Enhanced CSV
Using the Enhanced CSV method to report borrower credit.
LoanPro offers an Enhanced CSV file to support our clients with credit reporting, among other tools. When used in conjunction with a credit reporting software for validation and quality checks, this file offers a reliable, cost-effective solution for reporting consumer credit.
This article will guide you through the setup and reporting process, ensuring you’re equipped to report credit using LoanPro’s Enhanced CSV.
Prerequisites
Before you start reporting credit, you'll need a credit reporting account with at least one of the major credit bureaus. This is different from a credit pulling account.
Credit bureaus
Each credit bureau has a different set of requirements to open an account. Here is some basic information about the major credit bureaus that may be helpful in deciding which one(s) to sign up with:
Credit bureau requirements
Equifax
General requirement: Minimum of 500 accounts for all industries.
Exceptions: For credit unions and banks: Minimum of 100 accounts. For mortgage reporting: Fewer than 500 accounts can be reported through The Service Bureau, as permitted by state laws.
Experian
General requirement: No account minimum.
Special conditions: For industries other than banks, credit unions, Fannie May, or Freddie Mac, a waiting period for approval may apply. Contact Experian for more details about their approval process.
TransUnion
General requirement: Minimum of 100 accounts for reporting.
Innovis
General requirement: Fewer than 100 accounts must be reported through The Service Bureau.
You'll also need to purchase software that intakes data and converts it into a Metro 2 file format. We recommend Credit Manager 5. This software can only be installed on Windows computers. The pricing for Credit Manager 5 varies depending on your service level and the number of licenses. (They charge a license per computer using the software.) After you've signed up, there's a yearly renewal fee. Details on pricing and the signup process are available on The Service Bureau's website.
Once these prerequisites are in place—an active account with a major credit bureau and Credit Manager 5 installed—you are ready to start reporting credit.
Setup with Credit Manager 5
Once you install Credit Manager 5, you will need to download the .ID5 file and save it on your computer. To do this, navigate to Tools > Credit Reporting inside your company account.
You’ll see two options available for download: ‘US file Link’ and 'US File Link (Version 2).’ While both files are viable options, we highly recommend using 'US File Link (Version 2)’. This version is designed to minimize errors and provide better compatibility.
After downloading the file, place it in the following folder: Users\[Your User Folder Name]\AppData\Roaming\TSBSoftware\Credit Manager 5\ImportDefs on your computer
You only need to do this once in order to establish the necessary mapping. Once set up, you can export your customer credit data from LMS.
Exporting data from LMS
To report credit, you should then export your customer credit data. To do this, navigate to either the Account Manager or Line of Credit Manager in LMS, select a group of accounts, and use the ‘Data Options’ dropdown to select ‘Generate Credit Report’.
This will automatically take you to Tools > Credit Reporting where you can export the credit data for your accounts. Click 'Export' in the upper right corner, and the system will generate a file.
The ‘Cutoff Days’ field lets you enter in a number of days, and the report will count back that number and use it to exclude older, already closed loans from your results. If you enter 30, for example, the report will not include loans with a closed date more than 30 days in the past; it will only include loans with a closed date in the last 30 days, or loans that don't yet have a closed date.
Once the file is complete, click the 'Download' button next to it. The credit data will be downloaded in a password-protected .zip file. To extract the contents of this file, you will need a password, which can be found in the ‘Password’ column of the Credit Reporting History table. In this image, for example, you can see the password is ‘9116e0a'. Now that you have downloaded credit data for your customers, you can import it into Credit Manager 5.
Although it's saved in a .zip file, the credit reporting file itself is a .csv file. These types of files are spreadsheets that can be viewed and edited using programs like Excel, Google Sheets, SPSS, or OpenOffice Calc. If you don't have any of these, we recommend you download OpenOffice for free. Here is a sample credit reporting file with a few lines of data so you can see what they look like.
Credit bureaus will reject special characters in names.
Using the ‘US link file (Version 2)’ in conjunction with Enhanced CSV will eliminate any special characters, helping to ensure your file is accepted by the bureaus.
Handling historical data
When you generate a credit report, it pulls from the loan's current values. But if you've generated a report in the past, you'll still be able to download that file from your credit report history by visiting Tools > Credit Reporting. This feature is useful for historical data analysis and auditing purposes.
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