Just when Wikipedia gets its act together, the average FICO credit score goes missing.
In the first story of Two and Two (a new section on creditscoring.com), questions are posed to FICO. The median, the mean, the CEO, and an absent Experian all play their parts.
Things just don’t add up. How is America supposed to know where it stands? Is the average going up, or down? What’s the big secret?
Contrary to information from its credit score company, Equifax claims that the portion of the population who have a credit score over 800 is one percent (1%).
However, a distribution chart from FICO, the credit score company, indicates that 13% have 800 or more.
In a video interview, Steve Ely, president, North American Personal Solutions of Equifax, Inc. states: “I think less than one percent of the population has more than 800. So, you’re in an elite crowd if you have higher than an 800.”
The statement is accompanied by a graphic which states, “Less than 1% have 800 or higher.”
New encyclopedia game contestant Kat Malone removed Wikipedia’s 678 credit score myth on May 22, 2009, after it stood for one year and 9 months.
The user challenged the 678 myth in the Wikipedia article “Credit score (United States)” with the deadly wiki “citation needed” flag.
Other important and controversial changes in the wiki include capitalizing the word corporation, and that the FICO score scale is between “300 and 800 (per Barack Obama),” “300 and 850,” and “300 and 800 (change it back, I dare you).”
The wiki is a top-ten result for the term credit score at search engines Google, Yahoo! and MSN.
Website creditscoring.com covers the wiki folly and wiki myth at “Influence: Media, Wikipedia” and “Fake-O FICO Funk.” The credit score website’s author even traveled to San Francisco to alert Wikipedia in person, but was unsuccessful because Wikipedia’s headquarters address is secret.