Could Being Racist Make It Harder to Get a Loan?

All sorts of stuff factors into your credit score: How many credit cards you have; whether or not you’ve paid bills late in the past; the age of your oldest account; what types of loans you have; whether you’ve maxed out your credit cards; and so on. But a handful of high-tech startups now see an opportunity to sift through mountains of other data about you, including some drawn from your social media profiles, to determine whether or not you’re the type of person who’s going to pay back a lender or not. And you’d be surprised what kind of information can have an effect. Are you the kind of person who “shouts” in all caps or never bothers to capitalize at all? How many friends or connections do you have? And even: Are you the type to fire off negative or racist commentary?  Wait — being racist could cost you a loan? What does prejudice have to do with whether or not you’ll pay back a debt? “On a public forum like Facebook, it’s like talking in public,” says Navin Bathija, founder and CEO of Neo, a company that evaluates car-loan applicants (with their permission) based not only on traditional lending metrics but on the strength of prospectiv...