A creditor creates a lock box at a financial institution. The lock box includes an escrow provision. A consumer makes regularly scheduled payments to the financial institution and designates the payment either for the creditor's lock box or for the escrow account. The financial institution reports all payments and escrow events to the creditor and to the credit payment data repository. All credit payment data maintained in the credit data repository is maintained securely and will not be released without the consent of the consumer. The credit data maintained in the repository is used to report a credit score, which occurs only when the consumer authorizes the release of the data.