Aster Communities have written to their tenants in the Marlborough area to tell them that their personal rent payment data is to be handed over – starting in August – to the international credit ratings agency Experian.
The letter has been described to Marlborough News Online by one Aster tenant, who is also a long-serving former director of Sarsen Housing Association (now part of Aster), as condescending and a real shock. He said he was extremely angry about the letter and had told Aster so in no uncertain terms.
The letter came out of the blue and has little background information. Although it has a phone number and email address tenants can contact “If you have concerns about sharing your data” – the letter does not state that there is an opt out provision for tenants.
In the letter Aster explain: “We’re introducing this service in order to improve your financial credit score and to ensure we can offer you the services you need to pay your rent.”
If that is Aster’s view, it is not quite the view of the originator of the scheme – Big Issue Invest (the social investment arm of The Big Issue.) Big Issue Invest and Experian have formed The Rental Exchange to tackle the unfair treatment of the estimated two million people who have to take out high cost loans because they lack an approved credit rating. They often cannot get appropriate contracts for electricity and gas because they have no credit rating – and have to use much more costly meters.
In the words of Big Issue Invest: “There are millions of low-income people who are excluded from affordable credit because they don’t have a credit history. For the financially excluded, this is a Catch 22 situation: without a credit score applicants are declined by mainstream providers and are considered riskier customers, but the only way to build a credit score is to access some form of credit, such as a mortgage or credit card.”
Experian’s website explains The Rental Exchange: “By accepting regular payments of rent as evidence of a good credit history, in the same way mortgage payments build a credit history for homeowners, The Rental Exchange set out to tackle the financial, digital and social exclusion faced by social housing tenants head-on.”
James Jones, the Head of Consumer Affairs at Experian, told Marlborough News Online: “We think it’s a great scheme addressing an historical unfairness between tenants and homeowners in their ability to build their credit ratings.”
An Aster Group spokesman told Marlborough News Online: “We can confirm our approach is fully compliant with the Data Protection Act. The ICO [The Information Commissioner’s Office] has ruled that an opt-in request is not required, but that if a tenant wishes to not be included once they have weighed up the benefits, then they are fully within their rights to opt-out and we will ensure this request is met.”
“Aster has joined the Rental Exchange to help our customers build a positive credit report, without the need for them to take on new credit agreements. Sharing rental payment history will help create an online proof of identity for customers, proving they are who they say they are and that they live where they say they live. Proving this boosts credit scores, which means it may become easier to open a bank account, shop online and even receive better gas, electricity or mobile phone rates.”
The Aster letter raised worries amongst some Marlborough tenants when it stated the scheme “…will enable Experian to use the information supplied to them in the future to assist other landlords and organisations ” in six specified ways.
These include the somewhat ominous statement that they will be able to “Verify your identity and address to help them make decisions about services they offer.” That does not appear to have much to do with a tenant’s credit rating.
In 2012 Aster merged with Synergy Housing – and now has 75,000 tenants across Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset and Somerset. It is said that about 60 per cent of their tenants receive some type of benefit. 
More details about The Rental Exchange can be found here.
