Sunday, July 12, 2009

Money & Business

Alpha Consumer by Kimberly Palmer

Boosting Credit Scores for a Fee, Take 2

March 25, 2008 04:04 PM ET | Kimberly Palmer | Permanent Link | Print

Larry Chiang, founder of Duck9.com, which helps people boost their credit scores, responded to my criticism of his company last week. Basically, I said that paying a company almost $10 a month to remind you to pay your bills is a waste of money. He says it can be worth it. In an E-mail, he told me the following:

Statistically speaking, getting into the 95th percentile (a credit score over 750) is, by nature, hard. A Duck9 registered user graduates to a FICO score over 40 percent higher than an [average] adult living in the United States. Paying $9.95 is ok but we [also] dole out 50,000 free for life subscriptions per month.... Duck9's reminder service is super simple but we add value with predictive reminders based on [the patterns of] students' lives....

[Duck9 is] a secret society of students who realize that over half of America's charge-offs [which have a big negative impact on credit scores] are for under $200 and usually from a department store that they don't know they owe.

Tags: credit | personal finance

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Reader Comments

Nice site

Nice article

FICO score distribution

13% of the population have a FICO score of 800 or more, and 40% have 750 or more.

Mr. Chiang, who gave you the figure that 750 is in the 95th percentile?

It's true that maybe not everyone is that organized, but that's why the credit card companies send you reminders (for free) every month, in the form of the bill.

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Kimberly Palmer, senior editor for U.S. News & World Report, writes about how to save money, avoid scams, manage debt, and be a savvy shopper. Share with her your own money issues by sending questions to alphaconsumer@usnews.com.

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