Secret Credit Scores

[Djehuty]

Credit bureau Experian's recent move means lenders can see FICO scores that you can't. That's just wrong, and the law needs to catch up with today's credit scoring practices.

Experian wants to keep you in the dark. There's really no other way to characterize the credit bureau's decision to stop selling FICO credit scores to individuals as of Feb. 14. Experian pulled out of its agreement with myFICO.com, which had been the only place where consumers could buy their FICO scores from all three bureaus.

Experian will continue to sell FICOs to lenders. That's big business, because the FICO is the leading credit scoring formula and the one used by most lenders.
But to consumers, Experian is pretending the FICO is no big deal.

"There is no one credit score that all financial institutions use to make decisions, and there is also no one credit score that consumers must use to help them understand and manage their credit," Experian spokeswoman Susan Hensen wrote me in an e-mail. "There are many reputable credit scores on the market that consumers can use to evaluate their creditworthiness before making financial decisions."

Experian has been reciting this line for years. When consumers buy credit scores directly from Experian, they're sold what the bureau calls "educational" scores, Experian's PLUS or the VantageScore, a formula cooked up with the other two major bureaus that's gone over like a lead balloon with lenders.

So many consumers have been fooled by this gambit, thinking they're getting FICOs when they're not, that some consumer advocates refer to these other credit scores as "FAKO scores."

[timetraveler]

considering the FCRA:

§ 609. Disclosures to consumers [15 U.S.C. § 1681g] (f) which states the following:

(f) DISCLOSURE OF CREDIT SCORES-
(1) IN GENERAL- Upon the request of a consumer for a credit score, a consumer reporting agency shall supply to the consumer a statement indicating that the information and credit scoring model may be different than the credit score that may be used by the lender, and a notice which shall include--
(A) the current credit score of the consumer or the most recent credit score of the consumer that was previously calculated by the credit reporting agency for a purpose related to the extension of credit;
(B) the range of possible credit scores under the model used;
(C) all of the key factors that adversely affected the credit score of the consumer in the model used, the total number of which shall not exceed 4, subject to paragraph (9);
(D) the date on which the credit score was created; and
(E) the name of the person or entity that provided the credit score or credit file upon which the credit score was created.


Consumers need to learn how to word their request for their scores and follow up with a lawsuit when Experian refuse to comply or even if they give whats called FAKO's instead of the FICO score. Per the FCRA consumers are entitled to see the same scores used when making a decision to extend credit. I smell a class action lawsuit brewing against Experian