Sears has announced new benefits and new features to provide more retail value to Sears card customers, including Credit Score Access (Sears is the first major retailer to offer its cardholders access to their credit score at no additional cost), Monthly Cardholder-only Sales and a new Sears Platinum MasterCard with a new Sears Choice Rewards program. READ MORE »

Consumers continue to fight the recession by saving more and paying off debt, banks are responding with more careful lending, and stressed homeowners increasingly are falling behind on mortgages on their primary residence, according to the latest Equifax Credit Trends Report for September 2009. READ MORE »

FICO has announced the results of its study on the impact to consumer FICO® credit scores from lender reductions to credit card limits. FICO says "the study found that while U.S. lenders have made substantially deeper cuts into consumer credit card lines, their targeted approach has had minimal impact on the FICO credit scores of most card customers. The study also found that credit scores fare best when consumers keep balances low on their credit card accounts." READ MORE »

Equifax and FICO have introduced the Credit Capacity Index to give lenders and credit grantors easy access to a unique analytic tool to better assess consumer credit risk. The Index is "the first forward-looking risk management tool that rank-orders consumers based on their ability to take on future debt. Available through Equifax, Credit Capacity Index enables lenders to strengthen their account acquisition and account management strategies while minimizing exposure to potential losses while not burdening consumers with too much debt." READ MORE »

TransUnion has announced that it TransUnion Credit Risk Index, a statistic developed to measure the changes in average consumer credit risk within various geographies, increased 1.98 percent from 124.79 in the fourth quarter of 2008 to 127.26 in the first quarter of 2009. On a year-over-year basis, the Credit Risk Index increased 7.10 percent (from 118.83 in the first quarter of 2008), the largest increase for that time period in this decade. The Credit Risk Index is defined as the weighted average probability of 90-day delinquency or worse among consumers in a given region relative to the nation as a whole. READ MORE »

In an article titled "Credit Score Shell Game", Nancy Trejos writes in Sunday's Washington Post about consumer frustrations with credit scores - how their credit scores are falling as a result of arbitrary credit line reductions or account closures by issuers. And, to add frustration, Trejos finds that "people who try to take matters in hand and pay to find out their credit scores discover that it can be difficult to learn the score that lenders actually use to evaluate them."

FICO has announced the release of its newest FICO scores targeted specifically to the automobile lending and bankcard industries. TransUnion is making the scores available to lenders and issuers under the names FICO® Risk Score, Classic Auto 08 and FICO® Risk Score, Classic Bankcard 08. READ MORE »

Seeking Alpha has a good article this morning about the potential impact of credit card issuer credit line reductions on consumer FICO credit scores - creating a whole new segment of consumers who will migrate down to subprime status as a result of issuer actions, not actions taken by the consumers.

FICO has announced the launch of a new subscription service for businesses, FICO Score Trends. Through the service, "lenders will be able to access and drill down into industry FICO® score trends, indexed by a range of criteria such as industry, geography and time period, to regularly analyze their own portfolios and improve their risk management and forecasting." READ MORE »

ID Analytics has introduced ID Analytics Credit Optics, a supplemental credit score that the company says "delivers a new dimension to the assessment of the creditworthiness of individuals. ID Analytics Credit Optics improves credit decisions by gleaning insight from information that is not typically included when calculating a traditional credit score. Organizations can immediately reduce losses by combining traditional credit scores with ID Analytics Credit Optics to fine tune credit decision processes." READ MORE »

TransUnion has announced the launch of Payment Behaviour Score - described as "a new score to improve the effectiveness of acquisition and portfolio reviews for credit card businesses. This scoring solution is designed to strengthen relationships with cardholders and enhance the portfolio management strategy for the credit card providers." READ MORE »

Although consumer understanding of credit scores has improved over the past year, it remains poor, according to the latest credit score survey commissioned by the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) and Washington Mutual Bank (WaMu). Less than one-third of Americans (31%), for example, understand that credit scores indicate risk of not repaying a loan, rather than factors like knowledge of, or attitude toward, consumer credit.

In an article titled "Card Issuers Get Personal To Check Credit", Robin Sidel writes for the Wall St. Journal about how credit card issuers are beginning to consider factors other than credit scores in determining the amount of credit they'll extend on their credit cards.

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. READ MORE »

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. READ MORE »

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.

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.

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" .

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.

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."

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."

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."

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."

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.

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."

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."