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Equifax > Credit score > Magic 850
Magic 850
History is replete with numbers that define the world, and the world of credit scoring has a famous number, too
9/17/2010
Equifax, the national consumer reporting agency, has discovered the mystical power of 850.
A company called Fair, Isaac and Company, Inc. created a credit score called FICO with the weird scale of 300 to 850. It was rebranded as BEACON for use by credit bureau Equifax, and made its first appearance in 1989.
In a huge coincidence, the highest score in the TransUnion TransRisk New Account score scale is
And, now, unbelievably, in another gargantuan conincidence, the highest number in the scale of the brand new Equifax Score is
From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@creditscoring.com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 2010 10:33 AM
To: Helen Chernikoff, reporter, Reuters
Cc: Andre Grenon, journalist, Reuters
Subject: RE: THE average credit score
Please reply.
Greg Fisher
The Credit Scoring Site
creditscoring.com
PO Box 342
Dayton, Ohio 45409-0342
937-681-3224
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From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@creditscoring.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 18, 2010 9:02 AM
To: Helen Chernikoff
Cc: Andre Grenon, journalist, Reuters; Jack Reerink, managing editor, United States and Canada, Reuters
Subject: RE: THE average credit score
Please reply.
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From: Helen Chernikoff
Sent: Monday, August 23, 2010 8:09 AM
To: greg@creditscoring.com
Subject: RE: THE average credit score
Hi, I've been out on vacation.
For more information you would need to go to Equifax.
Helen Chernikoff
Journalist
Thomson Reuters
Phone: [... ]
Mobile: [... ]
[email address]
www.thomsonreuters.com
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From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@creditscoring.com]
Sent: Monday, August 23, 2010 9:24 AM
To: Pam Stevens, TALX Corporation
Subject: RE: THE average credit score, Reuters
J. Dann Adams, president
TALX Corporation
Reuters reported that the average credit score rose to 704 in July.
With the data that you provided exclusively to Reuters, did you state the name of the credit score model? What is its name? What is its scale?
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From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@creditscoring.com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2010 1:43 PM
To: Pam Stevens, TALX Corporation
Cc: Helen Chernikoff, reporter, Reuters
Subject: RE: THE average credit score, Reuters II
Please reply.
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So, what's so special about 850? Either it must have some trancendental property for three genius independent thinkers to come up with it — or not.
Other famous numbers
π: 3.14
7: a lucky number
13: an unlucky number
98.6 degrees
867-5309
0: A euphemism for certain chump statisticians who kowtow to CEOs and marketing departments
Less than zero: The CEOs and marketing departments
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Shell game.
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Lines are drawn
Are you a Believer or Nonbeliever—are they really used in jobs? Credit score use by employers showdown.
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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."
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