TransUnion Establishes Rental Payment Database

TransUnion announced today that it will begin gathering and maintaining rental payment history information to help apartment owners, property managers and other types of credit grantors make more informed risk, fraud and identity management, collections and marketing decisions. The announcement was made at the 2006 NAA (National Apartment Association) Education Conference and Exposition in Denver, Colorado.

During the past few months, TransUnion has developed a data feed process as part of the new, patent-pending rental payment database, which is being called RentBridge. The data feed will enable apartment owners and property managers to report rental payment information directly from their property management software systems.

Rent payment data immediately will be made available in conjunction with the delivery of TransUnion credit reports, for no additional charge, once the data is transmitted to TransUnion from landlords. As the database becomes larger, users will be able to purchase the information on a standalone basis, purchase the standard and non-standard format data as add-on information, or incorporate it into custom scoring models.

"RentBridge will revolutionize the use of payment history in the rental industry," said Michael Britti, group vice president of TransUnion's Rental Screening Services division. "For more than 30 years, TransUnion has helped businesses make better decisions when it comes to risk and consumers achieve their financial goals. With RentBridge, we are able to greatly enhance the decision making process and add vital content to the files of individuals with limited credit information."

The RentBridge database is expected to create numerous advantages for apartment owners and property managers. Because rental payments have not generally been reported to any of the three national credit reporting companies in the past, renters have not seen the financial benefits of paying on time or the consequences of not paying or skipping out on the rent altogether reflected on a credit report. Knowing that the data will now be reported sends an important message to residents. In the end, apartment owners and property managers will be better able to identify applicants with excellent payment histories and those with unpaid rent balances. It also will assist in discouraging skipping, improving debt collections, eliminating manual investigations and reducing float.

There also are benefits for traditional credit grantors who currently find it difficult to assess the credit risk of consumers with "thin" credit files. Having access to rental payment data will help to increase the market potential of these consumers. The predictive data also will be useful in identifying new prospects for their offerings. In addition, they will have more data elements for verifying personal information to combat identity fraud and locating missing debtors to improve collections.

The RentBridge database extends TransUnion's existing suite of rental screening solutions, which gives apartment owners and property managers solutions at each stage of the resident lifecycle. The division is anchored by CreditRetriever®, an applicant screening tool that references both credit and criminal databases.