Find the best credit card offers online.Card companies have always been keen on keeping an eye on the credit worthiness of their customers. Although at times disconcerting, it is no surprise that they sometimes toe the personal areas of their customer’s lives just to assure themselves that their customer is and remains credit worthy.
The latest trend among credit card companies to find out whether a consumer is credit worthy or not has finally gone online; now, credit card companies are checking out a consumer’s online social network to find out if he or she would make a good credit customer. It’s not only card companies that may be doing this. Mortgage issuers, banks and other lenders may be in on it as well.
The idea is that these financial institutions may have found what they believe to be a reliable source of information on how much of a risk a credit or loan applicant is. They believe that, by reviewing the information in an applicant’s social network, including his or her friends, they can accurately predict the credit worthiness of an applicant.
The concept seems highly speculative and it probably is. However, the basic concept seems to be financially sound and is what these financial institutions are subscribing to. The basic concept is that people who are financially solid tend to group together with other people who are similar to them financially. Thus, if an applicant’s circle of friends seems to look good credit-wise, then he or she is going to look good to creditors.
This move by lenders and credit issuers underline the increased need among them to reduce lending risks. Social networks offer social graphs which allow them to see if a person’s social network is populated with responsible borrowers. If they are, creditors believe that there is a higher chance that the person is a responsible borrower as well.
For consumers, what these credit card companies, banks and other lending institutions are doing may seem a bit intrusive. To be fair, credit card companies don’t seem to be checking on the credit ratings of the people connected to an applicant in his or her social networking site. They are only seeing if these people have accounts with their company and checking their borrowing and payment behavior. Any findings that they generate are also not applied to an applicant’s rating. Mainly, these companies are using information they gather from social networks to increase the chances of an application getting approved.
Of course, this thing can also be turned around in favor of consumers. For consumers who plan to apply for a card or a loan soon, it might help to add as many financially responsible friends as they can to their online social networks.
