Fair Isaac Co

Fair, Isaac & Co., which makes software used by banks and credit-card companies to rate consumers' credit-worthiness, said its fiscal fourth-quarter profit will meet or exceed its earlier forecast because of strong sales growth. The company's shares gained 4.5% to $39.50 in extended trading after closing off $1.70 at $37.80 on the New York Stock Exchange. Fair Isaac had been expecting profit of 56 cents a share for the quarter ended Sept. 30.

Hoping to buy his first home this year, Ralph Bustamante paid off his credit cards and cleared dings on his credit report to ensure that he'd be able to get a loan. Bustamante had hoped to pull his FICO scores, used by most lenders as a standard of creditworthiness, from the three major credit bureaus so he could negotiate the best possible mortgage rate. Make that two credit bureaus. One of the companies, Experian Group Ltd., will stop selling FICO scores to individual consumers Saturday.

Software company Fair, Isaac & Co. said it would buy smaller rival HNC Software Inc. for more than $700 million, strengthening business in analytical products including credit card fraud detection. HNC, based in San Diego, develops software that predicts patterns of human behavior from databases that track transaction histories. Some of its major customers include financial institutions such as JP Morgan Chase, telephone companies including AT&T Corp. and retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Borrowers have less than 10 days to see their FICO credit scores calculated by Experian Group Ltd., one of the three biggest personal credit-rating bureaus. Experian notified Fair Isaac Corp., the Minneapolis credit-rating company, in January that it was terminating its contract Feb. 14 to provide information to MyFICO.com, the website operated by Fair Isaac that enables consumers to look at their scores, said Craig Watts, public relations director for Fair Isaac.

Consumers will finally be able to learn their credit scores--the three-digit numbers lenders use to determine whether to grant loans and what interest rate to charge--under an agreement announced Thursday between leading credit scorer Fair, Isaac & Co. and credit bureau Equifax.

Starting Monday, consumers can get a glimpse of the three-digit number that often determines whether they can get a car loan, a home mortgage or even a job. A Web site launched by credit bureau Equifax and credit scorer Fair, Isaac & Co. will charge consumers $12.95 to view their once-secret credit scores, which increasingly determine whether people get credit and how much it costs. Links to the credit score site can be found at both companies' Web sites (http://www.equifax.com and http://www.

Hoping to buy his first home this year, Ralph Bustamante paid off his credit cards and cleared dings on his credit report to ensure that he'd be able to get a loan. Bustamante had hoped to pull his FICO scores, used by most lenders as a standard of creditworthiness, from the three major credit bureaus so he could negotiate the best possible mortgage rate. Make that two credit bureaus. One of the companies, Experian Group Ltd., will stop selling FICO scores to individual consumers Saturday.

A leading credit-scoring company has revealed more information about how its numbers are compiled and said it may someday provide consumers with their scores, reversing a longtime policy of secrecy. San Rafael-based Fair, Isaac & Co. published on its Web site Thursday a list of 22 factors that affect a credit score and gave general information about how those factors are weighted. The posting at http://www.fairisaac.

Question: I recently moved here from abroad and was turned down for a rental because I have no FICO score. What is a FICO score, and how do I get one? Answer: The FICO score was developed by Fair, Isaac and Co. in 1956. It is applied to virtually every loan or financial request and rates the credit worthiness of an applicant. Generally, a FICO score falls between 300 and 850. A score below 600 indicates a bad credit risk, while above 713 is considered good credit.

Borrowers have less than 10 days to see their FICO credit scores calculated by Experian Group Ltd., one of the three biggest personal credit-rating bureaus. Experian notified Fair Isaac Corp., the Minneapolis credit-rating company, in January that it was terminating its contract Feb. 14 to provide information to MyFICO.com, the website operated by Fair Isaac that enables consumers to look at their scores, said Craig Watts, public relations director for Fair Isaac.

With sub-prime home loans going south at an alarming rate, is it time to revise a basic tool that lenders frequently use: the credit score. Fair Isaac Corp., which developed the FICO formula that credit bureaus use to determine credit scores, is expected to announce today that it will revamp its formula. The three-digit FICO score is widely used by lenders to gauge a borrower's ability to repay debt. It also helps creditors determine the interest rate and repayment terms of a loan.

Question: I recently moved here from abroad and was turned down for a rental because I have no FICO score. What is a FICO score, and how do I get one? Answer: The FICO score was developed by Fair, Isaac and Co. in 1956. It is applied to virtually every loan or financial request and rates the credit worthiness of an applicant. Generally, a FICO score falls between 300 and 850. A score below 600 indicates a bad credit risk, while above 713 is considered good credit.

What constitutes a "good" credit score, anyway? The answer, as for so many of life's questions, is: It depends. Until a week ago, I was under the impression that there was a score that separates good borrowers from bad. In fact, I thought it was 620 on an 850-point scale, because a major mortgage lender had told me so. I dutifully put this number in print, which provoked arguments among readers who said, no, absolutely not, the "good" number was 660. You must be crazy, others said: It's 680.

About 50 million Americans don't have enough credit to get credit, but that may change as a result of a scoring system recently launched by Fair Isaac Corp., the Minneapolis-based developer of consumer credit scores. Fair Isaac has developed an "extended" score that will pull information about people from nontraditional sources, such as payday lenders, rent-to-own furniture retailers and deposit accounts.

Fair Isaac Corp. purchased Diversified HealthCare Services Inc. in a deal that Fair Isaac expects will add $20 million to fiscal 2004 revenue, the company said. Terms weren't disclosed. San Ramon, Calif.-based Diversified provides medical bill review products and services for workers' compensation insurers. A survey of six analysts by Thomson First Call projects Fair Isaac will have $722 million in revenue for the fiscal year ending September 2004. Fair Isaac shares rose 51 cents to $59.

Software company Fair, Isaac & Co. said it would buy smaller rival HNC Software Inc. for more than $700 million, strengthening business in analytical products including credit card fraud detection. HNC, based in San Diego, develops software that predicts patterns of human behavior from databases that track transaction histories. Some of its major customers include financial institutions such as JP Morgan Chase, telephone companies including AT&T Corp. and retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

What constitutes a "good" credit score, anyway? The answer, as for so many of life's questions, is: It depends. Until a week ago, I was under the impression that there was a score that separates good borrowers from bad. In fact, I thought it was 620 on an 850-point scale, because a major mortgage lender had told me so. I dutifully put this number in print, which provoked arguments among readers who said, no, absolutely not, the "good" number was 660. You must be crazy, others said: It's 680.

With sub-prime home loans going south at an alarming rate, is it time to revise a basic tool that lenders frequently use: the credit score. Fair Isaac Corp., which developed the FICO formula that credit bureaus use to determine credit scores, is expected to announce today that it will revamp its formula. The three-digit FICO score is widely used by lenders to gauge a borrower's ability to repay debt. It also helps creditors determine the interest rate and repayment terms of a loan.

Fair, Isaac & Co., which makes software used by banks and credit-card companies to rate consumers' credit-worthiness, said its fiscal fourth-quarter profit will meet or exceed its earlier forecast because of strong sales growth. The company's shares gained 4.5% to $39.50 in extended trading after closing off $1.70 at $37.80 on the New York Stock Exchange. Fair Isaac had been expecting profit of 56 cents a share for the quarter ended Sept. 30.

Starting Monday, consumers can get a glimpse of the three-digit number that often determines whether they can get a car loan, a home mortgage or even a job. A Web site launched by credit bureau Equifax and credit scorer Fair, Isaac & Co. will charge consumers $12.95 to view their once-secret credit scores, which increasingly determine whether people get credit and how much it costs. Links to the credit score site can be found at both companies' Web sites (http://www.equifax.com and http://www.