Canada – Understanding Your Credit Report and Credit Score

Understanding Your Credit Report and Credit Score,” is a publication of the Agence de la consommation en matière financière du Canada–also known as the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada. 

You can even take a quiz.

Transunion and Equifax are mentioned; Experian is not.  Canada is not even on the Experian press page drop-down list of countries.  The company ceased consumer credit bureau operations in Canada in 2009 (but paid $207 million cash for creditscore.com and creditreport.com in 2010).

The FCAC, established in 2001 by the Canadian federal government, is an independent body “working to protect and inform consumers of financial services.”

Experian’s new British Empire

(coming to a search engine result near you)

In one fell ($2-hundred million) swoop, Experian acquired some serious internet real estate related to credit reports and credit scores: CreditReport.com and CreditScore.com.

And, in a truly odd chapter, as the FreeCreditReport.com debacle played out, Experian obtained FreeCreditScore.com (now of MTV fame) through a bankruptcy-related gambit.

“This case presents a somewhat unsettling-but we suspect common-set of facts.” – U.S. Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit

But, it’s never tidy.  If you can’t beat ’em, buy ’em.

Request for Federal Reserve’s evidence regarding employers using credit scores

From:  Greg Fisher
To:  Sandra F. Braunstein, Federal Reserve
Subject:  credit score, employers, Federal Reserve, 2010-03-24
cc:  Michelle A. Smith, Federal Reserve; ConsumerHelp@FederalReserve.gov; Pierce Nelson, Sibyl Slade, Jean Tate, Federal Reserve, Atlanta; Federal Trade Commission Office of Public Affairs; Gerri Willis, CNN; realstories@cnnmoney.com; letters@smartmoney.com; Aleksandra Todorova, Stephanie Auwerter, SmartMoney; Elizabeth Warren; freshair@whyy.org; talkback@whyy.org; frontline@pbs.org; Gosia Wozniacka, The Oregonian; Jennifer Openshaw; PublicAffairs@dobi.state.nj.us; consumerfinance@dobi.state.nj.us; John Peace, Don Robert, Susan Henson, Susan Thomas, Media Relations, Corporate Responsibility, Experian; press.office@uk.experian.com; worldservice@bbc.co.uk; editor@mediaguardian.co.uk; haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk; gazette@independent.co.uk; online.editor@timesonline.co.uk; news@timesonline.co.uk; business@timesonline.co.uk; Barry Paperno, Craig Watts, FICO
Sent:  4/19/2010

See http://www.creditscoring.com/influence/government/federalreserve/employers2009atlanta.html and https://blog.creditscoring.com/?p=1154.

Last month, you stated to congress:  “Credit scoring is widely used to evaluate applications for credit, identify prospective borrowers, and manage and price new and existing credit accounts. It is also used to facilitate decisionmaking in other areas including insurance, housing, and employment.”

However, consumer reporting agencies who compile and maintain files on consumers on a nationwide basis state that they do not use credit scores for employment purposes.

What evidence suggests that employers use credit scores? 

How many employers use credit scores? 

Do you have the identity of one employer who uses credit scores?

Greg Fisher
The Credit Scoring Site
greg@creditscoring.com
creditscoring.com
PO Box 342
Dayton, Ohio   45409-0342
937-681-3224

A senator, credit scores, losers and fake guitar playing


The lyrics to FreeCreditReport.com’s latest ditty:

Wanted to get myself a new cell phone
So I could hear myself at a ring tone
Who knew the store would go and check my credit score?
Now all they let me have is this dinosaur
Hello? Hello? Hello? Can anybody hear me?
I know. I know. I know. I should have gone to

FreeCreditReport.com
That’s where I should have gone. Could have got my knowledge on

ANNOUNCER: Free credit score and report with enrollment in Triple Advantage.

Meanwhile, in a not-so-veiled reference to Experian (the owner of FreeCreditReport.com) U.S. Senator Charles Schumer states, “If these companies want to say – or sing for that matter – that they are giving people free credit reports, then they can’t charge people $15 a month, simple as that.”  On his website, Schumer continues, “My plan would finally bust up this scam and give consumers some honest choices”

One problem, as stated in the FreeCreditReport.com Terms and Conditions:  “The PLUS Score is not currently sold to lenders, and is not an endorsement or guarantee of your credit worthiness as seen by lenders.”

So, it really is true:  You don’t get what you don’t pay for.  See Fake-O FICO Funk.

Speaking of videos, don’t miss creditscoring.com’s montage of people talking about employers using scores— while the bureaus say that they don’t even sell scores for that purpose.