In addition to a brand new lawsuit against the corporate, Tomo has made several changes to its website within the last two months to remove some language about improving consumers’ credit scores.
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TomoCredit, a five-year-old San Francisco startup that claims it improves consumers’ credit scores, is facing a growing variety of problems, most recently a brand new lawsuit alleging trademark infringement and unfair competition. New York-based analytics firm Prism Data sued TomoCredit on Tuesday, accusing it of infringing on Prism’s trademark for its CashScore service. Prism’s CashScore product uses consumers’ money flow (including checking account transactions) to evaluate their creditworthiness.
In response to questions Forbes Fred Ghodoosi, the corporate’s general counsel, who briefed Tomo on the lawsuit, wrote to us in an email: “We are aware of the lawsuit and are actively investigating the matter.” We expect to file one in the approaching weeks to offer formal comment on the lawsuit.”
The recent lawsuit adds to the already long list of problems facing Tomo. In October, Forbes reported that the startup received a whole lot of consumer complaints last yr since it made it difficult to cancel its subscription service (that very same month, Tomo finally added a web based choice to cancel its service). Less than two weeks later, we reported that the three major credit bureaus – Experian, TransUnion and Equifax – had ended their data sharing relationships with Tomo.
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Prism’s recent lawsuit makes colourful allegations about its interactions with Tomo over the past six months. Prism says it originally filed for the CashScore trademark in 2022 and received it in August 2023, while Tomo didn’t publicly use the term CashScore until 2024 after its launch its own credit rating product. When Prism asked Tomo to stop using the words “Cash Score” and “CashScore,” Tomo said CashScore was a widely used term, its service was not competitive with Prism’s, and it was under no obligation to do anything without it that the customer was demonstrably confused concerning the two corporations’ products.
Tomo then said it had been using the CashScore term as early as 2018, based on the lawsuit, although Tomo was founded in 2019. When Prism asked for evidence, Tomo allegedly fabricated evidence by changing his own blog posts to retroactively add the word CashScore. Jason Rosen, founder and CEO of Prism Data, tells us Forbes“We have invested many years and millions of dollars building the CashScore product and the Prism brand and take both extremely seriously. We will not tolerate potential competitors using our proprietary brand name to market their own products.”
Aside from the Prism lawsuit, Tomo has also made several changes to its website within the last two months related to its reporting to the credit bureaus. Since launching its credit-building product TomoBoost in 2023, Tomo claims it improves consumers’ credit scores by opening them a line of credit and reporting it to Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. End of October 2024, Forbes reported that every one three offices had ended their relationships with Tomo and at the least two of them had asked the startup to remove their logos from its website. (Kristy Kim, Tomo’s CEO, responded that our article was “inaccurate” but neglected to provide an interview or answer questions via email.) By November 4, Tomo had removed the logos of all three credit reporting agencies from his Homepage removed, but kept the wording “Boost your credit score” and “access credit building loans and tools to build your credit score at all three bureaus,” the screenshots read Forbes recorded.
By November 19, the wording had been modified to “Access to credit building loans and tools to build your score” and any mention of the bureaus had been removed. Today, the phrase “Boost your credit score” has been replaced with “Monitor your credit score,” and the bureaus remain unmentioned. At the highest of Tomo’s website, which previously read in large letters throughout November, “Building credit starts here,” it now reads, “Know your credit score.”
But once you visit us Tomo’s pricing page For the TomoBoost subscription service it offers to consumers, Tomo still claims that its VIP plan offers “up to 30,000 lines of credit,” an “instant credit boost,” and “all essential office support.” The most confusing and concerning thing is that TomoBoost appears to still be accepting recent customers, charging prices starting from $8.33 per thirty days to $129.99 per thirty days, depending on the service level and whether billing is monthly or annual. If lenders have removed Tomo from credit scores, it’s hard to assume how this service could have a major impact on consumers’ credit scores.
