Uncovering Hidden Credit Scores

For whatever reason, I missed this story by Bankrate.com in 2008. A reader of mine (Julian) sent me a story yesterday that ultimately led me to this one. We all know what classic FICO is — and most of us know what the Bankcard Industry Option FICO (link here) score is — but do we know what a “usage” score is? How about your bankruptcy score? Acquisition score? Application score? If these seem foreign, you have some reading to do. From Bankrate.com:They have been using — not only information outside of the credit report — but they’ve been using scores outside of the widely known and recognized FICO risk score for many, many years. I don’t know that I would say they’ve been doing it surreptitiously or in a sneaky manner; it’s just no one’s bothered to shed any light on it, and it’s not something that they would typically disclose to a consumer. Quite frankly, if the media isn’t talking about it, then really nobody knows about it.He’s right. Which is why I figure a good number of my readers haven’t heard of some of the scores that are talked about in the article. Hat tip, Julian.