Report to the Congress on Reductions of Consumer Credit Limits Based on Certain Information as to Experience or Transactions of the Consumer

Hundreds of thousands of credit cardholders' accounts have been zinged in recent years by credit cardcompanies based in part on where consumers shopped, what they bought, who they bought from or who held their mortgages, according to a new federal report issued Friday.



The cardholders were hit with credit limit reductions, interest rate hikes or had their accounts closed by issuers who told federal regulators that decisions to clamp down on credit to these consumers were based on tracking their spending and loan data. Among the consumer shopping practices that triggered negative account changes:

• The location of where transactions were made.


• The identity of the merchant processing the transaction.


• The type of credit card transaction.


• Identity of the mortgage lender.


• Use of such information in credit decisions 

The 72-page report, conducted by the Federal Reserve Board, was quick to point out that profiling card users' spending habits was rare among credit card issuers and actually affected a relatively small number of card users. Still, the report gives the first official glimpse at how some in the credit card industry have used a technique called behavioral modeling to mine spending data for clues about whether customers will default on their credit card loans.