It has been a long time since the last post. Why? Well, we have been extremely busy building a new, exciting and highly differentiated service, and haven’t spared the time to do an update.

Many of you that know what have been doing behind the scenes for the last two years realize that KnowBeforeYouApply took a long time in launching. We negotiated with credit bureaus for almost 18 month so we could do something innovative with credit data that put consumers firmly in control. After getting approvals earlier this year we began reworking the Centrro process and coding the new platform to finally arrive at KnowBeforeYouApply.

Frankly, the concept jumps out in the name: know before you apply for a loan or credit card and ultimately anything credit-related for that matter!

A little background on why we launched this service, a cornerstone to Centrro.

We observed over the years that people typically apply for loans and wait expectantly for the response, whether approval or rejection. In the online credit card space, for instance, about 85% of all applications are declined. Translated: 85% of the time consumers don’t realize a bank will say “No” to their applications before they every apply, or 85% of the time consumers are making the wrong choices as to which credit cards to apply. This is where we come in and can help consumers given this very trying economic climate.

The solution to the problem is to make the process entirely transparent: you give us permission to obtain a copy of your credit report and FICO score (BTW, this is free to the consumer and does not affect his credit score); we match it up with information from the financial institutions’ screening criteria; and, finally we display to the consumer, before he ever applies, all the credit cards with the highest likelihood of approval. A simple yet powerful concept.

The consumer gets to see all his options and can use a filtering tool to narrow down to what he wants. There are no requirements for the consumer to apply — it is, and always will be, FREE of charge. If the consumer elects to apply the chances of successfully obtaining the credit card or loan he desires are substantially increased. Additionally, we give the consumer an easy-to-understand credit grade so he knows how his credit trends as he seeks credit or debt.

The interface is clean and intuitive, and the service very useful. Look, don’t take my word for it, check it out.