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Fair Isaac Corp., the company responsible for FICO credit scores, has decided that when it unveils a new version of its credit score system in September, it will close the loophole that allowed piggybacking. Angry proponents of piggybacking say they’ll organize a grass-roots campaign to fight against the change. With piggybacking, a consumer with poor credit is placed as authorized user on the credit card of a person with a stellar credit history. Authorized users benefit from having the payment history of the primary cardholders show up on their credit reports, thereby improving their credit scores. Lenders have complained that it is fraud and distorts the credit score system. Internet companies have created an industry by playing middleman — paying a small sum to those with good credit to take on those with bad credit as authorized users, then collecting healthy fees from those consumers. Now one of those Web-based firms has threatened to organize an effort to expose problems in the credit scoring system. “Our very existence (proves) that the FICO system is so flawed,” says John Coates, spokesman for Instant Credit Builders based in Largo, Fla. Fair Isaac says that starting in September it will ignore authorized users as it calculates the renowned FICO credit score. “Fair Isaac has become aware that Web-based services are using authorized trade lines to defraud lenders,” says Craig Watts, spokesman for Fair Isaac. “While we work with the financial services industry on …

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