How you socialise online - and who with - could help or hinder your application for a loan or mortgage.

Lenders' use of social media to check loan applicants' credit-worthiness is increasing among overseas finance firms - and is now to come to Britain. When someone applies for a loan certain lenders will look at their Facebook activity - including even to see whether any of their "friends" are in debt difficulties. The assumption is that creditworthy people tend to socialise together, and vice-versa. One firm using this approach is Lenddo, which calls itself a "trust-based lender" and so far lends in emerging markets like the Philippines and Mexico. It was explicitly established to "leverage the data in social networks" and believes borrowers' online reputations - measured through their activity on Facebook and so on - will be a valuable way of assessing their creditworthiness.....Read more here