Great Advice for Grads 2020

PROS: • Free. • Rewards responsible spending and saving. CONS: • You have to let FICO’s data partner scan your bank account transactions. • You cannot see your UltraFICO score unless you’ve been rejected.

EXPERIAN LIFT: Experian is also working on a new credit score, meant for lenders, that uses nontraditional data to paint a finer picture of your finances. The data includes on-time rent payments, payday loans, prepaid cards, check cashers and public records such as evictions and professional licenses, Experian says. It also looks at whether you pay your bills in full or minimums. “Lenders can use the new score as their primary score, as a second-chance score (for loan application declines) … or as an overlay to an existing score to create a more complete picture of a person’s creditworthiness,” says Alpa Lally, vice president of Experian Data Business. Experian Lift will roll out to lenders early this year, she says. PRO: • Considers data from financial institutions that don’t usually report to the major credit bureaus. CONS: • You cannot see your Lift score unless you’ve been rejected. • You cannot opt in or out of sharing your data.

The article Smart Ways to Establish Credit in 2020 originally appeared on NerdWallet.

AMRITA JAYAKUMAR is a writer at NerdWallet. Amrita writes about credit scores and credit reports for NerdWallet. She previously worked at The Washington Post and The Miami Herald .

40

Powered by