Patent ID: 7801812

Claim:
A computer implemented method for leveling credit characteristics comprising: (a) retrieving by a computer a credit data profile for at least one consumer, wherein retrieving a credit data profile is performed by at least two of a plurality of credit reporting agencies resulting in at least two credit data profiles for the at least one consumer, and wherein the credit data profile represents a credit history for the at least one consumer; (b) generating by the computer a set of credit characteristics, wherein the set of credit characteristics represent a set of data elements that summarize a particular characteristic of a consumer's credit behavior, wherein generating a set of credit characteristics is performed by the at least two of the plurality of credit reporting agencies; (c) retrieving by the computer a respective characteristic definition from each of the at least two of the plurality of credit reporting agencies for each credit characteristic in the set of credit characteristics, wherein the respective characteristic definition is a statement that describes a meaning of the characteristic through components; (d) reviewing by the computer the set of credit characteristics and respective characteristic definitions, wherein reviewing is performed by the at least two of the plurality of credit reporting agencies; (e) applying by the computer the respective characteristic definitions to each of the retrieved credit data profiles, generating by the computer audit statistics associated with each credit data profile; (f) auditing by the computer the audit statistics; (g) determining by the computer whether the step of auditing was successful; (h) if the step of auditing was successful, generating by the computer a normalized set of credit characteristics and characteristic definitions from the set of credit characteristics and respective characteristic definitions; and (i) if the step of auditing was not successful, modifying by the computer one or more of the respective characteristic definitions and repeating by the computer steps (d), (e), and (f) until the step of auditing the audit statistics is successful.