Experian Announces Availability of VantageScore to Consumers

Experian®, the global information solutions provider, today announced that VantageScore(SM) from Experian and comprehensive educational resources are now available to consumers nationwide at www.vantagescore.experian.com. The score, along with interactive tools can help consumers evaluate their credit standing and understand the factors that contribute to their VantageScore. Additional features of the site include a score illustrator to learn how potential actions could impact the score, national VantageScore averages and comprehensive educational reports on credit. VantageScore from Experian costs $5.95. VantageScore was introduced in March 2006 as the credit reporting industry’s first credit score developed jointly by the three national credit reporting companies but until today was available only to businesses and lenders.

“Consumers need a consistent, intuitive score that they can understand and use in their own financial lives,” said Kerry Williams, group president of Experian’s Information Solutions group. “By launching VantageScore earlier this year, we responded to the clear need for an objective scoring model that works across all three reporting companies’ data. Today, I’m glad to announce that Experian is the first company to give consumers access to this information, providing insight into how lenders using VantageScore will view their creditworthiness.”

VantageScore was developed as a direct result of market demand for a more consistent and objective approach to credit scoring methodology. Because a score is based on the underlying credit bureau data, Experian will leverage its File One(SM) consumer credit database, the industry’s most frequently updated source of consumer credit information to provide the consumer their VantageScore by Experian based on the most current credit information available.

By combining cutting-edge, patent-pending analytic techniques with a highly intuitive scale, VantageScore provides businesses and lenders with a highly predictive, consistent score that is easy to understand and apply. VantageScore uses a score range from 501 to 990. Consumers and credit grantors alike will recognize the logical score groupings that approximate the familiar academic scale:

• 901-990 A

• 801-900 B

• 701-800 C

• 601-700 D

• 501-600 F

“VantageScore is a breakthrough in the industry,” said Maxine Sweet, vice president of public education for Experian. “We are very excited to make VantageScore from Experian available to consumers. Our goal is to help consumers recognize that their behavior in managing credit obligations influences the financial terms offered by the credit granting community. VanatgeScore.experian.com provides consumers with their current score, the factors behind the calculation of the score and an opportunity to explore how future credit activities can help them accomplish their financial objectives.”

The new scoring system addresses a potential disadvantage of existing scoring solutions in the marketplace by limiting any variances in credit scores between credit reporting companies to data differences within each of the three consumer credit files, not the structure of the scoring model or interpretation of the data.