All the messy details, year-by-year, in black and white, but mostly gray. First communication with inside the bunkers, 1997. A strange history of a secret credit report score, and then, Superbowl advertising.
FREE FICO credit score
Unadvertised web site where you can can no longer get your FICO credit score for nothing. Free. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Goose egg. Zero. Seriously. No kidding.
Get your credit score. Get the FICO score.
Byzantine, ambiguous, confusing. Hucksterism: The Fake-O flim-flam. The very few ways to get the authentic FICO score— the one lenders use most often. Score simulators. AnnualCreditReport.com, the official site for the federally-mandated free credit report. FCRA FACT ACT credit score price. Congress follows up on the progress of implementing the latest law. Price comparison. Not a sales pitch.
Improve your score
PhD not required. Pay on time and don't over-extend. Horse-sense and the simulators. Links to advice on improvement from the scoring company, itself, the national credit reporting agencies (credit bureaus; consumer reporting agencies), GSEs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, real estate agents, the federal government, consumer advocates and the press.
The FICO score
The main credit score. The one lenders use. Definition of FICO score. What it, actually, predicts. Its prominence. Its prevalence in mortgage lending. Fair Isaac and the credit bureaus' battle to keep the credit rating secret and the law federal legislators passed that allowed a decade of secrecy. Names: BEACON, EMPIRICA, FICO Risk Score/Classic. The 50 million with no risk score. Key to a better credit score and long-term success: Gaze into the middle distance and increase your savings. FICO fun facts.
What is the credit score rating scale and range?
Fun with numbers. Credit scoring company contradicts itself. The medallion. Grand, inaccurate proclamations of the scale by various characters treating it like a readheaded stepchild. A real hoot.
What is a good credit score?
Folly. Varied opinions from far and wide: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac (aren't those just the cutest names for big, important, esteemed companies?), regulators, government, industry, experts, journalists, consumer groups, academia, non-profits, car dealers, blowhards.
What is the average?
Hard to explain with Fake-Os littering the market-- quite a hoax. The 678 credit score myth. FICO score distribution. Groundhog Day. Median (723) vs. mean. Scores in the secondary mortgage market. 13% have an 800+.
FICO score factors
What's in the sausage? The official list and the more complete unofficial list.
Credit checks (inquiries to a credit file; pulling a credit report)
The effect of a mere inquiry-- somebody performing a check of your credit record (for instance, a lender accessing your credit report). The special treatment of mortgage-related and auto-related inquiries. FICO company bows to pressure and adjusts its formula. Consumer fear of score dropping by hopping around shopping with no stopping and lenders popping in on their credit report and bopping their credit score; whether to fret about it or not.
Perspective
How credit scores work. What they are, who creates them, who sells them, and a short history. Contracts that prohibited consumers from getting their credit scores. The one, prominent brand, and other, far less successful ones. Media impact— for better or worse. Government-sponsored enterprises and government response to startling saving statistics. Saving: Not only a significant factor in loan approvals, but a missing crucial personal finance component that gives consumers a way to make it through a calamity without damaging their credit scores.
Other scores
Would-be competitors of the omnipotent FICO. Other scores for other uses. Marketplace confusion. Fake-O FICO Funk.
"Check out the web site http://www.creditscoring.com/letters/equifax.htm for some interesting reading." - a Federal Reserve Bank vice president
Press releases
The quick story. creditscoring.com beginnings.
Media influence: Lying
Suggestion to ask creditors to lie to credit bureaus: The so-called "goodwill adjustment." CBS, MSN, Dow Jones, et al. Anarchy. West Virginia Attorney General's office falls for it, too.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia's errors regarding credit scores. Rumors and the source of the misunderstandings. Fake-O 678 myth. Consumer reporting agency. One year of misinformation.
Influence: Media, Search engines
What to believe, and what not to believe. Yahoo!'s score: F, 40%. Google's score: F, 40%. MSN Live Search's score: F, 30%.
History of getting your credit report score
You couldn't always just jump online and download them. In fact, you couldn't get them at all. Consumer reporting agency Equifax releases BEACON in 2001. TransUnion 2002. Experian 2003. Before that, in defiance, E-LOAN released FICO scores— only to have its credit report service shut off for doing so. 2001 email from E-LOAN.
12/30 - Fair Isaac v. Experian et al react to verdict in VantageScore trial 12/18 - H.R.4173 calls for consumers to get same credit score lenders get 11/24 - Congressman: Employers use scores, and utilization ratio importance 11/01 - Credit score utilization ratio misinformation - Exploding a myth 10/29 - Video by creditscoring.com: Media say employers use scores 10/14 - Equifax's network of scary, inaccurate advertising
10/9 - FHA portfolio credit score trend
9/25 - McClatchy newspaper will not identify its sources - Lawyer takes the fall
8/25 - FICO CEO states average score
8/19 - Credit score use by employers depiction by CBS
8/13 - Members of Congress say credit scores are used by employers 8/06 - Average credit score trend/time series chart 7/31 - Training Experian update; CreditAccuracy.com: Get scores/reports in person 7/30 - Consumer finance company accounts: A query to Ben Bernanke 7/23 - Definition and comparison of credit score ranges 7/02 - USA TODAY on employers using credit scores, Part 2 6/27 - Wikipedia 4-year error: Credit utilization ratio 6/16 - USA TODAY on employers using credit scores, Part 1 6/11 - Training Experian. Experian: Pay attention; corrections; road map. 6/04 - Experian: We don't sell scores to employers. Employers use scores. 6/01 - Training TransUnion. TransUnion: Pay attention; corrections; road map. 5/21 - Training Equifax. Equifax, pay attention and make the corrections. Here is a road map. 5/05 - Equifax: We don't sell scores to employers. Employers know your score. 5/04 - TransUnion: We don't sell scores to employers. Employers use scores. 4/30 - Equi-facts reacts 4/27 - Equifax > "Enrich > Empower" > Elephant (in the living room) 4/19 - Equifax: Employer can know your credit score 4/17 - TransUnion botched survey 4/14 - What is a credit score? 4/03 - Free FICO Scores update 3/31 - Fair Isaac defines subprime as, generally, less than 640 FICO score 2/12 - Believers vs. Nonbelievers, side-by-side: Credit scores in employment 1/25 - The Credit Score Blog 1/15 - Average FICO credit score utterances 1/07 - Free FICO Scores
12/02 - Follow-up on Fair Isaac warning about credit scores in hiring decisions 11/27 - Influence, Government: U.S. Treasury Suggests Employers Use Credit Scores 11/24 - Influence, Media: The So-Called "Credit Utilization Ratio," and Advice About It 11/16 - Dubious Headline - "Obama Wants Your Credit Score" 10/30 - Fair Isaac warns credit score may be used in hiring, contrary to other evidence 10/22 - One year of Wikipedia misinformation. Senate hearing: 720 8/14 - Free FICO credit score 7/03 - FICO credit score versions 6/17 - Equifax on inquiries. 5/02 - Experian and Equifax on pre-employment. Same as TransUnion and ChoicePoint: No scores. 4/24 - Influence: Government. Credit scores. Pre-employment screening. Reports vary. 4/04 - (get the real story, first, at creditscoring.com) Fake-O FICO Funk: New York Times correction 4/02 - Happy Birthday VantageScore (age 2). Your lawsuit continues. 3/18 - Wikipedia, style before facts 3/16 - Fannie Mae credit score chart 3/09 - New York Times misleads readers. 2/08 - FICO 08
Are you a Believer or Nonbeliever—are they really used in jobs? Credit score use by employers showdown.
April, 1997: "Information on how to obtain one's credit score is suspiciously absent from your site. How do I get mine?"
"And we're not running a game show. I mean, we're evaluating risk. We're not trying to have people get--achieve the highest score."
"Fisher is a fan of going by the book and then beyond it."
"He beat the scoring proponents to the punch by scooping up the web address http://www.creditscoring.com, from which he launches often strident, sometimes wacky, but usually well-documented attacks on the credit-scoring concept and the industries that support it."
Realty Consumers Empowered By Online "Peoples" Court - "His Web site CreditScoring.com helped him-- and millions of other consumers-- extend fair credit reporting rights to credit scoring information."
"Fisher operates the www.creditscoring.com Web site, which skewers the secrecy of the credit bureaus and Fair, Isaac." - The Detroit News
"CreditScoring.com is an exceptionally-interesting site that offers news and information regarding credit scoring and--
really-- the entire credit process."
"'Garbage in, garbage out,' says Greg Fisher of Dayton, Ohio, who runs two Web sites on the subject, creditscoring.com and creditaccuracy.com."
