New Law Makes Credit Scores Easier To Get

The same new law that created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has given consumers new rights to obtain a free credit score, at least in a limited way. Now, when a bank or other financial institution denies you credit, they must provide you with a free credit score, whenever they use them to deny credit or hit you with more onerous terms.

The disclosure has to give you the exact same score that the lender used to make the decision. This is important because if you buy your credit scores from the credit reporting agencies, you may not receive the same score that the lender is looking at, in making a lending decision. For more information on that, go to the CFPB Report on that subject.

If you get turned down for credit and are given a free score, ask the lender what score it would take to get approved, or if you get approved but you don’t like the terms offered, ask them what score it would take to get better terms, such as a better interest rate. At least then you will know if you are in the ballpark, and perhaps work on increasing your score.

A good way to work on improving your score is to go to www.myfico.com (the company that developed credit scoring), buy your scores, and then you will see advice about what is keeping your score from being higher.