All the score is, is the agencies formula, which is what they believe is representive of what lenders use. In reality the lenders will have different ones, and different ones for each product type.
Experian in there scores may place more weight on long term balance trends and less on say the odd late payment, Equifax may place more emphasis on late or minimum payments.
In reality for banks the info for will be rich, with scores for multiple aspects, the bank then decides which aspects they are most interested in and weight those more heavily.
There is also the dilemma, that these scores come from products where the consumer is asked to pay, so they can work to improve the score. This means that as well as being representative, it also needs to be volatile enough that people want to keep watching it
For me the sooner we can nip this idea of an agency having 1 score per customer, the better
That’s a big ‘meh’ from me. I’m strongly against involving bank in my social networks (not that they keep a lot of data in the first place). I only hope that it’s not prerequisite, but optional. We’ll see when more details are revealed, it’s too early to be speculating much.
So if people do not have Facebook will this effectively be detrimental for them?
There has been talk in some forums of basing someone’s credit score on who they are connected to, so if Monzo take that approach is it worth prunning some of your poorer connections?
It is a shame social media is becoming more invasive. There are already plans for those wantkng a US Visa to have to provide their social media names AND passwords so the American authorities can view who you are connected to and what oppinions you express.
Can anyone explain to me how data collected from social media would be useful for credit scoring? What is the correlation between my Facebook profile/wall and my ability to repay a loan? Would that photo of me downing a pint in St. Patrick’s day have any effect on amount of credit available to me? Would I be more likely to get credit if I had a profile photo of me hugging my pet? Machu Picchu in the background? Is the number of friends some kind of multiplier factor?
It feels so strange to me that social media would matter at all in making a decision whether to lend, how much and at what rate.
Edit: Just seen @anon44204028’s post, makes bit more sense but still feels unfair and somewhat pointless
The theory (and I don’t agree with it) is that those connected to lots of blue collar workers with financial difficulties are more of a risk than those connected to lots of wealthy CEOs (I exagerate for illustrative purposes) so they are basing your credit risk on your social circle rather than your postcode
EDIT when I say “they are basing your credit score” I don’t mean Monzo (as they have not said they are taking this approach) but I mean any lender who choses to use this new method currently being suggested (possibly by those with vested interests)
I’m not sure it’s worth panicking about the ways that this could be detrimental for users, until we know what Monzo’s approach will be. From what we’ve seen so far, they seem to be pretty capable of applying common sense to the features / products they build…
I don’t have FaceBook, Twitter or any other rubbish like that. The only thing I have is a LinkedIn Profile that is wrong but keep just for work related purposes so how someone could ascertain a score on me based on social media I’ll never know but if getting any form of credit based on having a FaceBook account I’d rather not apply for it.
How is it any different to not being on the electoral roll or not having a landline negatively affecting your credit score?
A key component of your credit score is verifying a user’s identity and how easy it is to keep tabs on them. Social media is a perfect fit for this.
Not having social networks won’t detriment you, it’s just a way of expanding access (and credit) to those that it would otherwise be difficult to offer it to.
I don’t really think that is relevant: Monzo isn’t proposing their scoring be a standard?
In the UK, there is no ‘my credit score’, ‘your credit score’ - when someone’s considering lending you money, they evaluate the risk of doing so, and sometimes that means paying a third-party to do it for them (Equifax, Experian, …) - Monzo is simply saying that it won’t, but will rather assess that risk itself.
An episode of Black Mirror brushes upon this topic slightly. Although the series paints a very hard light on the topic, given enough information and depending on how heavily it uses said information to make the decisions, it has the potential to ruin lives. I’m sure Monzo will do it better though.
St. Patrick’s day have any effect on amount of credit available to me? 
Would I be more likely to get credit if I had a profile photo of me hugging my pet? Machu Picchu in the background? Is the number of friends some kind of multiplier factor?
