First-time home buyers — and the Realtors who work with them — are getting an important new national credit-building resource: The first credit bureau focused solely on compiling credit histories using data that the three dominant national bureaus don’t track — rent, utilities, insurance and other monthly payments.
The new bureau, dubbed PRBC (PayRent, Build Credit), is headquartered in Annapolis, MD and run by a team of risk assessment professionals headed by CEO Michael Nathans. The bureau expects to compile “alternative” credit files on up to 10 million American tenants within the next 60 months.
PRBC is an effort to help low and moderate income, young, minority and immigrant consumers demonstrate creditworthiness, according to Nathans. All of these groups frequently have trouble qualifying for prime-rate mortgages and other credit because their national files tend to be “thin” — there’s not a lot of payment history data on them.