A website launched by the leading source of consumer credit data to help consumers better understand their credit scores has been picking up traffic steadily, according to a company spokesman.

Careen Foster, director of global scoring services for FICO, explained that the source of the widespread FICO scores launched ScoreInfo.org to help consumers understand their scores and the new disclosure notices that lenders are having to provide borrowers whenever they issue a loan.

“We wanted to help consumers and borrowers understand what some of the new forms mean and better understand the relationship to their credit,” Foster said.

FICO launched the site because, as of Jan. 1, 2011, amendments to the Fair Credit Reporting Act require lenders to send a Risk-Based Pricing disclosure notice whenever a lending decision, based on a consumer's credit score or credit report, results in less favorable credit terms, such as a higher interest rate or larger down payment requirement. According to FICO's data, this year U.S. lenders are expected to process more than one billion credit applications, resulting in the delivery of approximately 500 million of these Risk-Based Pricing disclosure notices, in addition to the millions of notices consumers already receive when their credit application is denied, the company said.