What the New FICO Score Means for You

by James LaDue, Credit.com
Market Watch

If you’ve always maintained a strong payment history with your cellphone and cable bills and want a little credit for it, you may be in luck. Credit-scoring giant FICO just announced a new scoring model designed to give credit scores based on people’s payment history with their phone, utilities and other bills.

LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Equifax introduced the FICO Score XD to help lenders assess consumers who may not have a traditional credit history but have a strong record of paying non-credit accounts — things that are not in traditional credit scores. In the credit reporting and scoring industry, these people are called “credit invisibles,” and alternative credit scores like the FICO Score XD aim to make them visible to potential lenders.

For consumers who may be struggling to successfully achieve credit card approval, FICO Score XD uses alternative data to determine if they are creditworthy.

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