Experian Credit Scores to Go Dark

If you want to see your Experian credit score, you’d better hurry. Fair Isaac, the company that created the FICO score, will not be allowed to sell credit scores based on Experian’s data beyond February 14th, 2009. In the past, you’ve been able to check your FICO scores based on data from all three credit bureaus via myFICO.com.

For their part, Experian plans to continue selling their own proprietary credit scores to directly to lenders. In other words, lenders will be able to check your Experian score, but you won’t be able to check it yourself. The timing for this is especially bad, in that creditors are raising their standards, and small scoring differences can make a big difference for borrowers.

“We are surprised that Experian made such a decision, particularly given what’s going on in the national economy and with consumers being concerned about their credit standing,” said Tom Quinn, vice president for scoring at Fair Isaac. “Their decision means that consumers will no longer be able to see or manage their scores based on the Experian data.”

If you’re interested in checking your Experian-based FICO score, your only real option is to buy it in the next week or so. One possibility would be to sign up for myFICO Credit Complete, which gives you all three credit scores, but also costs close to $50. Alternatively, if you just want to check in on things and are okay with receiving a single score, you can sign up for the free trial of ScoreWatch, which will give you free access to your Equifax score for 30 days. Just don’t forget to cancel.

Source: NY Times