Category: Enough to be Dangerous

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.

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.

CBS furthers employers & scores thing in myths segment

Things always happen in threes.

The three national consumer reporting agencies all state that they do not provide credit scores for employment screening.  And today, completing a 2010 sweep of the big three networks morning coffee klatches, CBS aired this:  “That score is the number one thing merchants look at, you know, employers look at.”

In the print version of the story, CBS business and economics correspondent Rebecca Jarvis has the chance to be more eloquent and to make the point clear, saying, “From your prospective employers to your prospective landlords, most companies will check your credit score in order to gauge their risk.”

Fate is cruel. Cross-promotiong like a good employee, on the air, the correspondent refers to MoneyWatch, a CBS web site. But a MoneyWatch article states the opposite of the information in yesterday’s broadcast. It says: “So for those of you who believe, suspect or insist that a bad credit score will cost you a job, take comfort: That simply is not true.”

Watch “The Early Show” host Harry Smith take it in while Jarvis does the deed:

And with that, The Tiffany Network earned a place in history, and in the next exciting video. 

The hilarious part:  The segment is titled, “Biggest Credit Card Myths Debunked.”

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).

Illinois governor: Employers use credit score

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

In spite of that, as Governor Pat Quinn of Illinois signed a bill into law, he used the word “score” twice.  State Senator Don Harmon piled on.

 

 

Quinn (2:23):  “… will not allow employers to use credit score to decide whether or not somebody is going to get a job or somebody is going to get a promotion.”

Harmon (3:25) :  This bill strikes an appropriate balance.  It says, as a general principle, employers can’t use your credit history, your credit score, in determining whether or not to hire your or promote you.

Quinn (4:21):  “Unfortunately, some employers are using credit score of an individual person to decide whether someone gets hired, or someone gets retained on a job, or someone gets a promotion on that job.”

The new law, however, allows credit history use in the case of an “established bona fide occupational requirement.” 

The Chicago Tribune reported, “[Rep. Jack] Franks said a lobbyist working for TransUnion ‘duped him’ into replacing references to ‘credit history’ with ‘credit scores,’ which are not used in hiring.”

An official of Consumer reporting agency TransUnion testified in Oregon, “There’s no such thing as a credit score in employment.”  TransUnion is based in Chicago. 

At least, somebody is contolling the message in this messy state’s heady merry go round.  The governor’s press release does not include the word “score.”  But give him a break.  He didn’t run for the job.

WCBS says it again about credit scores and employers

The consumer reporting agencies all state that they do not provide credit scores for employment purposes.

In 2008, WCBS reported that employers use credit scores:

 

Now, in 2010, they do it again.  Real journalists make corrections.

See the headline using the word Now: “Employers Now Checking Credit Scores Of Applicants” (after they said the same thing two years ago).

Enough to be Dangerous: CreditCards.com

Recently, Experian (“the leading global information services company”*) announced that it and CreditCards.com “will co-host a live, interactive, online town-hall discussion of credit reporting and scoring.”  CreditCards.com made the same announcement, replete with countdown clock to the exciting event.

Experian’s newfound public outreach/reach-out for goodwill follows the drubbing it took at the hands of Congress and the FTC regarding the FreeCreditReport.com debacle.  Among other adventures, Chairman John Peace and Experian have traveled the the viral video route recently.  There’s a fab, telegenic, “STYLISH, SMART, & SASSY” (click “HOSTING REEL” for a demo if you’re interested), newly-minted credit history expert and a bevy of B-list stars.  It’s all packaged up with cutesy, sprightly and playful plucking strings to indicate when it is time to laugh (and you will need it), similar to scenes on Wisteria Lane and at Seattle Grace.

If you think that you can manage all that (and would want to), Experian is still looking for you.

CreditCards.com knows Enough to be Dangerous.  They would have you believe that credit score factors include “employment, income” (FICO scores do not consider income and employment), and even “debt to income ratio.”  And, speaking of experts and employment, the consumer reporting agencies do not provide credit scores for employment purposes.  But today, while a battle rages in statehouses from coast-to-coast, one of the CreditCards.com’s “experts” wrote that employers use credit scores.  It wouldn’t be the first time that that happened.  And, they are in good company.

Take what these two tell you with a grain of salt.  And if you participate in their forum, be sure to ask about your AWOL Experian FICO score, and what they are talking about with the line:  “Credit scoring helps potential lenders, landlords, and employers quickly gauge an applicant’s credit history.”

 

 

*as opposed to Equifax, “A global leader in information solutions” (and, indeed, “Leading with Integrity“), or TransUnion, “a global leader in credit and information management.”

Good Morning America says credit score key to job

Last week on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” host George Stephanopoulos introduced a segment by saying, “You know, your credit score is the key to getting a credit card, a mortgage– even a good job.”  The accompanying web page says, “Credit scores can affect many aspects of your life, your ability to get a credit card, a mortgage and even a job.”

The interviewee, Mellody Hobson (who ABC calls an expert and Guru), did not disagree.  Previously, Hobson said that the average credit score is 676 when the median FICO score was known to be 723 (click on “yuk it up“).

Meanwhile, the consumer reporting agencies all state that they do not provide credit scores (wacky video) for employment, an actual verifiable fact that ABC failed to report.

Laura Zaccaro, whose name appears as the co-author of the web page said that her sources include Tory Johnson and FICO.  In 2008 FICO referred to “anecdotal information gleaned from public sources such as published articles.”

Last month, the Federal Reserve told Congress that employers use credit scores.

Enough to be Dangerous: U.S. Bank and PrivacyGuard

To: Steve Dale, senior vice president, Media Relations, U.S. Bank
From: Greg Fisher
Date: April 29, 2010
Subject: Fake-O FICO Funk, U.S. Bank

You state, “Get your credit report and FICO score online now, plus have your report monitored for signs of identity theft.”

However, the credit score that I received by using your link was not a FICO score.

What are you doing to correct your sales pitch? What about refunds?

See Enough to be Dangerous.

Greg Fisher
PO Box 342
Dayton, Ohio 45409-0342