Demand to see your credit score

Experian's refusal to let consumers see their FICO scores, even for a price, hands more power to lenders. Lawmakers might end this outrage -- if we give them a push.

By Liz Pulliam Weston
MSN Money
After years of inaction and neglect, Washington is finally getting serious about protecting people from abusive credit card practices. Consider:

President Barack Obama last week summoned credit card executives to the White House and signaled that credit card reform is on his agenda.

Meanwhile, the "Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights" is heading for another vote in the House of Representatives.

Regulators already have imposed significant new restrictions on card issuers, although those won't go into effect until mid-2010.

Reforms are long overdue. But all sides are missing a golden opportunity to protect people from abusive credit bureau practices, specifically the bureaus' ability to cut off our access to our own FICO credit scores.

In February, I wrote about how Experian suddenly had decided not to sell FICO scores to consumers anymore, although it continues to sell the scores to lenders. That decision, which has yet to be challenged by regulators or lawmakers, conceals from consumers a vital piece of their credit information.

Crackdown on the credit card industry

You no longer have any idea, before you apply for a mortgage, what kind of interest rate to expect. That's because most mortgage lenders use the middle of your three credit bureau FICO scores to determine rates and terms. Without access to all three FICOs, you can't know what your middle score might be.

You're also at a disadvantage if you are dealing with a lender that subscribes to only one bureau and you live in the western half of the U.S. Lenders that use just one bureau tend to use the one that specializes in their region: for Experian, it's the West and Midwest; Equifax dominates the South and TransUnion the Northeast.

And it's simply unfair that information gathered specifically about you and used for profit is unavailable to you, yet can affect so many corners of your life.