Fair Issac...a brief history

One needs to look at Fair Issac the company as part of the education process of credit repair.

Upon learning how they started and grew you will gain insight as to why this whole process is in place and how it will affect you.

How the credit system began

The Fair Issac Corporation was started in 1956 originally going by the name of Fair, Issac and Co. Inc. by two gentlemen by the name of William R. Fair and Earle J. Issac.

The mission in mind was to help businesses make better decisions.

These two were well equipped to realize that dream as they had met and worked together at Stanford Research Institute.

There they performed operations research projects for the military which involves advanced analytic methods to improve decisions (or lots of complicated math to predict an expected outcome of a decision).

So taking these skills into the private sector would be natural for anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit and these two did have that spirit as a look at their company will show!

As their web site says...Bill Fair being an engineer and Earle Issac a mathematician started their company with only $400.00 each and a principle that data used intelligently can improve business decisions.

They needed a computer to get their system up and going. At that time computers were huge and not plentiful. They started by borrowing the use of a computer from Standard Oil during non peak hours.

Their first employee was Earle Follet who was already experienced in analyzing credit.

Their system, much like the insurance industry's way of analyzing risk, performance of many people.

Using a computer and number crunching they created a formula to analyze credit risk.

This was the early form of the credit score.

Once the system was in place, they sent letters to 50 of the major credit grantors to explain the scoring system.

One company saw the potential of this idea.

It was American Investment.

In those early days, of the 50 original credit grantors the system was proposed to, this was the only company that responded. Fair and Issac had their work cut out for them.

They helped Fair Issac expand their idea, and by 1960 there were 800 offices.

Beating the pavement and cold calling potential customers was the way the company expanded in the early days.

It wasn't till 1963 that they built their first scoring system for a merchant chain,  Montgomery Ward.

This most likely was when their business started to grow rapidly.

Not till 1970 did they create one for a bank credit card (Connecticut Bank and Trust).

By mid 1970's they expanded to Europe and other major credit banks.

As their web site shows their spirit never wavered and their list of accomplishments grew and they became the "authority" where credit scoring is concerned.

what we should learn from fair issac

There is one thing to take from all this.

The mission; to help businesses make better decisions.

While at that time this was most likely a much needed resource for businesses and it is true fair issacs IS the authority on credit scores.

They are the creator of the score, but

they are NOT working in the best interest of the consumer.


Without our consent information is regularly passed on about our spending habits.

The system is used by lenders only on a voluntary basis. So if a lender decides to omit information there is no consequence for them.

Yet the consequence for the consumer can be huge. That credit score is used in many areas of OUR life for things that are most important to us.


It takes much time to build the good that achieves a higher score rating yet one missed payment can hurt that reputation you built quite quickly and stay on your report for years.


It is not in the lenders interest for your score to be high.

With the economic crisis that occurred the bar was raised higher for the best rates of interest.

Lower credit scores equal higher rates of interest and more money to be made!


So now that you know how this all started and the impact it can have on you, it clearly shows that effort is needed to repair and maintain a good credit score.

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