A bill has been introduced in the Senate by the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee that would expand the types of bills and debts that credit reporting agencies would use to determine consumers’ credit scores, with the objective of helping individuals considered to be “credit invisible.”
S. 1465, the Credit Access and Inclusion Act, was introduced last week by Sen. Tim Scott [R-S.C.], the chair of the Senate Banking Committee, and Sen. Kevin Cramer [R-N.D.].
Along with the traditional payments on mortgages, credit cards, auto loans, and student loans, the bill would require credit reporting agencies to include payments on rent, internet, phone, electricity, and utilities. Including these other types of payments would make credit scores available to as many as 26 million consumers, according to the bill’s authors.
“Millions of Americans pay their utilities, their rent, and their phone bill and other things on time every month, but the narrow scope of credit reporting today doesn’t include these payments, so it doesn’t get calculated into their credit score,” said Sen. Cramer in a statement. “Our bill is really a simple fix to expand the credit reporting that will then allow these responsible Americans to build credit.”
The bill would amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to not only include the different types of payments mentioned above, but would also require electricity and utility providers to not report payment information about a consumer as late if the company and the consumer have entered into a payment plan, including a deferred payment arrangement or a debt forgiveness program as long as the consumer is honoring the terms of the arrangement.
A copy of the bill’s text can be accessed by clicking here
