---
title: "To Do: Promote Alternative Credit Data"
summary: |-
  Congress should explicitly allow utilities, telecommunications companies, and landlords to report on-time payments to credit-reporting agencies.
date: "2017-05-15"
issues: ["Data Innovation"]
content_type: "Knowledge Base Articles"
canonical_url: "https://itif.org/publications/2017/05/15/to-do-promote-alternative-credit-data/"
---

# To Do: Promote Alternative Credit Data

# Recommendation

Congress should foster the use of alternative credit data.

# Details

Approximately 45 million Americans are unable to get loans because they can’t produce enough data about themselves to generate a credit score. This limits upward mobility for many people who are not credit risks. Congress should pass legislation that explicitly allows utilities, telecommunications companies, and landlords to report on-time payments to credit-reporting agencies. This would provide credit-reporting agencies sufficient data to generate scores for millions of credit-worthy candidates, thereby making more Americans eligible for credit.

**Keep reading:**

- Daniel Castro, Joshua New, and Matt Beckwith, “10 Steps Congress Can Take to Accelerate Data Innovation” (ITIF, Center for Data Innovation, May 2017), [http://www2.datainnovation.org/2017-data-innovation-agenda.pdf](http://www2.datainnovation.org/2017-data-innovation-agenda.pdf).

---
*Source: Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF)*
*URL: https://itif.org/publications/2017/05/15/to-do-promote-alternative-credit-data/*