Do you know your credit score? It's a three-digit number and may very well be 666...or 700...or 325. God only knows...
Or rather God, the credit bureaus, the credit scoring data processors, the bank, the clerk who's verifying your check, the recruiter who interviewed you for a job, your mortgage loan officer and underwriter, the bill collector who's been calling, some credit card company you never heard of that wants to send you an invitation to apply for a "pre-approved" credit card, and the horse they all rode in on. Everyone but you...You're not allowed to have have it.
Says who? Not Congress: The Fair Credit Reporting and Truth in Lending laws do not require credit bureaus or creditors to release your credit score, but neither do they forbid it. Not federal agencies, such as the FDIC, Federal Trade Commission, or Comptroller of the Currency: Each of these agencies has some regulatory interest in the matter, but none has prohibited disclosure of credit scores to consumers.
As always, creditors who refuse credit, and employers who refuse employment based on a credit report, must state in writing the information that caused the negative decision. You are then entitled to a free copy of your credit report and are permitted to challenge any information in the report that you regard as inaccurate. However, at no time will you be offered your credit score, and if you request it, you will be ignored or declined.
Even if you manage to find out your score through back channels, such as a friend at the bank, the information will be of little value except to satisfy your curiosity. While credit bureaus must correct *factual* errors in your credit file, they are not required to disclose how your credit score was compiled nor do they have to recompute it as part of clearing errors in your file.
Credit scoring measures much more than just the amount you owe and whether you pay on time. Your score (which can be tweaked by creditors to emphaize or de-emphasize various factors) may rate you on the number, make and model of vehicles you own; whether you rent or own your residence; number and type of open accounts; type and length of occupation; zip code; and number of recent credit inquiries.
Go To Page: 1 2
