WANTED: developer for credit report and FICO score analysis software
I’ve previously mentioned the need for software to analyze the 3 myFICO reports and to provide USEFUL information to consumers as well as to save me a lot of time when I prepare the Credit Analysis. I finally took a few hours to summarize what I’d like to see.
The goal is to be able to import the myFICO.com reports and to reorganize and analyze the data. Since Fair Isaac is not capable of posting a sample report that doesn’t have the formatting screwed up (is it THAT difficult?), here’s my Equifax myFICO report.
SUMMARIZING SCORE FACTORS
We need to get rid of the generic bla bla bla, display only the relevant data about the Score Factors and highlight the percentages, number of months, dollar amounts, etc.
Cool feature: TRACKING changes in score factors
As you import new reports, you should be able to click on a “history” button to view previous score factors and have changes highlighted. It gets complex as Fair Isaac reports “positive” factors which don’t exist.
All FICO factors are NEGATIVE, but Fair Isaac tries to show people what impacts positively on their FICO scores and my guess is that they list the most important factors that do NOT result in a big score drop as positive. It is odd when the account history factor is positive on one CRA’s report and negative on another because either different accounts are reported or the reports are scored by different scoring models.
Scores in the 600s usually show one positive factor and higher scores show 2 positive factors. Creditors usually receive the 4 most important negative factors and NO positive factors, as do consumers with very LOW scores. And for Experian Fair Isaac reports only negative factors without specifics.
DISPLAYING HOW EACH ACCOUNT IS REPORTED BY ALL CRAs
Since each CRA reports different data, it’s not possible to simply merge the data and use common field labels. Only Trans Union reports the date closed, only Experian has the status date, Equifax reports the date of last activity, etc.
The PrivacyGuard sample report shows how they’re NOT capable or simply don’t want to report the Experian date of status, etc. and they OMIT the MOST IMPORTANT data—making these reports practically useless aside from checking to see whether an account is reported at all or with the correct balance.
It’s also a common problem that creditors use varying names to report to the CRAs and one should be able to manually match up accounts and possibly even link them to separately reported collections.
And we need an extra field to add the scheduled deletion date, reported only on the reports provided directly by Experian and Trans Union.
ACCOUNT SUMMARY
The myFICO reports include account summaries, but unfortunately OMIT the most important data as you can see on page 6 of my Equifax myFICO report:
There are NO credit limits and NO date of last activity—the most important data is omitted.
So we need a much more complete account listing with the most relevant data reported by each CRA. We can lose the useless account number field and of course we should be able to SORT the listing by balance, date opened, etc.
CALCULATOR
Fair Isaac and many other sites have the useless “what if” calculators producing nothing but wild and mostly incorrect guesses of how scores will change rather than dealing with FACTS.
The balance/limit ratio
This should be a standard calculation for all revolving accounts and separately for all installment accounts, but one should be able to make changes to the account balances and limits or include/exclude accounts reported with incorrect account types or balances.
Account history
I’d like to see the oldest accounts by type as well as the average length of history. That’s simple number crunching. Again, one should be able to add/exclude accounts.
It’s very helpful to be able to show how the reporting or FAILURE to report an account impacts on important scores factors when you sue.
FLAGGING ERRORS
This is what the CRAs deliberately do NOT do. Trans Union routinely reports accounts as opened after they were closed. All CRAs often report Capital One accounts with balances HIGHER than the HIGH credit. How can a past due amount be higher than the balance or high credit?
Experian specializes in destroying credit scores by reporting NEW late payments after accounts were charged off. I rarely see an Experian report with charge-offs that doesn’t contain incorrect and undated lates and Equifax also routinely reports undated and new lates.
Trans Union sometimes deletes the DATE CLOSED, resulting in MAJOR score drops.
An incorrect CURRENT status for a previously charged off account can also cause tremendous problems.
These are just a few examples of common OBVIOUSLY INCORRECT reporting. And of course all MISSING data such as credit limits for revolving accounts, open dates, etc. should also be flagged.
INQUIRIES
Unfortunately, Fair Isaac only reports hard inquiries. They should be listed and one has to be able to annotate them with the permissible purpose and tag for further action if not permissible. One should also be able to add questionable soft inquiries for further action.
CUSTOMIZATION
Users must be able to annotate accounts, tag for further action, keep track of disputes and investigation results, etc.
It would be very cool to have the software highlight all changes for data that does not normally change (account type, date opened, closed, limit, etc.) when a new report is imported. Accounts and data to be tracked could be user defined.
INSTRUCTIONS
Users should be able to easily see explanations of the score factors and reported data. It must be made very clear that the goal should not be to have the most correct report and that disputes often result in LOWER scores, either due to correction or deletion of the disputed account.
AFTER deletion of the chargeoff: FICO score went DOWN 18 points!
The software should alert the user to common problems based on the types of accounts reported. And of course there should be sample disputes for incorrect reporting such as after bankruptcy along with the explanation why NOT to send the bankruptcy filing to the CRAs.
CONCLUSION
As you can see, this is a rather complex project and now you know why it takes several hours just to set up my clients’ private forums with their score factors, open accounts, inquiries and derogatory accounts.
The above is by no means a complete wish list, but it should give you a good idea of what it’s all about. I can see software for offline use, but think the best use is an online setup with storage space for each user to upload scanned mortgage credit reports, CRA investigation results, etc.
In the many years I’ve worked with my clients, I found that the lack of organization is a major problem. I even use a private forum to keep track of my own credit disputes, it is very cool to be able to see every dispute even years ago—at a glance.
All personal data should be stripped from the imported reports and users should be advised to redact their personal data and account numbers if they upload reports or scans. It’s simply not necessary to take the risk of having personal and financial data compromised.
Software that actually alerts consumers to much of the CRAs’ incorrect and incomplete reporting would be their worst nightmare.
I’d expect the CRAs to hire some hackers to sabotage this type of service and a security breach resulting in ID theft would be the end of it. But even without personal and financial data, server security is a major issue.
Of course there should be a forum for users to discuss the software and to get help and they should be able to order personal assistance, the type of service I provide now, but requiring a lot less time.
Obviously, it’s a major effort to develop the software and I’m not going to pay someone by the hour to play around and finally concede that it’s too difficult. I’m looking for an experienced professional willing to do what it takes to get started with the basics and add features as the bugs are worked out. I’ll test it with my clients and CreditFactors subscribers could volunteer to beta test.
Almost forgot, users will have to be able to subscribe, cancel subscriptions, upgrade, etc.
And it’s one of those jobs that will never be done as the CRAs and Fair Isaac continually change the reporting and scoring and the software has to be adjusted accordingly.
Since there is a ton of money to be made, I won’t be surprised if someone else takes this opportunity to make big bucks.
As a matter of fact, several developers asked me to have a look at their software in recent years. Unfortunately, they did not have much credit and scoring knowledge and they focused on deletion of all derogs instead of increasing scores. They didn’t even come close to my expectations and were not willing or able to redesign their software.
I don’t have to be involved long term, I just want to see it happen. I’ll be happy to work as a consultant for a while, to ensure that the CREDIT and SCORING issues are properly addressed.
But I’m also willing to put up my time and a few bucks in a joint venture, unfortunately don’t have much cash. And I’m sure that many readers would pay for this service, so it could be practically self funding—as all my credit and scoring research.
If you’re interested, please post a comment here or send me e-mail with “Credit software development” or some other descriptive subject so I don’t junk it.
