FICO Credit Score Disclosure Law Saves Guesswork

On July 21, 2011, a new federal regulation changed lender requirements for disclosing use of your credit information – and for once, change is good.

Now, if a lender accepts your credit application, but doesn’t give you the best terms or interest rates available, it has to give you your FICO score in writing.

Likewise, a lender that denies your credit application must give you your FICO score in a written credit disclosure.

The lender also has to give you other information, such as the (semi)specific reasons why it shitcanned your credit application or gave you less favorable terms and rates than it has available. It also has to tell you how to get your credit report for free. But the FICO score part of the regulation is the biggest point, as far as I’m concerned.

Why?

Because you could already get your credit report free once a year at AnnualCreditReport.com and if a lender denied a credit application. So not much new there. And unless your identity has been stolen, you probably already have a fair idea of what’s causing your credit damage.

What wasn’t available for free before was your FICO score. That all-important three-digit number that means the difference between enviable credit-based purchase power and financial doom. You had to pay for that little tidbit of information.

So I’m glad to see this regulation in place, simply because it gives you access to your FICO score without forcing you to pay for it. Now, I don’t suggest that you go out and apply for a credit card just to get your FICO score (you know me, I don’t recommend you go within a thousand feet of a credit card application!) but if you do apply for credit and get denied or stuck with subprime rates, at least now you’ll know exactly where you stand.

If you want more info on the regulation or the forms your lender has to give you, head over to ScoreInfo.