Credit scores are extremely important in today’s world as it is how businesses determine how financially trustworthy a customer is. This can help a customer receive lower interest rates on a loan or mortgage, which can end up reducing costs significantly for someone over a long period of time. For example, a subprime credit score may result in a homeowner having to pay an additional $32,000 in interest over the course of a 30-year mortgage.

Unfortunately, 76 million Americans struggle with low or non-existent credit history, meaning that they will be subject to these high interest rates. Thin credit files narrow the prospects of 61 million Americans, which occurs when someone has less than four credit accounts and a short credit history. 16 million Americans do not have a typical credit file at all and fall under the credit invisible category. Therefore it can be helpful for many Amercians if businesses determined financial trustworthiness from alternative sources of data not found in a traditional credit report. This alternative data could move 8.4 million US consumers into scorable credit bands and an incremental 2 million consumers could qualify for prime or super prime offers. So many Americans would not experience as much distress when a financial emergency occurs with this broadened view of scoring credit.