How Social Networks Can Affect Your Financing Options

June 25, 2010 - PRLog -- If you are a college student, then you probably have at least one social media account.  And you probably already know that you need to be very careful of all kinds of phishing scams and other problems that have been plaguing the social networking sphere in increasing numbers.

But did you know that your social media behavior, data, and even set of friends can affect your credit? That's what experts are saying, anyway. Financial institutions such as banks and lenders are increasingly monitoring the social media accounts of credit applicants to help them decide what kind of borrower you'll be. Are you reliable? Do you pay your bills on time? How about the people in your network? Obviously, this is a scary feeling of having someone you didn't expect looking over your shoulder.  After all, these are a highly transparent window into a user's social life, which is heavily mingled with personal finances.  So if you're able to score that student car loan you wanted (http://www.mycarlender.com/no-credit/car-loans-for-students/), but are late making other debt payments, you might want to check yourself before posting pictures of your new set of wheels on your social media account.

Of course, much of the privacy issues here can be controlled by you -- on most social networking applications, you can control who can and cannot see your profile, and what of it they can see. It just might be time to consider these controls and put them to use in a way that makes you most comfortable.

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