Lenders may eye smartphone use before giving you a loan

Smartphone usage is likely to be tracked someday soon in the U.S. to determine whether you qualify for a loan or what interest rate lenders should charge.

Already, some lenders in a few African nations are using smartphone apps to monitor how often a user texts or charges a phone battery, then to correlate such information with the user's ability to repay a loan. The apps, in some cases built by U.S. startups, are being downloaded by users who opt-in to have their usage habits monitored.

It's only a matter of time before that practice comes to the U.S., analysts said. Some companies are already using social network behaviors to determine credit risk for thousands of U.S. consumers, although that data may not directly rely upon smartphone habits -- yet.

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