FICO holds mortgage-score price at $10 for Preferred Program customers

FICO announced that it will keep its wholesale mortgage-score price at $10 for lenders and brokers enrolled in its Preferred Program. The price applies to a score bundle sold through tri-merge resellers, which combine credit information from the three major US credit bureaus.^[1]

Credit scores help lenders assess how likely a borrower is to repay a loan on time. The bundle includes the Classic FICO Score, an industry standard in mortgage lending for nearly three decades, and the newer FICO Score 10T.^[1]

Holding the price shields participating lenders and brokers from another increase in this scoring expense, helping them control the cost of processing mortgages. The $10 is a wholesale bundle price; a borrower's final credit-report bill can also include other services and markups.^[1]

For FICO, an unchanged price leaves sales volume or other business growth to drive additional revenue rather than an increase in this quoted price. Coverage says $10 remains more than twice the price of rival VantageScore 4.0, giving customers a reason to compare costs; the supplied reports do not establish that customers are switching. Subsequent coverage also reported a sharp fall in FICO shares following the price hold.^[1][2][3]

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