Author: Greg Fisher

credit score, utilization ratio, MarketWatch, Wall Street Journal, News Corporation

From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@creditscoring.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2011 12:09 AM
To: Jennifer Waters, columnist, Consumer Confidential, MarketWatch, Wall Street Journal, News Corporation
Subject: credit score, utilization ratio, Consumer Confidential, MarketWatch, Wall Street Journal, News Corporation

 See this message and your response at https://blog.creditscoring.com/?p=2190, https://blog.creditscoring.com/?tag=wall-street-journal, and https://blog.creditscoring.com/?tag=news-corporation.

You wrote, “It’s a fussier method than that, but your utilization rate is worth some 30% of your score.”

Who is your source for the worth of the utilization rate?

—
Greg Fisher
The Credit Scoring Site
creditscoring.com
PO Box 342
Dayton, Ohio  45409-0342

UPDATE, 6/21/2011

From: Waters, Jennifer 
Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2011 12:21 AM
To: ‘greg@creditscoring.com’
Subject: RE: credit score, utilization ratio, Consumer Confidential, MarketWatch, Wall Street Journal, News Corporation

Experian and TransUnion and FICO.

From: Greg Fisher
Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2011 12:59 AM
To: Waters, Jennifer
Subject: RE: credit score, utilization ratio, Consumer Confidential, MarketWatch, Wall Street Journal, News Corporation, correction

Fair Isaac indicates that the proportion of credit lines used is only one of six items in an entire category which comprises 30%, “Amounts Owed.”

When will you make a correction?

Where do Experian and TransUnion make the statements you refer to?

—
Greg Fisher
The Credit Scoring Site
creditscoring.com
PO Box 342
Dayton, Ohio  45409-0342

UPDATE, 6/22/2011
Social media

From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@creditscoring.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 10:15 AM
To: Jennifer Waters, columnist, Consumer Confidential, MarketWatch, Wall Street Journal, News Corporation
Cc: Melissa Rudy; Emily Glazer, reporter, Wall Street Journal, News Corporation; Teri Everett, senior vice president, Corporate Affairs & Communications, News Corporation
Subject: RE: credit score, utilization ratio, Consumer Confidential, MarketWatch, Wall Street Journal, News Corporation, correction II

If

a + b + c + d + .30 + f = .30

then the sum of

a, b, c, d, and f must be zero.

But that must not be true since Fair Isaac said, for instance, regarding the 4th item in the category, “Your FICO Score considers the number of accounts you have with balances” (also, see Equifax, 1997).  Are we both talking about the same Fair Isaac?

What is your equation?

Also, could you find somebody to clean up the page titled, “One in Six Employers Looking At Your Credit Report, Study Finds”?  On the menu bar in Internet Explorer, click on View, then Source (Ctrl+U in Firefox and Chrome) to see the page’s HTML source code.  It still says, “Many employers are checking job candidates’ credit scores, but how big of a factor are credit scores in a company’s eventual decision to hire?”

And, another thing:  Please have Rupert Murdoch review the page titled, “How to Score a Free Credit Score.”  It says that employers use credit scores, and that is a myth.

And, one more thing:  Have Mr. Murdoch review the page titled, “Protect Credit Score.”  It has been a month.

See an example of an honorable correction by Gannett on its page titled, “Our view: Credit reports stacked against consumers.”

—
Greg Fisher
The Credit Scoring Site
creditscoring.com
PO Box 342
Dayton, Ohio  45409-0342

credit score, employers, Bills.com, KFMB-TV, WorldNow, Gannaway Web Holdings

See this message and your response at https://blog.creditscoring.com/?p=2183 and https://blog.creditscoring.com/?tag=even-employers.

You wrote, “Credit scores are a way that lenders, and even employers and landlords, gauge how reliable you are in the way you handle money.”

Who is your source regarding credit score use by employers?

—
Greg Fisher
The Credit Scoring Site
creditscoring.com
PO Box 342
Dayton, Ohio  45409-0342

UPDATE, 2011-06-22
Public interest

From: Greg Fisher 
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 1:17 PM
To: Andrew Housser, co-founder & CEO, Bills.com
Cc: Michael Azzano, founder, Cosmo PR (for Bills.com); Elisabeth M. Kimmel, owner, KFMB-TV, Midwest Television, Inc.
Subject: RE: credit score, employers, Bills.com, KFMB-TV, WorldNow, Gannaway Web Holdings

The press release “Bills.com Shares Money Saving Strategies for Recent College Graduates” states, “And as more potential employers are reviewing credit scores as part of their hiring process, a bad score can hurt college grads when they apply for jobs.”

What indicates credit score use by employers?

—
Greg Fisher
The Credit Scoring Site
creditscoring.com
PO Box 342
Dayton, Ohio  45409-0342

credit score, employers, time.com Moneyland, quickanddirtytips.com Money Girl

From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@creditscoring.com]
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2011 10:40 AM
To: Scott Medintz, editor, MoneyLand, Time Magazine; Scott Medintz, editor, MoneyLand, Time Magazine
Cc: Laura D. Adams, personal finance expert, Quick and Dirty Tips
Subject: credit score, employers, time.com MoneyLand, quickanddirtytips.com Money Girl

See this message and your response at https://blog.creditscoring.com/?p=2177 and https://blog.creditscoring.com/?cat=134.

You published, “But all of these particulars are either difficult or impossible to change, whereas increasing your credit score is something you can start any time.”

The link in that sentence leads to a page which states, “Your score indicates your creditworthiness to potential lenders, banks, landlords, insurance companies, and even to some employers, for instance.”

However, the national consumer reporting agencies all state that they do not provide credit scores for employment purposes. 

What change will you make? 

—
Greg Fisher
The Credit Scoring Site
creditscoring.com
PO Box 342
Dayton, Ohio  45409-0342

——————————————-

UPDATE, 6/21/2011

Time Warner replaced the link with one to Fair Isaac’s page “How to Repair Your Credit and Improve Your FICO Credit Score,” but did not document the correction on the original page.  POOF!  It just went away. 

Moneyland is a magical place.

Here is today’s message to Time Warner.

——————————————-

UPDATE, 6/27/2011

Time is (finally) a Believer.  After Moneyland got religion, it even published a new article stating, “It’s important to note that employers can’t actually see your three-digit credit score; as a result, there’s no ‘magic number’ that will make a company accept or reject an applicant.”

But we are still doomed.

SCORE UPDATE: creditscoring.com leads Fed

Here’s the latest score in terms of views:

creditscoring.com:  2672 (says that credit buraus do not sell scores for employment purposes)

The Federal Reserve:  1194 (says employers, indeed, use credit scores)

creditscoring.com: 161 (says that the idea that employers use scores is a myth)

Trend

creditscoring.com:

1993 – 2005 – 2027 – 2540- 2672

The Federal Reserve:

554 – 643 – 716 – 1109 – 1194

creditscoring.com:

161

[previous update]

credit score, employers, NASDAQ, 2011-06-13

From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@creditscoring.com]
Sent: Monday, June 13, 2011 8:37 AM
To: JR Hevron, writer, editor, educator, and content creator, MortgageLoan.com
Subject: credit score, employers, NASDAQ, 2011-06-13

See this message and your response at https://blog.creditscoring.com/?p=2169.

You wrote, “A bad credit score can make it hard to get a job (some employers are taking credit into consideration), a new apartment, and can make for much higher costs on a future mortgage.”

Who is your source regarding credit score use by employers?

—
Greg Fisher
The Credit Scoring Site
creditscoring.com
PO Box 342
Dayton, Ohio  45409-0342

credit score, employers, Fox Business Network, 2011-06-10

From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@creditscoring.com]
Sent: Saturday, June 11, 2011
To: Emily Driscoll, writer, Fox Business Network
Subject: credit score, employers, Fox Business Network, 2011-06-10

See this message and your response at https://blog.creditscoring.com/?p=2160.  

You wrote, “In addition to making it more difficult to obtain new credit, a weak credit score can also hurt a student’s employment chances.”

Who is your source regarding credit score use by employers?

—
Greg Fisher
The Credit Scoring Site
creditscoring.com
PO Box 342
Dayton, Ohio  45409-0342

credit score, employers, WalletPop, Virgins

From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@creditscoring.com]
Sent: Friday, June 10, 2011 8:35 AM
To: Mitch Franklin, assistant professor of accounting practice, Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University
Subject: credit score, employers, WalletPop, Virgins

See this message and your response at https://blog.creditscoring.com/?p=2153.

WalletPop.com published:  “But credit scores also factor into insurance rates, and even [“even” was a link to http://www.walletpop.com/photos/credit-score-virgins/3658526/]* potential jobs: employers are increasingly checking scores as part of the application process, Franklin says. ‘People don’t realize how much of an impact their credit score has on their life.’”

What evidence indicates that employers use credit scores?

—
Greg Fisher
The Credit Scoring Site
creditscoring.com
PO Box 342
Dayton, Ohio  45409-0342

* UPDATE 8/14/13: The link that was under the word “even” above is defunct (and so is WalletPop.com, apparently. Try it: walletpop.com.).  Here is a new link: http://www.dailyfinance.com/photos/credit-score-virgins/#!slide=3658526.

CDIA responds to Gannett regarding credit report accuracy

Gannett’s USA Today editorialized, “Instead of putting its money into better dispute resolution, the industry is more interested in trying to prove that error rates are small.”

In an opposing view, consumer reporting industry trade organization, CDIA, said:  “The end result of PERC’s study is that conjecture and opinions about accuracy have been replaced by empirical data. This is the only independent third-party study ever undertaken.”

However, in 2001, Associated Credit Bureaus (now CDIA) said, “In the only statistically valid study conducted to date, Arthur Andersen concluded that in only two-tenths of one percent of the over 15,000 cases studied, were consumers denied a benefit based on an error in their credit report.”

UPDATE, 7/6/2011

credit score, employers, Connecticut sSB 361 passes Senate

The Connecticut Senate passed sSB 361.

The title says it all:  “AN ACT PREVENTING THE USE OF CREDIT SCORES BY CERTAIN EMPLOYERS IN HIRING DECISIONS.”

One headline reads, “Senate passes bill that prohibits employers from asking new hires about their credit score.”

See Credit scores. Pre-employment screening. Influence: Government.  The national consumer reporting agencies all claim that they do not even provide credit scores for employment screening.

credit score, employers, Connecticut SB 361, HB 5061 (2010), Yale

From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@creditscoring.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2011 7:57 PM
To: Michael J. Morand, associate vice president of Yale University for New Haven and State Affairs
Cc: Martin Looney, state Senator, Majority Leader, Connecticut; Martin Looney, state Senator, Majority Leader, Connecticut (press aide email address); Matthew Lesser, state Representative, Connecticut; Robert Hiltonsmith, policy analyst, Demos; Timothy k. Rusch, director of Communications, Demos; Amelia Warren Tyagi, board chair, Demos; Miles Rapoport, president, Demos; Lori J. Pelletier, secretary-treasurer, Connecticut AFL-CIO; John Olsen, president, AFL-CIO, Connecticut; Sarah Poriss, attorney at law; Edith Prague, state Senator, chair, Labor & Public Employees, Connecticut; Edith Prague, state Senator, chair, Labor & Public Employees, Connecticut (press aide email address); Kia Murrell, assistant counsel, Connecticut Business & Industry Association; Kevin T. Kane, Chief State’s Attorney, Division of Criminal Justice, Connecticut
Subject: RE: credit score, employers, Connecticut SB 361, HB 5061 (2010), Yale

See this message and your response at https://blog.creditscoring.com/?tag=connecticut-sb-361.

You testified, “I write of behalf of Yale University, whose mission includes operations where the use of credit reports in employment decisions is prudent and reasonable.”

Is obtaining credit scores an option provided by your employment screening report supplier?

—
Greg Fisher
The Credit Scoring Site
creditscoring.com
PO Box 342
Dayton, Ohio  45409-0342

[attached:  copy of previous messages]