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While I think using this kind of data is a bad thing from a privacy perspective, the first thought I had reading this article was "what about minimal users?" S
by abruzzi 11y ago
While I think using this kind of data is a bad thing from a privacy perspective, the first thought I had reading this article was "what about minimal users?" Specifically people like me, I use my phone for phone and web. No social media, no texting. I probably use the phone 5-10 times a day, and mostly for very short time periods.* (Actually I also use it for a clock, but that doesn't take me past the lock screen, so I don't know if it counts.)
So maybe there is a classification that you can determine for minimal users (and I doubt they all come from the same socio-economic group), but aside from GPS logging (which apple tells us the don't do) there are large gaps where they don't know if I'm filing bankruptcy or golfing at a $100k a year club.
I know I'm in the quickly diminishing minority in the world, but if you build your business around using a trove of data that is not available for a subset of potential customers, do you bar them from becoming customers, or fall back to standard mechanisms?
* The article mentions people under representing their usage, so I'll just add that my three year old iPhone 5S is usually at about 95% charge at the end of the day, and the only time I've seen it below 90% was during an extended trip outside, or at the border of reception areas.
- soylentcola 11y agoIsn't that how credit and lending work to some extent? My credit history is relatively sparse but it used to be nearly nonexistent. My main source of credit history comes from using my Visa for typical monthly purchasing while paying it off every month. I don't have a car loan. I had a motorcycle loan that I only took because I wanted to build credit and could've easily just paid cash. Even getting that was a bit of a hassle and they only gave me the small loan (around $5000) because my income and expenses clearly showed I shouldn't have any issues paying for it. Outside of some minor low-interest student loan debt in the $10k range, I just don't have much history. If I wanted to get a better credit card or some other loan/line of credit, I'd have a harder time getting approved for decent terms because I simply don't like to deal with debt. Like you, this makes me a minority (or at least a less desirable customer for lenders). I'd imagine it's a similar case. Some might decline to do business with me. Others might offer worse terms. It's kinda unfortunate because in order to prove my creditworthiness, it would seem I need to do things that I consider less financially wise (take out car loans or other lines of credit to establish a record of paying them off).
- cubano 11y agoI'm not an expert, but I do know paying off your total credit card debt every month does nothing to help your credit score and, in fact, may even kinda hurt it. You would be far better off to get 2-3 cards, ring up some debt on each of them, and then make the monthly minimum payment, on-time, for 6-12 months. For sure you would see a pretty big jump in your score doing that.
- Vraxx 11y agoSource on that? I'd want to see some pretty convincing evidence before I'd even consider doing that. For starters you'll be paying interest by doing that, which I guess is a "good" quality from the lender's point of view, but I'm certainly not going to start forking over interest in hopes that it'll improve my credit score.
- etjossem 11y agoIt's not true. Lenders review the credit report (the "credit score" is a simplification), which includes data on whether you made the full payment or only the minimum. Making only the minimum payment is often correlated with an inability to repay the full amount. Per Experian (2014): People who paid in full were 63% less likely than average to default six months later, while people making a little bit more than the minimum payment were 86% more likely than average to default within six months. Cubano's suggestion is a particularly risky thing to do if you have a history of paying in full. Switching from full payments to the minimum can be read as a leading indicator of delinquency.
- Vraxx 11y agoThanks for that info. It's also good to know that my BS detector is still in working order.
- ldd 11y agoThis is wrong. Factually. Speak with any bank at all, paying your credit card debt will never, ever hurt your credit score. At least here in Canada. source: I know plenty of people that pay their credit card every month, with 800+ scores.