Equifax promises not to follow Experian's lead and cut off consumer access to FICO scores
After reading my story about Experian's decision to cut off access to FICO credit scores, Demitra Wilson, Director of Public Relations for Equifax, contacted me to guarantee that Equifax has no plans to follow suit. I did call Experian for comment on my original post, but they never called back.
In an interview this morning, Wilson told me, "Equifax has no plans to discontinue the partnership we have with FICO." In fact, she told me Equifax is "the only one of the three credit bureaus to offer the FICO score on its web site." When you get a credit score at Experian's (www.freecreditreport.com) or TransUnion's websites (www.TrueCredit.com), the score you get is not a FICO score. You will still be able to get TransUnion's version of the FICO score at myFICO.com.
Why is this so critical? Ninety percent of all lenders use the FICO score, Wilson pointed out. "When you get a FICO score from either myFICO.com or Equifax's websites, you get a fairly good idea of how you will be seen in the eyes of the lenders."
