The Credit Project

You might not know it, but your purchases and other transactions using a debit card are not reported to the three major U.S. credit bureaus, TransUnion®, Experian® and Equifax®, so they’re not included in your credit report. That means your credit report can’t reflect responsible debit card spending behavior. And things that aren’t in your credit report don’t show up in your FICO® score. In fact, if you never use a credit card and don’t have any other loans, you might not have a credit file at all—and as far as most banks and other lenders are concerned, without a credit report or FICO score, you don’t exist. You might not be able to get a mortgage or car loan at all, and if you do, you’re probably going to pay a higher interest rate. I don’t think that’s right. So we are working with TransUnion to try to change that.

When you agree to be a part of The Credit Project, we will anonymously share Approved Card transaction information with TransUnion so that they may help us understand whether including this data in your credit report would impact your access to credit products. This data will not appear on your TransUnion credit report at this time. You should also be aware that the transaction data to be shared is not identified to you or other cardholders, and that this process will take 18 to 24 months.

I’m proud to say that The Approved Card is the first prepaid card in history to share information with TransUnion, a major credit bureau. It is my hope that this data sharing will show that responsible use of The Approved Card can help predict those who deserve credit for managing their money well and spending responsibly.

Information about The Credit Project

• The Credit Project is an analysis of transaction data by TransUnion, which is a consumer credit bureau. As part of this project we are sharing your Approved Card purchase, payment and other transaction information with TransUnion so that they can help us understand the correlation between that information and the information that is currently included in most consumer credit reports. The transaction data we are providing to TransUnion is not attributed or identifiable to you or any other Approved Cardholder.
• The information we share with TransUnion concerning your Approved Card account will not appear in your credit report. If that were to change in the future, we will inform you in advance of any such reporting.
• Please be advised that APPROVED LLC, our program manager RedWage LLC, and The Bancorp Bank, the issuer of The Approved Card, are not credit repair organizations or similarly regulated organizations under other applicable laws, and do not provide credit repair advice. The Approved Card is not designed to improve your credit record, history, or rating. Use of The Approved Card will not and cannot improve or fix your credit score or rating.
• While it would be better for all if every cardholders’ anonymous transaction data is shared with TransUnion, we respect your right to choose not to participate in The Credit Project and not have your transaction information shared.