How to Get a FICO Expansion Score

Traditional credit scores use statistical models that are based on traditional data. As the economy becomes tumultuous and as new consumers enter the market without a significant credit history, the Fair Isaac Corporation, which produces FICO scores (the credit scores most used by Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian), has recognized that new data is necessary to accurately predict the behavior of new consumers with regard to credit, bad debt, loans, bankruptcy, and other borrowing behaviors. The FICO Expansion score is an answer to the need for creditors to predict whether a consumer with a short credit history will pay back his or her debts and not default on loans in this climate of rapid change. Read on to find out how to get a FICO Expansion score of a consumer's credit history.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. To get a borrower's FICO expansion score, see http://www.myFICO.com/Business/. Using data pulled from the ScoreNet Network, Fair Isaac calculates FICO Expansion scores as another type of credit score. Creditors now have access to a way to rate borrowers who are new to credit or who have very little credit history, since the data gathered provides enough information to predict borrowing habits of these consumers with a short credit history.

2. Like the "Classic" and "NextGen" FICO scores, the FICO Expansion score predicts how likely a borrower is to become delinquent in the next two years.

3. Lenders can interpret the FICO Expansion score number similarly to the way they interpret other FICO scores.

4. Consumers who may not have been eligible for credit before because of lack of data that could predict their behavior may now become eligible for credit due to the usefulness of a FICO Expansion score.

Tips & Warnings

• The FICO Expansion credit scores are not available to consumers / borrowers at the time of this writing. They are used only by lenders to determine whether or not to extend credit to borrowers.