FICO, formerly known as the Fair Isaac Corporation, which developed the most widely used scores for assessing credit risk, unveiled a Web site this month — MortgageReliefOnline.com — to help these homeowners.
The new site walks borrowers through a questionnaire about their income, mortgage debt and home value, and asks for contact information.
FICO takes that information and pairs it with data regularly received from the credit bureaus about the borrower’s credit and spending history, among other things. The company’s technology then helps determine whether the borrower qualifies for a loan modification. If so, an owner can get further assistance, free of charge, through Money Management International, a nonprofit credit-counseling organization based in Houston.
By Bob Tedeschi
Published: April 24, 2009