Main Office: 5628 E. Slauson Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90040 (800) 750-2227 fax: (323) 890-9590
www.bydesignsolutions.org
News Release
Contact: Jennifer Root
For Immediate Release
ByDesign Financial Solutions
(323) 359-9946
jroot@bydesignsolutions.org
ByDesign Financial Solutions Teams Up with myFICO
to Promote Better Understanding of FICO Credit Scores
Community-based education Initiatives will target foster youth, first-time homebuyers
LOS ANGELES (June 16, 2006)—To empower consumers to improve their overall financial
health, non-profit ByDesign Financial Solutions has announced an alliance with myFICO.com,
the consumer division of Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE:FIC), to help educate consumers about
the importance of credit scores and ways that consumers can strengthen and protect their credit
standing.
Fair Isaac’s myFICO® service is donating 10,000 consumer credit bureau reports with FICO®
scores to ByDesign for use in its counseling and educational programs. The credit reports and
scores will be used in ByDesign initiatives to better inform consumers on how the industry-
standard FICO score is calculated, how lenders use the score, and how people can maximize
their own FICO scores to help achieve their financial goals.
The general public not only has trouble reading credit reports and scores, but also
understanding the importance that such information can have on everyday life. In fact, last year
a survey by the Consumer Federation of America and Fair Isaac found that nearly half of all
Americans fail to understand that credit scores measure their credit risk.
“The FICO score is the primary tool used by many creditors to determine credit worthiness, yet
many consumers know little about how the scores work and the impact their behavior has on
their score,” reports Martha Lucey, executive vice president at ByDesign. “This lack of
understanding can result in lower scores, which in turn leads to higher priced credit. On a home
mortgage, for in