I've been in the lending (revolving) business before, so I fully understand scores and bureaus.

But I still thought most lenders use FICO scores. When and why do mortgage lenders use other scores, and if they are significantly different than FICOs, how and why?

Does it make a difference if it is a HELOC or 1st mortgage which type of score is used?

If a consumer is supposed to keep track of his FICO so he knows when it is time to apply for a loan, but then the lender gets a different score which is 40 points lower than his FICO, what can this consumer do? Try to find a lender that uses FICOs?
Thanks!
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FICO is a term loosely used as it is the same as a Beacon or Emperica.

FICO: Fair Isaac Credit Organization, used by Experian.

Beacon: Same as FICO, used by Equifax.

Emperica: Same as FICO and Beacon, used by Trans Union.

Typically a lender will use the middle score of the 3. In essence, all 3 scores are FICO's.

I know that...
But I recently had a client pull his score online and see a 675 high score. But the lender said no, your highest was 637.
I was wondering if there was a different type of score. Actually, it says on the report that they are FICO scores from Beacon or Classic but how can the score that the consumer sees and the score that the lender pulls be so vastly different?
Has something changed recently?
Otherwise how can consumers educate themselves and prepare to obtain good rates from lenders?
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We pull fannie or trans vista reports which tend to be more in depth than that of which the consumer obtains through someone like freecreditreport.com. We pull hard scores where as that would be more or less considered a soft score.

"how can consumers educate themselves and prepare to obtain good rates from lenders?" by UpscaleLV


Pay bills on time and keep credit balances low, be sure you have at least 3 open trade lines. It is that simple.

follow up on what AZ said about the scores being different. When a customer pulls a score from my fico.com or similar web sites that score is typically higher than what lenders use. The isssue that lenders run into is that we have to try and explain this to borrowers who shoudld automatically question this. These sites do not do a good job of informing the customer of the difference.

""""how can consumers educate themselves and prepare to obtain good rates from lenders?" by UpscaleLV


Pay bills on time and keep credit balances low, be sure you have at least 3 open trade lines. It is that simple.

"""

No it's not.
Let's say you are pulling yourself out of tough times, cleaning up your credit. You've got a year of steady payments on the books. Is it time yet to buy a home or refinance your loan? Should you really have to sacrifice a creditor inquiry to find out? You should be able to see if your creditors have reported your efforts, and you should be able to see if all your factors - time on bureau, amount of indebtedness, payment history, status of medical collections, whatever is going on in YOUR scenario - are adding up to give you a decent score.
Or let's say you are just starting out with your credit. Whatever the case is.
When you see that you are now within a competitive range, you should be able to assume it's time to get the loan, and you shouldn't have such a huge discrepancy of 40 or more points difference. That is huge.
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Hey, I agree with what you are saying. There shouldn't be a difference between what you as a consumer are able to see and what we are provided. Unfortunately the CRA's will never let any of us see the algorythms they use in their scoring modules. This is something that should be addessed by federal legislators.

I don't make the rules. Don't kill the messenger. I can only show you how to build and maintain your score.

If you would like you can call me and I will be more than happy go over your report with you and I will show you exactly where your problem areas lie and how to fix them.

It's not my report. As I was saying, I know the lending side of this. I've never noticed such a discrepancy in scores before. I know how to build good credit and how to advise people on credit. It's the score discrepancy that I thought there might be an answer too.
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http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/05/03/24/100bus_singletary001.cfm

above is a link to a great story about the differences in the scores. You can also click the link below and it will take you to several different articles


http://www.ask.com/web?q=why+is+my+credit+score+different+than+the+one+my+lender+pulled&qsrc=0&o=0

Great information. Thank you TN!

Aha!! Thanks for the links. Good info.
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I have been helping clients rapidly improve and restore credit for 12 years. In that time, I can say, myfico.com has always been the most accurate compared to what I pull when running a loan for a client. I do not know why, but, I have had clients use truecredit.com and other sites, and have had them pull scores anywhere from 10 to 80 points lower, or, higher than what I pulled. Scores are easy to manipulate if you know the rules. Read and experiment with what you have learned. Pay on time and keep balances at 25% of the limits.... you'll see results...