August 28, 2016 | By Greg Fisher

There are no social media data in US credit scores because the country is not a banana republic.

However, last year, a headline of the Financial Times, a then-British publication was, "Being 'wasted' on Facebook may damage your credit score."

In October, regarding the name of the headline's writer, the article's author responded: "I can't tell you Greg. Why do u ask?"

In November, radio network NPR quoted a representative of the credit score company Fair Isaac: "'The headline about social media posts created a misperception. FICO is not utilizing Facebook data, or any other type of social media data, in calculating FICO Scores.'"

But, after that controversy, last week, the Financial Times published: "Credit scoring companies in the US and China are already experimenting with data from social media profiles. Counting how many times someone says “wasted” in their Facebook status can help to predict whether they will repay their debts on time, according to a trial by US credit analyst FICO."

Williams, A. (2016, August 25). How Facebook can affect your credit score - FT.com. Retrieved August 28, 2016, from http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/e8ccd7b8-6459-11e6-a08a-c7ac04ef00aa.html

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Who wrote the headline, @ftcomment? #1510J

— Greg Fisher (@creditscoring) August 28, 2016

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