By Emily Hoopes, Consumer Advocate
"CoPIRG
is pleased to join Senator Wayne Allard (R-CO) and other supporters of
disclosing credit scores. Credit scores have long served as
replacements or substitutes for credit reports. Credit scores are
routinely used to make critical credit decisions that affect average
people's financial lives on a daily basis, yet until California passed
a law last fall requiring disclosures, both the credit bureaus and the
self-anointed high priests of credit scores, Fair Isaacs, insisted
credit scores should remain secret from consumers. Now, even Equifax
and Fair Isaacs are providing a type of score, for a fee. It's about
time.
CoPIRG commends the Senators for introducing
legislation S1242 to shine sunlight on credit scoring and pledge to
work with them on final passage of a tough national bill. Our position
is that credit scores should always be routinely disclosed as part of
your credit report. This bill takes an important step toward that goal
by requiring disclosure in mortgage related credit reports. In
addition, any final bill should provide that scores be disclosed for
free in all circumstances and should not preempt stronger state laws.
Transparency in credit score disclosure will have an important
additional benefit: it will lead to more consumers complaining about
errors in their credit reports, which can only result in forcing the
credit bureaus to clean up their mistake-ridden reports, that cost
consumers thousands of dollars in overpriced credit. When credit is
based on a score based on a flawed report, consumers pay too much.
Disclosing
credit scores is one part of CoPIRG's platform to give consumers
greater control over their credit reports. For a full list of proposals
to improve credit report accuracy, protect consumer privacy and prevent
identity theft, see CALPIRG's May 2000 report, "Nowhere To Turn."
