This year US lenders are expected to process over a billion credit applications this year, most of which will be using FICO, formerly known as Fair Isaac. FICO is a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange and bigger than ever. The US government is beginning to take wind of the magnitude of credit and risk based credit scoring models and how they are affecting the economy.

With the new year there have been ammendments to the Fair Credit Reporting Act that require lenders to send consumers a risk based pricing disclosure when a decision in lending is based on a credit report or credit score and results in larger down payment or higher interest.

Because of these new amendments to the FCRA, FICO has created a new website to help consumers better understand their scores called www.ScoreInfo.org.

Browsing through the site, I found it to be rather generic however; it seemed to have some good resources and links to good reading. There is a FICO Estimator on the site that asks 10 simplistic questions that generates an approximate FICO score. I tested it on my own credit profile and it appears to be accurate which may be a useful tool to help your clients get an idea of where they stand without actually pulling credit and creating a new inquiry.

If you have clients that have inaccurate, outdated or erroneous information appearing on their credit reports, contact my office at 1 (800) 315-0740 or visit www.CreditAgenda.com to learn more about how we can ensure the accuracy and integrity of their reports. 

Brought to you by Credit Assistance Network Inc.