Credit Score Confusion

Yet another press release announces another credit score. This time FICO, the artist formerly known as Fair Isaac, has announced FICO 08 based scores for Auto Scores and Bankcard Scores. This is nothing new really. FICO has been making flavors of its scores for years. So, why all the hubbub?

Getting risk right is a big story right now. Some financial institutions might have been using non-industry specific credit scores in the past, but FICO wants them to know that their risk will be lowered by using the new FICO 08 specific models.

The mortgage BEACON was already announced, and I suggested that more flavors were on their way. Well, here they are.

What’s it mean to you? Not much really. You still need to manage all your credit lines. You still need to work to pay everything on time and keep your balances low. It’s still a great time to get educated. It’s still a great time to dispute errors on your reports.  

I agree with Tom’s post in that rates are probably 70/30 likely to go up instead of down.  This means you need to get your “credit house” in order.  If you want to check out credit score products before you buy, see my credit product review screencasts.