Credit unions that are being approached for credit from memberswho have a mortgage default in their history might take somecomfort from a new study from TransUnion, one of the three majorcredit reporting firms in the U.S.

The study found that in cases where a borrower defaulted only ontheir mortgage and not on other loans such as credit card, auto orothers, the borrower turned out to have an overall better creditscore and attitude.

The study did not find any strong evidence supporting the widelyaccepted “excess liquidity theory,” which suggests consumers whostopped paying their mortgage loans during the recent recession hadan increased cash flow in the short term, and therefore could repayother debts. In fact, consumers in the foreclosure processperformed similarly, if not better, on certain accounts when theyopened them further in the foreclosure process.