Experian wants to keep you in the dark.
There's really no other way to characterize the credit bureau's decision to stop selling FICO credit scores to individuals as of Feb. 14. Experian pulled out of its agreement with myFICO.com, which had been the only place where consumers could buy their FICO scores from all three bureaus.
Experian will continue to sell FICOs to lenders. That's big business, because the FICO is the leading credit scoring formula and the one used by most lenders.
But to consumers, Experian is pretending the FICO is no big deal.
"There is no one credit score that all financial institutions use to make decisions, and there is also no one credit score that consumers must use to help them understand and manage their credit," Experian spokeswoman Susan Hensen wrote me in an e-mail. "There are many reputable credit scores on the market that consumers can use to evaluate their creditworthiness before making financial decisions."
Talk back: Are credit bureaus ripping us off? Should Congress take action?
Experian has been reciting this line for years. When consumers buy credit scores directly from Experian, they're sold what the bureau calls "educational" scores, Experian's PLUS or the VantageScore, a formula cooked up with the other two major bureaus that's gone over like a lead balloon with lenders.
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Tell Congress: No more secret scores - MSN Money
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