More Americans' Credit Scores Sink to New Lows

From ABCNews.com:

The credit scores of millions more Americans are sinking to new lows.

Figures provided by FICO Inc. show that 25.5 percent of consumers — nearly 43.4 million people — now have a credit score of 599 or below, marking them as poor risks for lenders. It's unlikely they will be able to get credit cards, auto loans or mortgages under the tighter lending standards banks now use.

Because consumers relied so heavily on debt to fuel their spending in recent years, their restricted access to credit is one reason for the slow economic recovery.

"I don't get paid for loan applications, I get paid for closings," said Ritch Workman, a Melbourne, Fla., mortgage broker. "I have plenty of business, but I'm struggling to stay open."

FICO's latest analysis is based on consumer credit reports as of April. Its findings represent an increase of about 2.4 million people in the lowest credit score categories in the past two years. Before the Great Recession, scores on FICO's 300-to-850 scale weren't as volatile, said Andrew Jennings, chief research officer for FICO in Minneapolis. Historically, just 15 percent of the 170 million consumers with active credit accounts, or 25.5 million people, fell below 599, according to data posted on Myfico.com.

FICO Scores Show Flaws as U.S. Banks Cut Consumer Credit Lines

The FICO score formula has long been the choice of most US lenders, but some reports show the decline in actual loans may be making these scores somewhat flawed, which is quickly becoming a problem. Earlier today Bloomberg.com posted a great release about a woman experiencing these flaws, and deconstructed some of the reasons why.

“When Sharii Rey, a paralegal in Portland, Oregon, had her credit limit reduced by JPMorgan Chase & Co. earlier this month, she said it would hurt her 760 credit score. That’s not the bank’s problem, she was told. It’s FICO’s.”

After Rey’s $42,500 credit line was cut to $12,000, her debt relative to available funds almost quadrupled. This so- called utilization rate is a large component of the FICO formula and a higher ratio can lower a score. Rey, 62, is concerned a new FICO score will squash her ability to borrow.

Congressman Luis Gutierrez, an Illinois Democrat, says the FICO formula, the most widely used by U.S. lenders, has flaws as banks decrease loans to consumers, regardless of individual risk profiles. At least 30 million Americans had their credit limits reduced arbitrarily during the second half of 2008, FICO estimates. In the first quarter, New York-based JPMorgan and Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. in Charlotte, North Carolina, slashed $320 billion from credit lines, according to a report by former Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Meredith Whitney.

“Reductions to a consumer’s line of credit based upon the lending institutions’ overall appetite for risk has little or no bearing on a consumer’s own risk of default,” said Gutierrez, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit.

An individual’s FICO score is based on factors that aren’t directly related to JPMorgan’s decision to lower a credit limit, said Paul Hartwick, a spokesman for the biggest U.S. bank by market value.

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