PRBC, a bill payment credit bureau, has announced that its credit verification, reporting and scoring procedures meet or exceed new guidance provided by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) for verifying "bill payment" histories and establishing credit scores for borrowers with little or no traditional credit files or FICO scores.   » Continue Reading

Experian and Credit Builders Alliance (CBA) have announced the launch of a data-reporting partnership that enables CBA's members to report microloan repayment data to Experian to help thousands of small business entrepreneurs build a credit history.   » Continue Reading

In an article titled The Credit Rating in Your Shoe Box, Ben Levisohn and Brian Burnsed write for Business Week about Pay Rent, Build Credit (PRBC). "They've captured the attention of lenders right now who want growth in new markets [like the unbanked]," says Michael Turner of Political & Economic Research Council (PERC), a public policy group.

Experian has announced the launch of Emerging Credit Score, a new credit scoring tool developed with eBureau designed to assist lenders in evaluating the creditworthiness of unbanked and underbanked consumers.   » Continue Reading

Billeo and Payment Reporting Builds Credit (PRBC), an alternative credit bureau that collects, reports and scores rental and bill payment data, have announced that they are working together to enable consumers to build credit by doing what they do each month – pay their recurring bills on time.   » Continue Reading

The Payment Cards Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has released a new discussion paper titled "Alternative Data and Its Use in Credit Scoring Thin- and No-File Consumers" .   » Continue Reading

Fair Isaac has announced an alliance with High Mark Credit Information Services of India to introduce Fair Isaac's global-standard FICO credit risk scoring technology to Indian lenders.   » Continue Reading

Fair Isaac and Associacao Comercial de Sao Paulo (ACSP), one of the largest credit bureaus in Brazil, have announced ACSP’s launch of Global FICO Score for Brazilian businesses - saying that "the launch of this innovative consumer credit-risk score makes Brazil the first South American nation to access Fair Isaac’s global-standard FICO credit risk scoring technology."   » Continue Reading

Chase Card Services has announced "the expansion of Chase Clear & Simple, an ongoing program designed to help Chase customers better understand and manage their accounts, with the adoption of new, clearer pricing practices. Chase is eliminating a practice, commonly used in the industry, of increasing interest rates for individual cardholders when their credit-bureau scores decline. This change is effective on March 1, 2008."   » Continue Reading

ID Analytics has announced ID Score-Revenue, calling it "a new solution to help companies expand their customer base by more accurately evaluating the risk of individuals that lack substantial credit histories."   » Continue Reading

Grameen American and Experian have announced the two companies have established "a unique data reporting relationship to support Grameen America's business" that will "enable Grameen America's borrowers to establish their credit files and will provide the foundation for building the borrowers' credit scores allowing access to financial services previously not available."   » Continue Reading

Experian has announced the launch of BusinessCreditFacts.com, a new online resource designed to help small-business owners gain a greater understanding of the many topics dealing with business credit, such as the importance of business credit and tips for establishing and improving business credit scores.   » Continue Reading

Visa USA has published results of a new survey that shows that "the vast majority of Americans do not know that a bad credit score is more than just a barrier to getting a loan - it may also keep you from getting the job you want." According to the survey, "only 20 percent of Americans know that it is legal for employers to refuse to hire job applicants with low credit scores. Fully 52 percent of Americans mistakenly believe it is illegal for prospective employers to use credit scores as a hiring criteria and another 28 percent of survey respondents are unsure."   » Continue Reading

Online Banking Report's latest issue titled "The Market for Fraud Protection, Identity Theft, and Credit Monitoring Services" recommends that "the time is right for ALL financial institutions to add identity protection/monitoring to their online offerings. The service has been optimized for Web delivery; it provides clear user benefits; it’s relatively easy to implement, and it can directly contribute to the bottom line in real, fee-based dollars, not nebulous intangibles.”

Leslie McFadden of Bankrate.com interviews Evan Hendricks, the author of "Credit Scores & Credit Reports: How the System Really Works, What You Can Do", about his concerns with the credit reporting system in the US.

Last week, in testimony before the US House Financial Services Committee, Sandra Braunstein, Director, Division of Consumer and Community Affairs of The Federal Reserve Board, provided a deep look at consumer credit reports in the US. The Committee was looking into issues associated with errors in credit reports and how consumers can get the errors corrected.

In an article titled 'Credit Bureaus Fight Consumer-Ordered Freezes", Byron Acohido and Jon Swartz write for USA Today about the Consumer Data Industry Association and its efforts on behalf of the three major credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion) to slow legislative efforts at the state level regarding laws that enable consumers to freeze access to their credit histories. They write that "by far the best protection against new-account fraud is a credit freeze, say credit consultants and fraud investigators. A credit freeze bars the credit bureaus from issuing your credit report — the summary of loans and payments that forms the basis of your credit score."

Alan Wirzbicki writes for the Boston Globe about comments made at yesterday's House Financial Services Committee meeting by chairman Rep. Barney Frank who said "the federal government was not moving quickly enough to regulate the consumer credit bureaus and opened the possibility of new legislation later this year." A webcast archive of the hearing along with copies of the prepared testimony is available on the Committee's web site.

Today, the US House Committee on Financial Services is holding a hearing titled "Credit Reports: Consumers’ Ability to Dispute and Change Inaccurate Information" to "examine factors that continue to contribute to inaccurate consumer credit reports and evaluate the adequacy of the consumer dispute process under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). In addition, the Committee will hear recommendations for improving the process and efforts that furnishers, credit bureaus and the regulators are taking to improve the accuracy of credit report information and will review the status of key rule makings and studies mandated by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACTA) related to the accuracy of information furnished to consumer reporting agencies and the adequacy of the dispute resolution process."

Experian Consumer Direct reports that the average credit score for U.S. consumers with no late auto payments is nearly 100 points higher than for those who have at least one late payment.   » Continue Reading

Fair Isaac has announced that it will "adjust its FICO scoring formula to ensure the continued reliability and predictive power of FICO scores. This action is intended to protect lenders and FICO scores from abuse of authorized user credit card accounts by a new kind of credit repair service that sells consumer credit card histories to credit applicants in order to purposefully misrepresent the applicants’ own credit history to lenders and other businesses."   » Continue Reading

Visa USA has announced the national launch of its What's My Score program - including giving away 5,000 free FICO credit scores - to college students. The launch coincides with the release of a new survey of credit and debit cardholders that shows that only 17 percent of those surveyed knew their FICO credit score by the time they were 21 years old.   » Continue Reading

The Mint blog has an in-depth look into credit scores, why they're important, how they're calculated, how to improve your credit score, etc. Mint is a "venture-funded startup that is working nights and weekends to build a free, effortless, and secure anytime-anywhere personal finance tool for individuals who want control of their current and financial future." You can sign up to be notified when they launch.

Gerri Willis writes for CNN Money about techniques consumers can use to increase their credit scores - "the best way to improve your credit score in the short term is to pay off the high balances on your credit card - that can raise your FICO score 60 to 70 points overnight."

TransUnion’s TrueCredit.com has announced results from two surveys it recently commissioned with GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media designed to gauge distinct aspects of consumers’ current credit habits. "TrueCredit.com found that 35 percent of consumers actually report purchasing less on credit this holiday season than last year, when the same question yielded 43 percent. Similar to the 2006 survey, four in ten (43 percent) say they have the same amount of credit card debt this year as last, with 11 percent reporting they have more debt and 29 percent reporting they have less."   » Continue Reading

Peter Hull writes for the Charleston (SC) Post and Courier about how "most insurers, including State Farm, Allstate and S.C. Farm Bureau, routinely use [consumer] credit scores to assess risk when issuing or renewing policies."

Brian O'Conner writes for the Detroit News about a recent change by local utility DTE Energy who began "reporting the payment histories of all 2.5 million customers to the major credit bureaus in August." The impact on consumers missing a bill payment due date has been significant - O'Conner cites an example of one consumer whose "late DTE payment knocked his all-important credit score down by 100 points -- and pushed the interest rate on his new mortgage up."

Beth Healy writes for the Boston Globe about credit bureau data quality issues and just how irritating they can be for consumers. Healy reports that US Rep. Barney Frank, who becomes chairman this week of the House Financial Services Committee, plans to hold hearings early this year to look into the problems.

CompuCredit has announced it is "joining with the alternative credit bureau PRBC in an innovative program to help consumers build credit by reporting consumers' positive payment history that is neither received nor reported by other credit bureaus."   » Continue Reading

Harriet Weinstein reports for the Greenwich (CT) Time on Stamford-based VantageScore Solutions, the new company established earlier this year by the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) to introduce a new credit score. According to Weinstein, we should "consider VantageScore as taking a more compassionate - and more sophisticated - look at your creditworthiness, and coming up with a better answer for the bank when it asks what kind of person you are."

The Center for Financial Services Innovation has announced publication of two new papers on alternative credit data. The first, "Market Interest in Alternative Data Sources and Credit Scoring" (PDF) by Katy Jacob and Rachel Schneider, investigates the potential interest in alternative data on the lender side, by interviewing senior lending officers and other key decision-makers at 23 major financial institutions. The second, "Accessing Credit: The Role of Private Loan Services for Underbanked Clients and Prospects at CircleLending" (PDF) by Katy Jacob and Helen Payne Watt, surveys users of CircleLending's pioneering process to formalize and automate private person-to-person loans, to better understand why customers chose this credit option, and how it effected their behavior.   » Continue Reading

Pay Rent, Build Credit, Inc. has announced that "the United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted Patent Number 7,139,734 for the company's technology and method for collecting data on commonly recurring bill payments made by individuals and small businesses, and incorporating them in a credit file, credit report, and credit score. Examples of common monthly payments that go largely unreported to traditional credit bureaus include rent, private mortgages, non-prime auto loans, utilities, phone, cable, insurance premiums, pay day advances, and rental furniture and appliances."   » Continue Reading

Experian Consumer Direct has announced the results of a recent National Score Index study showing a 16.9 percent decline from 2001 to 2006 in the rate at which consumers are opening new credit accounts and a 12.6 percent rate at which late payments of 90 days or more are increasing. The national average credit score is 675 -- 7 points lower from 2001 when it was 682.   » Continue Reading

Fair Isaac has announced that its FICO Expansion credit risk score "has proven in a major lending-industry study to be the first strong and reliable credit score for assessing the risk of millions of Americans who have little or no credit information on file at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. The study also demonstrated that FICO Expansion score aligns with the company’s industry-standard Classic FICO score for quicker adoption by lenders and combined coverage of as many as 50 million more American consumers than can be addressed by any competing credit risk model." According to an FAQ, the "FICO Expansion score analyzes non-traditional credit data. Examples of such data include deposit account records, pay day loan cashing, and purchase payment plan performance."   » Continue Reading

Fair Isaac Corporation has announced that it filed a lawsuit yesterday in Federal Court in Minneapolis "alleging that the three national credit reporting agencies and a jointly owned entity have violated antitrust laws and engaged in unfair competitive practices." Fair Isaac alleges that "Equifax Inc., Experian Information Solutions Inc., TransUnion LLC and VantageScore Solutions, LLC, through their launch and marketing of the VantageScore credit scoring model, are jointly engaging in unfair and anti-competitive practices that harm the FICO credit score brand and goodwill that Fair Isaac has spent 50 years creating."   » Continue Reading

Paul Gores reports for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about the benefits and the risks of building a credit history from using credit cards. According to Gores, "the trouble is that many won't realize what they're really doing when they use plastic. They're making purchases by borrowing at high interest rates and, at the same time, establishing a credit history that will follow them for years."

Experian Consumer Direct has announced the results of a nationwide study showing the differences between consumers with and without mortgages and consumers with and without second mortgages (including home-equity loans or lines of credit). National and statewide results for the study can be found on Experian's National Score Index Web site at http://www.NationalScoreIndex.com.   » Continue Reading

Tresa Baidas reports for The National Law Journal on a growing number of lawsuits being filed by consumers against the nation's three major credit bureaus.   » Continue Reading

Pete Bach writes for the (Appleton, Wis.) Post-Crescent about the right way and the wrong way to cancel credit cards while protecting your credit score. For example, experts caution against canceling longstanding cards with solid pay-on-time histories that do better for your credit score than a brand new one.

Canopy Financial has announced HealthScore, a new credit score intended to be used specifically for predicting and managing the unique risks associated with lending to consumers with high-deductible health plans.   » Continue Reading

Damon Darlin reports for the New York Times on VantageScore, the recently introduced alternative to the long-standing FICO scores produced by Fair Isaac. According to the three credit bureaus that created VantageScore - Experian, TransUnion and Equifax, it improves risk prediction of future credit performance by weighing more factors. VantageScore also reportedly is more accurate at assessing consumers with "thin files" - having a short credit history.

Experian has announced the results of a new study that examines the correlation between a small-business owner's personal credit score and his or her commercial credit score.   » Continue Reading

Experian has announced that VantageScore from Experian is now available to consumers.   » Continue Reading

Bruce Mohl writes for the Boston Globe that "Verizon Communications Inc. has begun reporting to the nation's three credit bureaus which Massachusetts customers pay their bills on time and which ones don't, a practice a company spokesman described as ''a free gift to the public." Apparently "Verizon is the first telecommunications company to submit monthly payment data."

Personal Finance columnist Terri Cullen of the Wall St. Journal writes about what happened to her when she missed paying a private label credit card bill - twice - and the impact on her credit scores.

Kelly Spors reports for the Wall St. Journal on how slip-ups on financial matters as a young person can have financial consequences that last a long time by impacting the person's credit score.

Advantage Credit has announced some results from a recent teleconference it hosted to explore the new VantageScore, a new consumer credit score jointly developed and introduced recently by Experian, TransUnion and Equifax.   » Continue Reading

The federal financial institution regulatory agencies and the Federal Trade Commission have jointly issued for comment an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on section 312 of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act).   » Continue Reading

Michelle Singletary writes for the Washington Post about VantageScore, the new credit scoring system last week announced by the three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.   » Continue Reading

Eileen Alt Powell reports for the AP with more details about VantageScore, the new credit scoring system announced yesterday by the three major credit bureaus Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.   » Continue Reading

Geoff Dutton of the Columbus Dispatch writes about growth in controversial new online businesses that claim to be able to help you improve your credit score - called credit repair. Such services may be attractive to first-time home buyers looking to qualify for their first mortgage.   » Continue Reading

Kenneth Harney reports for the Washington Post about how mortgage lenders are sharing loan application information with the credit bureaus - who then make it available to other third parties.   » Continue Reading

Eileen Alt Powell reports for the Associated Press on credit alerts, access to credit reports, and security freezes increasingly being used by consumers to limit access to their credit reports. She reports that credit issuers are worried about increasing use of security freezes by consumers.   » Continue Reading

Stef Donev of Interest.Com writes for the Orlando Sentinel about some of the "odd" aspects of how FICO credit scores are calculated - in particular, on the notion of credit utilization. For example, your credit score will fall if you cancel credit cards with large credit lines but low or no outstanding debt on them and leave open other credit card accounts which are closer to being maxed out.   » Continue Reading

Bill Husted writes from tomorrow's Atlanta Journal-Constitution about what a difference a year has made to suburban Atlanta-based ChoicePoint.   » Continue Reading

Experian Consumer Direct has announced the results of a nationwide study on the differences between consumers in high and low credit score ranges.   » Continue Reading

Scott Whipple reports for the New Britain Herald on how credit scores are calculated and what you can do to affect your score.   » Continue Reading

Experian and the Gallup Organization have announced the latest monthly findings from their monthly survey of consumers regarding their views on credit. 65 percent of consumers say they are "very likely" to reduce their credit card debt in 2006. Another 19 percent say they are "somewhat" likely to do that. Consumers are less optimistic that they will reduce their overall level of debt -- just 47 percent say they are "very likely" to make that goal, while another 25 percent are "somewhat likely" to do so.   » Continue Reading

People's Daily Online reports from China that Chinese banks have completed a database that links up information on consumer credit - "a major move to better manage risks and cultivate a credit culture."   » Continue Reading

Jane Spencer reports for the Wall St. Journal on how some consumers' credit ratings have been negatively impacted as private collection agencies are increasingly involved in collecting routine municipal fines and fees on behalf of financially strapped municipal governments and agencies.

On this last day of 2005, here's a quick reminder that you can get a free credit report every 12 months from each of the nationwide consumer credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

To request yours, visit AnnualCreditReport.com.

The UK's Observer comments on plans by major UK card issuers to share more financial information about their customers in an effort to better identify cardholder's getting into potential financial difficulty.   » Continue Reading

Christopher Conkey writes for the Wall St. Journal on how your credit score increasingly affects the prices you pay for financial services products, what components go into your credit score and what you can do to affect it. 

Business Week looks at some of the key inputs to your FICO credit score.

Kathy Kristof writes for the Los Angeles Times about the increasing use of customer credit reports by credit card issuers and how rates can rise based upon what they contain.   » Continue Reading

Pamela Yip reports for the Dallas Morning News on credit bureaus and the credit reporting industry.   » Continue Reading

Robert Bruss reports for the Boston Globe on his experience with getting current credit reports and FICO scores from the three major credit bureaus.   » Continue Reading

Fair Isaac and the Consumer Federation of America have announced the results of a new survey that shows that almost half of American consumers do not understand key facts about credit scores.

To provide consumers with basic information about credit scores, CFA and Fair Isaac have prepared a new free brochure that is being distributed by the Federal Citizen Information Center (FCIC).

"This credit score brochure contains the most important information about the score most businesses use -- the FICO credit score -- including what factors influence its rise and fall, and how consumers can get their own scores," said Cheri St. John, vice president of Global Scoring and Consumer Solutions for Fair Isaac.

The brochure is available for downloading at both FICO's and CFA's websites.

Experian has announced the results of a nationwide study on the effects of debt on consumer credit scores.

Some consumers may think that debt will always have an adverse effect on their credit score. Debt by itself is not a negative factor as long as it is managed well and consumers are not extending themselves beyond their means.

In fact, the national average credit score for consumers with debt above the national average is higher than the average credit score for those with debt below the national average.

The study reported U.S. consumers' average debt of $11,224, 12 percent higher than last year's $10,024. National and statewide results for the study can be found on the Experian National Score Index(SM) Web site at http://www.nationalscoreindex.com.

MSN Money's Bob Sullivan writes about the risks of instant credit and identity theft, calling instant credit an "equal opportunity nightmare."

"Immediacy is the enemy of accuracy,” says Marty Abrams, former executive at credit bureau Experian Corp., and now an analyst with Hunton & Williams.  “ID thieves are successful because we have a marketplace based on immediacy. We can’t move away from instant credit but it is the enemy of good authenticity.”

Kenneth Harney writes in today's San Francisco Chronicle about the problems that can result from some credit card issuers not reporting information to the major credit bureaus.   » Continue Reading

Kenneth Harney reports in today's San Francisco Chronicle on a recent Federal Reserve staff research report that discussed how some credit card issuers may be withholding certain information from the national credit bureaus and, as a result, affecting consumers credit scores.

The Fed researchers did not identify the credit card issuers that intentionally withhold customers' limits. But for 46 percent of the consumers in a random sample of 301,000 credit files to be affected by this score-depressing policy, the creditors involved must be numerous, big or both.

The full study is available for downloading online (PDF).