Yes, Midnight, FICO is a general population model, good for what it is, but lacking in many respects when considering the individual terms of a loan or of the consumer's credit worthiness for a specific type of loan. That is why the generic FICO model is just the begin, and not end-all in creditor decision makinig. The bigger lendors even have their own algorithsm. Various industries, such as auto and mortgage lendors, trim the generic model to give extra weight to proior performance on auto loans, or to consider incomes, debt ratio, and family data not even considered by FICO. The fact that FICO does not take into consideration many factors that consumers and lendors consider relevant does niot mean that any lending decison does not consider those factors. Rates and terms are not pegged directly to FICO.
