Money doesn't actually talk. We do.

Why don’t they… let me see my credit score for free? The banks respond

Remember our query about why you can’t see your credit score for free? Turns out that Washington Mutual seems to be the only major credit-card issuer that offers this service. In fact, they’ve been doing this since 2005 as part of an agreement reached with TransUnion, the credit reporting agency that supplies WaMu with its customers’ credit scores every month. Those WaMu customers can see their scores on WaMu’s web site, for free, and WaMu doesn’t have to pay any extra money to provide them.

“It’s such a valuable tool for consumers,” Alan Elias, WaMu’s senior vice president of card services says. “Why not offer it?”

Why not indeed, given that that the banks don’t have to pay to offer this service?

Here are the excuses reasons that some major card issuers — the ones that responded to our queries at least — offered for not offering credit scores up gratis. And if you don’t like their answers, we’ve offered convenient links to their customer service pages.

American Express:
The short answer is that part of our prudent risk management efforts include regular reviews of our Cardmembers’ credit profiles (we don’t disclose how frequently we do this or specifically which scores/credit bureaus we use). We don’t have banking online since we are a credit card company but not a bank like the others you are talking to. People can’t see their scores online, but we have benefits to help protect Cardmembers from id theft and fraud like Credit Secure, which is a service that people pay for that provides some of this info.

Chase:
At this point, we don’t offer [free scores], but we do offer a product called Chase Identity Protector. For a nominal fee, this product allows customers unlimited access to their credit score at all three credit reporting agencies, daily credit bureau monitoring, daily notifications if changes occur and ID Theft insurance. In addition, Chase Identity Protector has a “Credit Score Analysis Tool” that allows customers to run simulations so that they can better understand how some factors influence their score, including increasing/decreasing credit-card debt, making on-time payments to all accounts, non-payment and opening a new card.

Citibank:
Do you buy your customers’ FICO scores and have them on record?

Yes.

Are they updated monthly?

Yes.

Do you use any other major credit score (Experian, etc.)

Not currently.

Can customers see them when they bank online?

Not currently.

Why or why not?

Depending on customer interest we may consider adding this capability in the future.

HSBC:
No…We don’t normally comment on the specifics of whether they can see the FICO score…We haven’t started this yet.

Wells Fargo:
We provide our customers a link to a website where they can order their credit report. We also provide credit education, which includes information on how to read a credit report, how to increase their credit scores and how to manage credit wisely…While many lenders use credit scores to help them make their lending decisions, each lender has its own criteria. There is no single minimum credit “cutoff score” used by all lenders, and there are many additional factors that lenders use to determine actual interest rates. Wells Fargo Bank’s credit-card pricing is based on the creditworthiness of each customer (risk-based pricing) and the depth of the customer’s relationship with Wells Fargo.

-Mary Pilon