That’s just wrong.

When Congress sanctioned the bill to require that the credit companies give one free credit report per year, they overlooked a particularly critical number, the FICA score.

The individual credit reporting agencies Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union, all use the raw information from the Fair Isaac company to figure out a score. But, Fair Isaac puts out the authoritative FICA score, which is what many companies use to judge your credit rating. For instance:

- Banks resolve whether you get credit and how much you may pay in interest.
- Owners resolve whether you qualify to live in their houses or apartments.
- Utility companies use the FICA score to choose whether you’ve got to pay a deposit for basic services like water and electricity.
- Cell telephone corporations may not give you a telephone or service if your score is too low.
- Automobile and home insurance corporations use the score to identify insurance rates.

Most people don’t realize that they can’t access their credit reports at no cost. In reality, the Customer Federation of Yank discovered that 75 % of Yanks thought they could get the number if they wanted to. That is a component of the issue. Because they can get their credit report, they suspect they can also get their credit score.

Some corporations charge a high fee up to $50 a year and then offer to ‘waive’ it if you sign up for expensive monitoring services or other products you don’t need.

And, even if you buy your number, you cannot be guaranteed that it is correct. In several cases there’s a difference of thirty to one hundred points between the score and the FICA score and the FICA score the consumer buys.

If you want to get your score, the one place to be guaranteed you are getting the real thing is at MyFico.

You should also know that your tangible credit score is always in flux. If you put an additional $200 on your Visa card, your score could budge 3 points. If you close a department store account, your credit history could move. And, if you pay off a card but don’t close it, your credit score will also be adjusted.

But you may never know precisely how things are moving. In fact, the only business needed to show you your FICA score is your mortgage company. And, they don’t even have to show you the score that they used to determine the mortgage, they can show you a different one which ‘proves’ you want to pay a higher interest rate.

The credit bureaus’ product is the buyer’s private info. Clients have the legal right to this information. Congress wishes to act to increase the right to get a free credit report yearly to include the right to access your FICA score.