New partnership to give credit unions access to nontraditional credit score

An alternative to traditional FICO credit scores will soon be available to more than 2 million credit union members nationwide.

CU*Answers, a credit union service organization based in Grand Rapids, Mich., has announced a new partnership with VantageScore that will allow all of its member institutions to pull VantageScores on all members or gain additional insight into the credit history of consumers who do not have enough data for a normal FICO score.

According to a press release from CU*Answers, VantageScores have enabled as many as 35 million consumers to be given a nontraditional score before a FICO score could be returned.

VantageScore will also be integrated into the credit score vendor SavvyMOney, which provides score information to members and provides additional tools such as financial education. Scores will also be available for members to see through CU*Answers’ It’s Me 247 online banking system.

CU*Answers serves institutions representing more than 2 million credit union members with over $21.5 billion in assets.

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