Without giving out a lot of information right now, I work for a law firm somewhere and I approached a senior partner today about filing a potential class action lawsuit against Experian for Fair and Deceptive Trade practices amongst other things for its refusal to give us our FICO credit scores while still providing them to lenders. I explained that there are all kinds of "could be" damages that might result from Experian refusing to give us our FICO scores.
That decision, which has yet to be challenged by regulators or lawmakers, conceals from consumers a vital piece of their credit information.
The senior partner seems to think that there is a case there but he also says it is a bear to try and battle the credit reporting agencies. He mentioned that there needs to be a minimum number of Plaintiffs to establish a class action lawsuit in this state and so I wanted to see if there is really an interest amongst the general population in suing for your right to find out the credit score.
Experian is pretending the FICO is no big deal.
"There is no one credit score that all financial institutions use to make decisions, and there is also no one credit score that consumers must use to help them understand and manage their credit," Experian spokeswoman Susan Hensen wrote me in an e-mail. "There are many reputable credit scores on the market that consumers can use to evaluate their creditworthiness before making financial decisions."
Experian has been reciting this line of garbage for years.
The other issue, of course, is these FAKO scores which Experian chooses to sell instead. When consumers buy credit scores directly from Experian, they're sold what the bureau calls "educational" scores, Experian's PLUS or the VantageScore, a formula cooked up with the other two major bureaus that's gone over like a lead balloon with lenders.
So many consumers have been fooled by this gambit, thinking they're getting FICOs when they're not, and they should be made to state clearly that these are NOT FICO scores...
Opinions?
What are your thoughts?
I like the idea 
Just curious as to what one would have to do in order to participate.
I guess my thought is...Why should lenders be able to learn what our scores are before we do? And why is Experian fighting this issue so steadfastly? Can you survive without a FICO score based on your Experian credit report data? Sure you can. Will it be harder to manage and improve your credit score?
You no longer have any idea, before you apply for a mortgage, what kind of interest rate to expect. That's because most mortgage lenders use the middle of your three credit bureau FICO scores to determine rates and terms. Without access to all three FICOs, you can't know what your middle score might be.
You're also at a disadvantage if you are dealing with a lender that subscribes to only one bureau.
U.S. Lenders that use just one bureau tend to use the one that specializes in their region i.e. for Experian, it's the West and Midwest; Equifax dominates the South and TransUnion the Northeast.
It's just unfair AND DECEPTIVE that information gathered specifically about you and used for profit is unavailable to you, yet can affect every area of your life from mortgage to car loan to security system to insurance...
Experian is taking advantage of a loophole in federal law that ensures your access to credit scores but fails to specify which credit scores you should get. The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act acts like all credit scores are the same, when clearly they aren't. They can say all day long that it's up to the lender to pick who they use but they know darn well lenders use FICO scores. If I was a lender, guess which credit report I would pull if I had to pull just one? I'd pull your experian because you probably have no idea what it is and there's a better chance that since you can't pull it, I can make more money off of you.
People who don't know their FICOs are at a distinct disadvantage. They don't know how they're viewed by lenders, so they don't know if they're being quoted appropriate rates or if they have leverage to get a better deal.
I just had a preliminary conversation with him about it but I will let you know when I find out more. He just wants me to see if there is a real interest before he makes a decision.
Why, I believe that EX will continue to argue (and they would be right) that by providing you with your credit report, you are recieving exactly the information that the lender is using to determine your elegibility and terms of a loan.
This is only partly true, some lenders do make "preapproval" decisions based on your credit score alone.
