So Discouraged :(

[Anonymous]

I have a friend who is a realtor. He told me about an awesome lender he has...and that, if your credit score is in decent range they work with you over a period of time to get it to the right place in order to get a mortgage. 

I figured...what the heck. I know my scores are in the high 500's (almost 600's)...and if I'm within 20-40 points of a mortgage, it cannot hurt to have a conversation and start establishing a relationship with a lender.

To my amazement, the lender pulled my score and said it was a 520. I wanted to throw my computer out the window. I was so frustrated.

Why the heck am I paying myfico.com, and creditchecktotal for a score if they're reporting I have a 599, and the lender is saying I have a 520 mortgage score.

myfico.com says my score is a 588 for mortgage. I was just so bummed. The lender made me feel better and said they're going to come up with action items and that I could be within 6-12 months of bringing my score up to get a mortgage. I'm in no hurry...but I was just bummed to see my scores have supposidly been rising, only to find out they haven't. 

Any advice? What's going on? Why the difference in score? Is it really possible to get in the 620-640 range within 6-12 months from a 520 FICO mortgage score? 

[Anonymous]

There is more than 1 credit score for mortgages. Is the 588 your middle score? And yes it's possible to get into the 640 range in 6-12 months, but it depends on what is in your file and what you can get removed/fixed.

[Anonymous]

588 is what shows on myfico.com and 590 for creditchecktotal....

but the lender told me today he pulled a 520....I'm just confused. 

[Anonymous]

There are a ton of different scoring models and not everyone uses the same one.  Perhaps this lender uses a model that is beneficial to the majority of people but happens to not be for you based on your profile (maybe you have something going on in your file that that scoring model takes much more strongly than another).

I'm so sorry to hear about your disappointment.  I get pretty disappointed when someone gives me my score and it's vastly different from what I understand my score to be but it usually comes down to what scoring model they used.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

588 is what shows on myfico.com and 590 for creditchecktotal....

but the lender told me today he pulled a 520....I'm just confused. 

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CCT will not show your mortgage scores, only your FICO 8 scores. Mortgage lenders have not yet moved to the FICO 8 score model, they almost universally use the FICO 2/4/5 scores  (often collectively referred to as "FICO 4"), HOWEVER - there are still a few lenders that continue to use the even older FICO 98 score model.

Did the loan officer give you a copy of the report they pulled?

[Anonymous]

No report. But he said he felt strongly I could rebuild in 6-12 months if I was patient which was a bit of a relief. 

He's going to send it to his credit advising team and they're going to come up with a list of action items to folllow consistently, so I'm curioous to see what they say and will post when I get it to get everyone's feedback.

Just couldn't believe the score was so low.

Anyone know of a website that gives FICO 2 scores?

MyFico gave me nearly 19 different FICO scores...ranging from 4 to 8....mortage, auto, credit card, etc. NONE of them were as low as a 520. I mean seriously.....The absolute lowest score I had from any beaurea was 567.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

No report. But he said he felt strongly I could rebuild in 6-12 months if I was patient which was a bit of a relief. 

He's going to send it to his credit advising team and they're going to come up with a list of action items to folllow consistently, so I'm curioous to see what they say and will post when I get it to get everyone's feedback.

Just couldn't believe the score was so low.

Anyone know of a website that gives FICO 2 scores?

MyFico gave me nearly 19 different FICO scores...ranging from 4 to 8....mortage, auto, credit card, etc. NONE of them were as low as a 520. I mean seriously.....The absolute lowest score I had from any beaurea was 567.

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Check your scores at creditkarma, just out of curiosity - its possible they may be using the vantage scores.

FICO 2 is the mortgage score from Experian. You'll see it here on myFICO when you scroll down to the additional scores.

[Loques]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have a friend who is a realtor. He told me about an awesome lender he has...and that, if your credit score is in decent range they work with you over a period of time to get it to the right place in order to get a mortgage. 

I figured...what the heck. I know my scores are in the high 500's (almost 600's)...and if I'm within 20-40 points of a mortgage, it cannot hurt to have a conversation and start establishing a relationship with a lender.

To my amazement, the lender pulled my score and said it was a 520. I wanted to throw my computer out the window. I was so frustrated.

Why the heck am I paying myfico.com, and creditchecktotal for a score if they're reporting I have a 599, and the lender is saying I have a 520 mortgage score.

myfico.com says my score is a 588 for mortgage. I was just so bummed. The lender made me feel better and said they're going to come up with action items and that I could be within 6-12 months of bringing my score up to get a mortgage. I'm in no hurry...but I was just bummed to see my scores have supposidly been rising, only to find out they haven't. 

Any advice? What's going on? Why the difference in score? Is it really possible to get in the 620-640 range within 6-12 months from a 520 FICO mortgage score? 

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Sorry to hear about your discouragement, but don't let it keep you down! There are many different FICO models out there and it really is up to the lender. When my lender pulled my scores, they were actually higher than the scores that I had from myFICO at the time - so you really never know. What is nice is that your lender is still going to help you with an action plan. And, remember that any improvements you make to your CR will reflect in all of your scores, no matter which version. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

As others have said, there are all kinds of scores.  I worked for a Financial Institution and was responsible for making our custom score calculate correctly in the computer system.  We started out with a common scorecard, but gave different weights to areas that we thought were more important to us based on "good" loans and losses we experianced.  Both the Collectors and Underwriters had input to the process.  Our score was unlike any other Financial Institution.  I did this for 3 different FI’s.

A score is nothing more than an artificial reflection of the tradelines.  It’s a terrific trending tool and a one glance indication of your overall CR, but don’t get myopic of the score unless you KNOW a FI is using that exact score. Instead, work on those tradelines.  Dispute incorrect information.  Work with that lender and perhaps another lender and read the resources here.

I hope you don't let that score get you down.  Your FICO is still correct, just not for that lender.

[Anonymous]

CK is showing a 593.

Suprisingly pretty close to the FICO scores...