Experian stops offering FICO score to consumers.

The recent negotiations for renewal of contract between Fair Isaac Corp and Experian in offering FICO score to consumers failed, as the two couldn’t go on a mutual agreement. As a result, from now on, Experian would no longer provide FICO score to consumers, but the creditors would still continue to receive FICO score from Experian to judge the creditworthiness of the borrower. This means that the borrowers cannot check the FICO score in order to judge their potential as a borrower before applying for a new line of credit. However, the other two bureaus – Equifax and the Trans Union will continue offering FICO score to both the creditors and borrowers.
Since most creditors use FICO score from all the three bureaus and use the middle score in determining the creditability of the borrower, the borrowers will now face problem in judging whether they should apply for a new line of credit or not. Experian has already stopped offering FICO score with effect from 14th February 2009, and have started selling PLUS Score to the consumers, but it would be of no use if the creditors check FICO score before offering credit to the consumers. However, if the PLUS score gives more or less the same value as that of the FICO score, the problem can be minimized.
The three credit bureaus have already developed a new credit scoring model known as Vantage Score to remove the discrepancy that existed in FICO score among the three bureaus. However, this new scoring model is still not in use by the creditors. It seems that Experian is moving towards this new model and it is their first step towards making Vantage score, the default credit score for both creditors and borrowers.