CHICAGO — A new TransUnion study found that people who
monitor their own credit files open significantly more new auto loans and
credit cards, and perform generally as well on those loans as consumers who do
not monitor their own credit.

The company's study determined that consumers who monitor
their credit in any given credit score range not only open far more new
accounts than those who do not, but it may indicate that these consumers
recognized the importance of a healthy credit profile, and are actively
looking for ways to improve it prior to making new purchases.

"Our study started with the conjecture that individuals who
monitor their credit health might be motivated the same way as people who
monitor their physical health," said Ezra Becker, vice president of research
and consulting in TransUnion's financial services business unit.

"We assume the latter generally fall into two categories:
healthier people who want to stay that way, and less healthy consumers who want
to become fit," Becker continued. "We have found that consumers who monitor
their credit tend to fall into two similar groups: credit-healthy consumers who
wish to maintain that health and/or guard against identity theft; and riskier
consumers that are looking to take proactive measures to better manage their
credit profiles in anticipation of acquiring additional credit."

TransUnion's "Impact of Credit Self-Monitoring on Consumer
Performance" study revealed that nearly 3.4 percent of consumers who monitored
their credit during the study timeframe opened a new auto loan, while only 1.9
percent of consumers who did not monitor their credit opened an auto loan.

Analysts discovered this trend held true for other credit
instruments such as general purpose credit cards, where nearly 6.3 percent of
consumers monitoring their credit opened new credit cards. They said only 4.3
percent of consumers not monitoring their credit opened new credit card accounts
in the same period.

"This finding was a key insight, as consumers who monitor
their credit appear to be more receptive to new credit offers and are actively
looking to open new accounts at far greater rates than non-monitoring
consumers," Becker said.

"Perhaps even more compelling is that the delinquency rates
on these new loans in the credit monitoring population are only slightly higher
than those of the non-monitoring population when controlling for credit score,
indicating that adverse selection, while present to a certain extent, is less
of a risk for lenders," he continued.

The study looked at the VantageScore credit score
distribution of the credit monitoring population versus that of the
non-monitoring population. The credit score distribution of the monitoring
consumer group was riskier than the non-monitoring group: 50.4 percent of the
monitoring consumer population had non-prime credit scores (VantageScore credit
score less than 700), compared to 40.1 percent of the non-monitoring
population.

"The difference in score distribution tends to support the
theory that many self-monitoring consumers are doing so because they wish to
improve their credit profiles," Becker said. "It is also why we have to control
for credit score in studies such as this."

In the prime and better risk tiers, the 60-day or worse
delinquency rate on new auto loans opened by the credit self-monitoring
population was 2.0 percent, compared to 1.5 percent for the non-monitoring
population.

Similarly, the 90-day or worse delinquency rate on new
credit cards opened by the credit self-monitoring population was 2.5 percent,
compared to 1.9 percent for the non-monitoring population.

"While there is an increase in risk among these
self-monitoring consumers, that risk remains generally on the same order of
magnitude as that of the non-monitoring population. As well, the incremental
risk appears to be more than offset by the increase in credit demand," Becker said.

"This is valuable insight for lenders who may be interested
in marketing to consumers whom they may not have valued as prospective
customers otherwise," he went on to say.

TransUnion's research study examined and analyzed nearly 15
million U.S. consumers during a 2 1/2-year period. The study timeframe looked
at consumers who monitored their own credit files over a six-month window from
May 2009 through October 2009.

The study then looked at the new loan accounts opened by
this population over the subsequent three months and compared it to a control
population of non-monitoring consumers over the same period.

Finally, the study measured borrowing/balance activity and
payment behavior on those new loans for up to 24 months through November of
last year, again comparing these results against those of the control
population over the same time period.