A money management app, which enables users to see all their finances in one place, has added a new feature to allow first-time buyers to use rental payments to boost their chances of getting a mortgage.
The Moneyhub app has added the Rental Recognition feature to help drive up the number of people who are able to access homeownership.
It’s always been a bone of contention that renters – who can often pay more in their monthly rent than on monthly mortgage repayments – have been unable to use their regular payment to landlords to prove they can meet financial commitments.
This is because rental payments are not ordinarily included on credit scores.
However, the new Moneyhub feature – which uses open banking technology to detect the information – makes it possible to send details of rent payments to credit reference agencies directly.
Moneyhub said it had the key advantage of only sharing the minimum amount of relevant data that will positively contribute to users’ credit score – minimising the data shared to protect privacy.
Dan Scholey, chief operating officer of Moneyhub, said: “We’re delighted to play our part in helping people improve or build upon their credit score.
“Enterprise clients who power their own apps with Moneyhub can now give their own users the ability to safely and anonymously provide details of rental payments to leading credit reference agencies. Consumers who use the Moneyhub app will also benefit from the same ability.
“Financial inclusion is a critically important issue which can seem like an intimidating or difficult problem to address. But we can start opening up the benefits of financial services to millions of people simply by allowing them to share information about the rent they pay every month.
“This small step can make a big difference in many people’s lives.”
Moneyhub has also introduced a new Regular Recurring Transactions summary, which builds upon its Spending Analysis feature and shows details of scheduled payments.
The extra visibility granted by this update will help users reduce cash leakage and control their finances to work towards goals such as paying off debts or saving for a mortgage deposit.
