Ok, that might be a bit extreme, but according to a recent article in businessweek, the lifestyle choices a consumer makes as far as spending habits may even affect their credit score.

It’s fairly common knowledge that some major factors that influence credit scores involve occupation, payment histories, public records, ratio of balance to available credit lines, etc. Lenders, insurers, and other financial firms use credit scoring models (the current industry standard is the FICO score) to make a host of decisions about consumers, including the interest rate on their home mortgages, limits on their credit cards, and the monthly premiums for their auto coverage. The scoring model utilized is at the discretion of the financial firm, and the formula is likely to be a mystery to all except the statisticians that developed it.

The businessweek article states that a lawsuit was filed by the Federal Trade Commission in federal court in Atlanta on June 10 against credit card issuer CompuCredit (CCRT). According to the article:

The allegations, in part, focus on CompuCredit’s Aspire Visa, a subprime credit card for risky borrowers. The FTC claims that CompuCredit didn’t properly disclose that it monitored spending and cut credit lines if consumers used their cards at certain places. Among them: tire and retreading shops, massage parlors, bars, billiard halls, and marriage counseling offices. “The company touted that cardholders could use their credit cards anywhere,” says J. Reilly Dolan, assistant director for financial practices at the FTC. “What they didn’t say was that you could be punished for specific kinds of purchases.” The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is also seeking $200 million in penalties from CompuCredit in the matter.

So next time you go to the bar, besides using that bogus name, take cash!

And the truly burning question: should you choose red, or white to improve your credit score quickly?

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