WASHINGTON--Consumer knowledge of the potential impact fromcredit scores remains low, and on some issues has declined inrecent years, according to a study released today by the ConsumerFederation of America and Washington Mutual.

"Consumers who have obtained their credit scores know more thanthose who have not," said Stephen Brobeck, executive director ofthe CFA. "But, overall, consumer understanding of credit scores ispoor and has not improved over the past two years."

The percentage of consumers aware that home insurers look atcredit scores remained constant between 2005 and 2007 at 57percent, "despite widespread press coverage of the issue," Mr.Brobeck noted.

The CFA last surveyed consumer knowledge of credit scores inAugust of 2005, and the most recent study is the third the grouphas conducted.

Mr. Brobeck said the group had found improvement in publicknowledge between the first and second studies and had been hopingthe most recent study would again make for a "good news" pressconference. "We were hoping for improvement the third time, butthere wasn't and that's disappointing," he said.

There were some gains in knowledge reflected in the study,albeit only slight ones. The percentage of consumers surveyed whoknew the specific meaning of a credit score, which is theindication of the risk of a consumer not repaying a loan, rose from27 percent to 29 percent. Similarly, the percentage of consumerswho knew the three national credit bureaus--Experian, Equifax andTransUnion--rose from 45 percent to 47 percent.

"The good news is that there has been improvement in someareas," said Anthony Vuoto, president of credit card services forWashington Mutual. He added, however, that "there continues to beample room for improvement."

While there were some gains in knowledge, there were alsoincreases in the number of consumers with mistaken beliefs aboutcredit scores.

The percentage of consumers who incorrectly believed incomeinfluences their credit scores rose from 69 percent in the August2005 results to 74 percent. Those who believe their age is a factorin determining credit scores rose from 38 percent to 41 percent,while those who mistakenly believe education affects their scorerose from 25 percent to 32 percent.

Knowledge of who is using scores, outside of financialinstitutions, remained relatively steady, the study indicated. Thepercentage of consumers who were aware that electric utilities makeuse of scores rose from 34 percent to 37 percent since 2005, andthose who were aware of the use of scores by landlords rose from 54percent to 55 percent.