Last week, FICO kicked off its Score A Better Future program with a community event focused on credit education at Harris-Stowe State University in St. Louis, MO. It was the first of our new series of free educational events across the country that bring together consumer advocates, credit educators and community leaders to help Americans learn about credit scores and financial tools to help them achieve their dreams.
We partnered with a number of organizations focused on financial education and empowerment initiatives to bring the initial event together, including Justine PETERSEN, a St. Louis-based organization that assists low-income individuals and families to develop, maintain and increase financial assets, as well as National Consumers League, the St. Louis American, City of St. Louis Treasurer's Office of Financial Empowerment, and the St. Louis Regional Unbanked Task Force.
Check out a recap of the key highlights from the event:
- Consumers gain valuable credit tools. The event began with remarks from Joanne Gaskin, Senior Director, Scores and Analytics at FICO, and an educational session led by Tom Quinn, Vice President of Scoring at FICO. Tom discussed common myths and facts about credit and outlined the key ingredients in FICO® Scores, which are critical to managing credit successfully.
- Credit scores are top of mind for many. Attendees were eager to learn more about how to improve their credit scores. During the event, attendees were given free access to their FICO® Score – the score used in over 90% of all lending decisions – and easy-to-understand explanations of the top factors that impacted their FICO® Score.
- A personalized approach fuels empowerment. We understand that every individual’s credit journey is unique. That’s why each attendee was offered on-site, free access to one-on-one credit counseling from Justine PETERSEN, a participant in FICO’s Open Access program. Each individual that participated in these sessions walked away with a custom plan for working toward and meeting their targeted financial goals. And, they’ll be able to regularly check in with the credit counselors they met with at our event to share their progress and get additional guidance for staying on track.
To keep this momentum going, FICO will continue to work closely with our event partners to provide credit education tools and resources to individuals in St. Louis. In addition, we’ll be applying learnings from this initial event to help even more Americans improve their understanding of FICO® Scores and their overall financial health going forward.
At FICO, through initiatives like Score A Better Future and FICO® Score Open Access, which enables over 160 financial institutions to share free access to the FICO® Scores, we are committed to empowering more consumer access to credit and fueling economic growth.
Interested in attending a future Score A Better Future event? We’ll be in Atlanta, GA, on Saturday Dec. 8. Learn more and register here.
Check back here on the blog for future updates on FICO’s various financial inclusion programs and activities.
