ATLANTA, GA — SimpleBills, the student housing industry’s premier utility bill management service, today announced that it has partnered with Urjanet to help millions of students build positive credit using utility payment history. This historically credit-invisible group can now report their utility bill payment history to credit bureaus through SimpleBills, adding another tradeline to their credit report and gaining previously unattainable access to credit.
SimpleBills automates utility bill collection and processing through Urjanet’s utility data platform, a process that was formerly manual and cost-intensive. With integrations to over 5,000 electric, water, gas, cable, and Internet providers across the globe, Urjanet automatically aggregates and delivers granular payment data to SimpleBills, in addition to an image of the data source for transparency.
“There was no way for SimpleBills to effectively grow without a scalable solution like Urjanet,” said Kevin Jones, founder and Executive Vice President. “Our customer base has more than doubled since we started working with Urjanet; now, we are able to help more than 125,000 residents across 170 university markets and 46 states streamline bill payment and build positive credit history.”
“Now, we are able to help more than 125,000 residents across 170 university markets and 46 states streamline bill payment and build positive credit history.”
Initially launched to simplify utility bill payments for students, roommates, and property owners, SimpleBills enhanced their services to include credit reporting. Residents who pay their utility bills through SimpleBills can opt in to the service for a small monthly fee, and SimpleBills will report their payment history to credit bureaus on a monthly basis. User opt-in rates have already more than doubled in the second year since the service was launched.
“Urjanet’s utility data automation and SimpleBills’ utility bill management service formed a natural fit from the start. We are proud to have enabled SimpleBills’ expansion into new markets and to provide an essential channel for millions of young adults to get the credit they deserve for the payments they make,” said Urjanet CEO Sanjoy Malik.
Roughly 10 million people between the ages of 18 and 24 in the U.S. are “credit invisible,” according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Without a valid credit score, millions of students and young adults have limited opportunities to get a loan or credit card, perpetuating a cycle of financial exclusion. But with the help of SimpleBills, these students can get credit for the bills they already pay every month.
Learn more about how SimpleBills helps students build positive credit history and how Urjanet automates access to consumer-permissioned utility data from thousands of utility, telecom and cable providers worldwide.
About SimpleBills:
SimpleBills is a complete utility bill management service with a focus in the student housing industry. Over 125,000 residents in over 170 markets in 46 states across the United States use SimpleBills to manage their utilities. For more information, visit www.simplebills.com.
About Urjanet:
Urjanet, the global leader in alternative data aggregation from utilities, telecom and cable providers, simplifies how organizations access and use utility data, enabling them to focus on their business. Our technology collects, processes, and delivers data from over 5,000 electric, natural gas, water, waste, telecom, and cable utilities worldwide. The data we provide can be configured and integrated into any application to support an organization’s exact utility data needs. For more information, visit www.urjanet.com.