Your credit score may soon lead to targeted Google ads

From what I’ve always been told, when you check your credit score on more than an annual basis, your score takes a small hit. I suppose this isn’t true anymore (or at least I hope not) because it looks like Google is wanting to take its ad targeting to the next level.

Those who use Google for searching and who have a good FICO score of 720 or above will soon be targeted by ads for luxury services and products than users with a lower score.

According to Masha Korsunky, Google’s senior industry marketing manager for financial services, the new service was introduced and co-launched with Compete. Compete is a service that has a database of around 2 million users who agreed to let the company give out their credit score when they applied for a credit card.

Korsunky said, “Let’s say we have an advertiser who wants to reach consumers with a high FICO score who applied for mortgages in the first quarter. We can provide the advertiser with a list of Web sites on our Google content network that index against this segment.”

To begin with, the program is expected to attract credit card companies with credit score targeting instead of the luxury goods and services companies. These manufacturers have taken a pretty large hit by the current recession and are looking at the chance to reach those high-score buyers. By being able to reach that market, they hope to find consumers that are willing to make big ticket purchases and pay for them over a long period of time.

I find this to be a very shady way to target potential customers. I don’t think the average search engine user would know that they were being targeted based on their credit score unless they were aware that Google was taking part in this kind of business practice and advertising. When someone signs over their credit score for use, I’m sure that this isn’t exactly what they had in mind and I believe as more people become aware that Google is using this as a way to attract business, then there will likely be some kind of backlash, no matter how small it is.

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