Category: Equifax

Blended credit score name game

Equifax Experts (aka “I”)
EFX Moderator, EM
Diane Moogalian, vice president of operations, Equifax Personal Solutions
Richard F. Smith, chairman and CEO
Equifax
Atlanta, Georgia

Equifax Experts, you wrote

I usually get questions about differences in credit scores when a consumer is checking his or her credit report to make a big purchase—like a car—or to apply for a mortgage.

There are different credit score models available to lenders. Some use industry-weighted scores, and others use blended scores from all three CRAs. The lender determines which score model it prefers.

EFX Moderator, EM, you wrote

There are different credit score models available to lenders for things like mortgages and car loans. The lender determines if it prefers an industry-weighted score or a blended score from all three credit reporting agencies.

What is the name of a person or organization who provides “blended scores from all three CRAs”?  What are the names of those scores (in your expert opinion)?

What are your names?

Drop everything and answer those questions today.

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

[SEE https://www.facebook.com/Equifax#!/Equifax/posts/10150977741444015?comment_id=26550986&offset=0&total_comments=1]

reply, Hearst, media accuracy, erroneous reporting

From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@creditscoring.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2012 10:26 AM
To: J.T. O’Donnell, columnist, J.T. & Dale Talk Jobs; J. T. O’Donnell, founder & president, CAREEREALISM
Cc: George R. Hearst, Jr., chairman, Hearst Corporation (via Lisa Bagley); William Dean Singleton, chairman, MediaNews Group, Inc.; Dale Dauten, columnist, J.T. & Dale Talk Jobs; Mary E. Junck, chairman, president and CEO; chairman, Executive Committee, Lee Enterprises; Mary Junck, Associated Press; Dale Quinn, reporter, Arizona Daily Star, Lee Enterprises
Subject: Re: media accuracy, errors and corrections, Lee Enterprises, Hearst, AP, a real joke

You must be joking about Lee Enterprises.

Experian states: “Experian’s Employment Insight report includes similar information about loans and credit cards that is listed in the credit report. It does not include year of birth, spouse reference, account number or credit score, which are irrelevant to hiring decisions”

I hope that’s official enough for you.  Actually, a guy gave a testimony.  He swore it, under oath even!

Finally, there is no longer anything on Equifax’s website about employers using credit scores.

So, that begs the question: Who is your source?  And, if nobody said it in the first place, then what are you “validate/research” -ing?

On the other hand, Experian says, “Creditors, landlords, and even some employers consider a person’s credit score before deciding whether they will approve a loan, lease an apartment, or hire an applicant.”

Why don’t you tell that story?

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

 

From: [email address] On Behalf Of J.T. O’Donnell
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 6:00 PM
To: greg@creditscoring.com
Subject: Re: media accuracy, errors and corrections, Lee Enterprises, Hearst, AP

Greg,

Just sent you a tweet but figured I’d email you too.

I hope you can understand that because you are the one emailing, we need to validate/research what you are saying.

I’ll circle back with you when I learn more.

Thanks for your patience,

JT

[previous email]

 

Canada – Pointage de crédit junk journalism from ValueClick

In an item on the Globe and Mail website, an Investopedia article contends, “Credit scores range from 300 to 850.”  However, in Canada the “pointages FICO vont de 300 à 900.”

In the U.S., the FICO credit score scale is 300 to 850.

Investopedia (who is actually based in Canada), a division of ValueClick, provides junk journalism articles to Hearst and Forbes, too.  Martin T. Hart is the chairman of ValueClick according to Forbes.  Whether you choose to believe Forbes about that is entirely up to you.

Influence: Equifax botches credit score distribution

On the heels of this week’s other fun with Equifax (“INFORM > ENRICH > EMPOWER“), top consumer finance expert” and Equifax blogger Ilyce Glink cross-promotes another of her myriad projects by linking to a video featuring some muckety-muck identified as an Equifax executive.  And it is a hoot.

On CBS MoneyWatch.com, Glink writes:  “According to FICO’s credit blog, about 18 percent of the population has a FICO credit score between 800 to 850, but the highest credit score I’ve heard of is 830 (feel free to post yours below). A little over 25 percent of the population has a credit score below 600.” [an aside: See creditscoring.com’s “Two and Two: Credit scores fall, AP, Part II”]

However, there is a kink as her hijinx sinks with a link that slinks into a rinky-dink Think Glink video. ;) The executive, some dude named Steve, identified as “President, Equifax Personal Information Solutions” states, “I think less than one percent of the population has more than 800.”  Turn on the camera and watch him go (away).

It is more than a flub:  The startling misinformation is accompanied by the actual words, on-screen, in writing, in your face:  “Less than 1% have 800 or higher.”

Get more Equi-Facts with Steveorino here on the Wild, Wild Web.  And, don’t miss one of the most hilarious moments in live radio.

Equifax expert misinformation corrected

Equifax corrected its misinformation.

Original:  “A hard inquiry is one in which a bank, a landlord, an employer or a potential employer, a mortgage broker, or another creditor or lender accesses your credit file because of a transaction you have initiated.”

Corrected:  “A hard inquiry is one in which a bank, a landlord, an a mortgage broker, or another creditor or lender accesses your credit file because of a transaction you have initiated.”

Presto Change-O.

Equifax expert writes about employers’ inquiries

From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@creditaccuracy.com]
Sent: Friday, October 01, 2010 1:54 PM
To: Robin Holland, senior vice president, Global Consumer Services, Equifax; Robin Holland, expert, Equifax
Subject: Equifax expert writes about employers’ inquiries

You wrote:

Hard Inquiry: Any request for a copy of your credit file is an inquiry, but a hard inquiry is the only one that can affect your credit score. A hard inquiry is one in which a bank, a landlord, an employer or a potential employer, a mortgage broker, or another creditor or lender accesses your credit file because of a transaction you have initiated.

However, another person writing on your website writes:

Inquiries that do not affect your credit rating include requests from employers, requests from companies making promotional offers, and your own requests to check your credit. These inquiries are viewable only by you.

Which one of you, really, is an expert?

What is THE average credit score?

Last month, in what seemed like a big scoop over its rival news agencies, the Associated Press reported that, now, 25.5% of Americans have FICO scores below 600.  But, the score model in that report is a new score, FICO 8 (BEACON 09), which is not sanctioned by the two big housing finance agencies, nor even the one sold to consumers by the main scoring company.  The story stuck.  Following questioning by creditscoring.com, FICO (the company) removed FICO (the score) distribution charts from its website.

This month, rival news agency Reuters struck back.  On Friday, in her story “Scorning debt, consumers’ credit scores soar,” Helen Chernikoff wrote, “The average credit score rose to 704 in July, a level not seen since the first quarter of 1998, according to data that Equifax Inc (EFX.N), one of the largest U.S. credit bureaus, provided exclusively to Reuters.”

To what score model she refers is unclear.  In the article, 850 is the highest score on the scale, but there is no mention of the lowest.  So, to the average person, the model might look like the broad-based risk FICO credit bureau score BEACON 5.0 available to consumers at myFICO and required by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Or, it could be something else.

That is because the consumer reporting agencies play a childish game with numbers, creating credit scores with scales similar to that of the well-known FICO score, 300-850.  TransUnion even makes one, called Transrisk, that has exactly the same scale as the FICO–300 to 850.  There’s PLUS at Experian (330-830).  And, in the case of the company that is subject of the fabulous exclusive Reuters story, there is the Equifax Risk Score 3.0 (280-850).

AJC, and credit score and job applications paranoia irony

Right in Equifax’s hometown, in an interview piece on chairman and CEO Richard F. “Rick” Smith, a writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution asks, “Is there too much paranoia about credit scores, which can affect everything from loan and job applications to insurance premiums?”

Apparently, he missed the story about Equifax/employers/scores, so the irony of the notion of paranoia is painfully accentuated.

‘Dude’s on vacation.

Equifax: We’re the only one

From: Greg Fisher
Sent: Monday, February 22, 2010 12:16 AM
To: Tim Klein, vice president, public relations, Equifax
Subject: credit score, FICO, Equifax, exclusivity

Richard F. Smith, chairman and chief executive officer
Equifax, Inc.

You write, “The FICO Score is the most commonly used scoring model among lenders, and Equifax is the only major credit reporting agency that can provide you with your FICO Score.”

Is Equifax really the only one, or are you saying that TransUnion is not a major consumer reporting agency?

Also, please address the question from October 14 regarding the Dallas Morning News.

Greg Fisher
The Credit Scoring Site
PO Box 342
Dayton, Ohio   45409-0342
937-681-3224