FICO Score Changes...What Do They Mean To You?

Last week I received a call from a reporter at the Los Angeles Times, asking me about an announcement Fair Isaac was making about changes to its popular FICO credit scores.

Fair Issac had announced that at the same time that the sale of FICO scores reached the 100 billion mark, it was making changes to the score to "increase predictiveness by 5 to 15 percent." What does the mean for us, the consumers whose financial lives are so heavily influenced by those numbers?

Probably not a whole lot. And not likely much in the near future.

In a conversation with Fair Isaac spokesperson Craig Watts, I learned more about the changes and their impact on credit scores.

First, the same advice that we've always given here on CreditBloggers and Credit.com about how to develop and maintain a positive score still applies. The same score ranges (300 – 850) still apply. The same reason codes will still be used to explain scores.

But behind the scenes, the new scoring system will group consumers into twelve new scorecards instead of the original ten ("had a bankruptcy" is likely one example of a scorecard though Fair Isaac doesn't like to reveal specifics). It may also be that that the new score will have the effect of helping those consumers with little credit history have better access to credit, though FICO insists that changes are made in order to help creditors better predict risk, rather than to help consumers get credit.

Craig says that most of us will see a slight change up or down in our score with the new methodology. But it may not happen for a while. First, lenders have to adopt the new scores, and that will definitely take time. Only when the majority of lenders are using the newer scores will they be used to calculate the scores we see when we purchase our own credit scores from myFICO.

So for now, the best thing you can do is still to monitor your credit and get those payments in on time!

Comments

[Concerned]

Lately I've seen some major changes to my FICO score, which I monitor every month. I am very concerned that my score has gone down over 50 points with no apparent reason. There have been no new accounts opened, no late pays what-so-ever, nothing unusual. So why has my score gone down so significantly. Still looking for answers.

[Concerned]

Lately I've seen some major changes to my FICO score, which I monitor every month. I am very concerned that my score has gone down over 50 points with no apparent reason. There have been no new accounts opened, no late pays what-so-ever, nothing unusual. So why has my score gone down so significantly. Still looking for answers.