There is a move afoot to include Rent to Own payment histories in consumer credit scores.

In the past few weeks, two of the largest players in providing credit worthiness to the mortgage market, Fair, Isaac & Co.; originators of the FICO score, and First American Corp; parent company of Teletrack, announced plans to utilize non-traditional payment histories to help traditional banks gauge credit worthiness of under banked consumers. These non-traditional payment histories may include a consumers performance on a rent to own agreement, as well as apartment rent and other payments not included in a traditional credit score.

This move is being viewed as good news for low income consumers who may not have a traditional credit history, but have significant histories with rent to own companies.

The RTO industry is built on the foundation of 'no credit check' and 'no credit reporting' since no debt is incurred by the consumer. How this trend will affect the the industry is unclear...developing