Free credit scores available to 50 million consumers

More than 50 million consumers can now check their credit scores for free, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced Thursday.

As part of the CFPB’s overhaul of the credit reporting industry, which began last year, more than a dozen credit card companies now provide customers with their credit scores on a monthly basis.

{mosads}“This number is poised to expand considerably this year as other credit card issuers, large and small, are now committing to make credit scores freely available to their cardholders,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray said Thursday.

Credit scores can influence consumers’ ability to obtain mortgages, auto loans and credit cards, Cordray pointed out.

The CFPB is looking to reform the credit reporting industry to improve the accuracy and accessibility of consumers’ information.

“We have heard consumers complain regularly about the challenges they face in getting a copy of their credit report or in getting wrong information corrected on their report,” Cordray said.

“We need those companies to become more responsive to the very people whose information, after all, is the core element of their business,” he added. “The information on our credit reports is, after all, our information, not theirs.”