NEW YORK — People struggling with a bad credit score, or lack of one, could benefit from a program rolling out in the next few months aimed at making it easier to get a Visa or MasterCard.

The company behind the widely-used FICO credit score announced Thursday a pilot program to help millions of Americans get easier access to credit, based on their record of paying utility bills, instead of their history of loan repayments.

The potential reach of the program is huge. An estimated 53 million Americans, or a quarter of the U.S. adult population, don’t have FICO scores created by the company Fair Isaac. Roughly 90 percent of all lending decisions — credit card applications and auto loans, among others — are based on that score. Banks would normally deny credit to anyone without one, or they could charge them significantly higher interest rates, because the applicants would be considered risky.

These consumers are often the young, without an established credit history, or immigrants who are new to the U.S.

A disproportionate number of these “unscoreable” people are minorities as well, particularly black and Hispanic consumers, says Ankush Tewari, senior director of market planning at LexisNexis Risk Solutions. Lexis Nexus is one three companies involved in the program.

The program took two years to develop and came from Fair Isaac. Research showed people who have a history of paying utility bills on time would also pay credit card bills on time.