Customers Who Frequently Checked Their FICO Scores More Likely to
Have Higher Credit Scores, Less Likely to Miss or Make Late Payments
NEWARK, Del.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 26, 2018--
Sallie Mae customers who check their credit scores regularly make better
financial decisions and manage finances more responsibly, according to a
just-released paper, “Does
Knowing Your FICO Score Change Financial Behavior? Evidence from a Field
Experiment with Student Loan Borrowers.” The study found customers
who received quarterly emails from Sallie Mae about the availability of
free FICO® Scores were 65 percent more likely to view their
FICO® Scores, more likely to have increased their credit
scores, and had fewer past-due accounts.
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Authored by Rourke O’Brien, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Tatiana
Homonoff, New York University, and Abigail Sussman, University of
Chicago, the paper reports on a two-year study of Sallie Mae private
student loan customers who receive free access to their FICO®
Scores, a benefit the nation’s saving, planning, and paying for college
company has offered since 2014 through the FICO®
Score Open Access program. Sallie Mae was the first national private
education lender to offer free access to quarterly FICO Scores.
“Our findings demonstrate how knowing and tracking your FICO Score can
improve decision-making and overall financial health, analogous to how
the use of a Fitbit can lead to improvements in one’s physical health,”
said O’Brien. “We are grateful to Sallie Mae and FICO for enabling us to
conduct this research.”
The study followed a sample of more than 400,000 Sallie Mae private
student loan customers between June 2015 and June 2017. For this study,
Sallie Mae agreed to segment 10 percent of the research sample into a
group that would still have free access to their scores, but who would
not receive the quarterly emails the company sends to private student
loan customers when their FICO® Scores are updated, along
with explanations of how the score is calculated and descriptions of the
factors that influenced it. The study then compared differences between
the two groups.
“The strategic research highlights the significant benefit of Sallie Mae
frequently providing millions of students free access to their FICO
Scores,” said Marie Morel-Seytoux, vice president, Scores, at FICO.
“FICO Scores are used in over 90 percent of U.S. lending decisions. By
having access to their FICO Scores, as well as the factors that affect
them, students can better understand their credit, helping increase
early credit education on core credit fundamentals as they begin their
financial journey.”
“We are committed to helping customers manage their finances
responsibly, and that includes giving them the information and tools
they need to understand what a FICO Score is, why it is important to
know it, and how maintaining a positive credit record affects many
different aspects of their lives,” said Kelly Christiano, senior vice
president, Sallie Mae. “We are grateful that this research Rourke,
Tatiana, and Abigail conducted confirms the value those activities have
on our customers’ financial well-being.”
The researchers will present their findings in a free webinar hosted by
the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Financial Security on
Feb. 27, 2018, from 12-1 p.m. CST. Please register at http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07ef3lcspnc29cb3e8&llr=5kpblmeab.
In addition to giving customers free access to their FICO Scores, Sallie
Mae offers comprehensive credit score education online at SallieMae.com/FICO,
including “Understanding
Credit,” a primer on credit basics Sallie Mae published in
partnership with FICO. For more information, visit SallieMae.com.
About Sallie Mae: Sallie Mae(Nasdaq:
SLM) is the nation’s saving, planning, and paying for college
company. Whether college is a long way off or just around the corner,
Sallie Mae offers products that promote responsible personal finance,
including private education loans, Upromise rewards, scholarship search,
college financial planning tools, and online retail banking. Learn more
at SallieMae.com. Commonly known as Sallie Mae, SLM Corporation and its
subsidiaries are not sponsored by or agencies of the United States of
America.
About FICO: FICO (NYSE: FICO)
powers decisions that help people and businesses around the world
prosper. Founded in 1956 and based in Silicon Valley, the company is a
pioneer in the use of predictive analytics and data science to improve
operational decisions. FICO holds more than 180 US and foreign patents
on technologies that increase profitability, customer satisfaction and
growth for businesses in financial services, telecommunications, health
care, retail and many other industries. Using FICO solutions, businesses
in more than 100 countries do everything from protecting 2.6 billion
payment cards from fraud, to helping people get credit, to ensuring that
millions of airplanes and rental cars are in the right place at the
right time. Learn more at http://www.fico.com.
Join the conversation at https://twitter.com/fico & http://www.fico.com/en/blogs/.
For FICO news and media resources, visit www.fico.com/news.
FICO is a registered trademark of Fair Isaac Corporation in the United
States and in other countries.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180226005245/en/
Source: Sallie Mae and FICO
Sallie Mae
Ellen J. Roberts, 302-451-0428
ellen.roberts@salliemae.com
or
FICO
Chaundera
Wolfe, 406-570-0347
FICOTeam@vocecomm.com
