not always averse to taking risks, indeed they got us into
the current mess by taking on excessive risk. They ARE however extremely averse
to taking risks that are different from the risks being accepted by everybody
else around them.

Message Edited by MattH on 04-26-2008 01:20 PM