Three major credit card companies--Discover, First Bankcard and Barclaycard US--will now enable their cardholders to see their credit scores for free once a month.
These consumers will see their FICO credit score, the most widely-used credit scoring formula. This will affect an estimated 35 million cardholders.
“This is just the beginning,” said Anthony Sprauve, a director with FICO, in an interview with Bloomberg. “In 2012 we sold 10 billion FICO scores to lenders and we’re prepared to make all of those scores available to consumers.”
This move is part of an industry-wide trend of providing more transparency in credit card statements. The CARD Act mandated that credit card statements show people how long it would take to pay off their cards if they just made the minimum monthly payment.
Consumers who have Discover It cards will be seeing their scores on their monthly statements right away. Discover plans to provide this service for other cards in the near future.
It may not be long before a number of other credit card companies offer this service to remain competitive. It is sure to revolutionize the way people interact with their credit scores.
Other websites, such as Credit Karma.com and Credit Sesame.com, have offered these scores for some time. However, these have been calculated differently than a FICO score. It is important for consumers to watch for changes in their score, not just the number. If you see a big drop in a short period of time, get a credit report to find out what went wrong.