Opposition of Consumers Union to Fannie Mae’s conceptual proposal to require utilities to report payment history to credit bureaus

Consumers Union is strongly opposed to Fannie Mae’s conceptual proposal to require California utilities to report consumer utility payment history to consumer credit reporting agencies. We are sympathetic to the goal of providing an efficient means to consider the utility payment histories of those consumers who wish to have this information examined, but we oppose reporting of all consumers’ utility payment histories because this approach is highly likely to have unacceptably harmful consequences for many low and moderate income consumers. We remain willing to explore with you other means of achieving the goal of streamlining access to the utility payment information of those consumers who are in the home finance marketplace if those consumers affirmatively request that this information be considered.

For the letter to Fannie Mae click here.