Unless an agreement is reached between Fair Isaac and Experian before February 14, you as a consumer will no longer be able to access your Experian FICO credit score.
On January 15, Experian notified Fair Isaac of the intention to end their 6-year partnership with myFICO.com. They will continue to sell FICO scores to lenders and other businesses, but consumers will not be able to access the Experian score through myFICO.com or any other source.
Experian credit reports will still be available to consumers, but without the FICO scores.
Equifax and TransUnion will continue to make FICO scores available to consumers through myFICO.com and various on line websites, including (http://www.creditscorequick.com/ and http://www.freecreditscorequick.com/).
Given the animosity generated by an October 2006 lawsuit filed by Fair Isaac against the three credit reporting bureaus, this move is not entirely unexpected. In that lawsuit, Fair Isaac alleged that Equifax Inc., Experian Information Solutions Inc., TransUnion LLC and VantageScore Solutions, LLC had violated anti-trust laws and engaged in unfair competitive practices when they launched the VantageScore credit scoring model in March 2006.
In mid-2008 Fair Isaac Corp. agreed to dismiss Equifax Inc. as a defendant in that lawsuit, stating that Equifax Inc. had stopped the unfair practices and that the two companies were working together to release the new FICO 08 model for Equifax customers.
The new model is similar to the current model, but with enough significant differences that consumers will not be comparing “apples to apples” when looking at their FICO scores from both Equifax and TransUnion.
The outlook for consumers is not good. With America experiencing the worst economic climate since the Great Depression, consumers need more access to their credit information, not less. But unless Experian and Fair Isaac come to an agreement before February 14, consumers will be left in a state of confusion.
TransUnion will be offering FICO scores under the old model; Equifax will be providing scores using the new model; and Experian scores will be available only to lenders and other business entities.
This is the second time that Experian has threatened to terminate the partnership, so hopefully the two companies will once again be able to reach agreement and continue working together.
The problems may work out to everyone’s satisfaction. But meanwhile, the best course of action is to get your 3 free credit reports - with all 3 scores – today.
CreditScoreQuick.com your resource for free credit reports, credit cards, loans, and free credit repair advice.
