Credit Scores- What You Should Know About Your Own
by Malgorzata Wozniacka and Snigdha Sen
Millions of Americans who once worried about test scores in their school days are now discovering a new score is following them around as adults -- the credit score.
It's estimated by credit industry experts that roughly 75 percent of the U.S. population that is eligible for credit (i.e. 18 years or older), have a credit rating score at any given time that indicates the individual's credit worthiness to take out a loan, a mortgage, etc.
The credit score system has been around for 45 years and is credited with making lending less discriminatory and credit more widely available. But while the meticulous collecting and sharing of consumers' credit histories has dramatically improved the efficiency of U.S. credit markets, critics say the credit bureau's information -- affecting everything from who insures you to who hires you -- may contain substantive errors and is increasingly being used and shared among companies without consumers' knowledge.
The vast majority of Americans don't know their credit score -- or even how to find out what it is. A July 2003 survey commissioned by the Consumer Federation of America found that only 2 percent of Americans said they knew their credit score. And only 3 percent could, unprompted, name the three main credit bureaus.
Here's a primer on what consumers should know...
to continue the article...
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/more/scores.html
Millions of Americans who once worried about test scores in their school days are now discovering a new score is following them around as adults -- the credit score.
It's estimated by credit industry experts that roughly 75 percent of the U.S. population that is eligible for credit (i.e. 18 years or older), have a credit rating score at any given time that indicates the individual's credit worthiness to take out a loan, a mortgage, etc.
The credit score system has been around for 45 years and is credited with making lending less discriminatory and credit more widely available. But while the meticulous collecting and sharing of consumers' credit histories has dramatically improved the efficiency of U.S. credit markets, critics say the credit bureau's information -- affecting everything from who insures you to who hires you -- may contain substantive errors and is increasingly being used and shared among companies without consumers' knowledge.
The vast majority of Americans don't know their credit score -- or even how to find out what it is. A July 2003 survey commissioned by the Consumer Federation of America found that only 2 percent of Americans said they knew their credit score. And only 3 percent could, unprompted, name the three main credit bureaus.
Here's a primer on what consumers should know...
to continue the article...
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/more/scores.html
