Understanding FICO® Scoring

[CUFINANCE]

So I get a score watch alert today and this is the message that shows up accompanying the score.

Your score of 712 is slightly below the average score of U.S. consumers, though most lenders consider this a good score. Based on your score alone, you might expect the following:

• A wide array of loans and credit products will likely be available to you.
• Most lenders will consider offering you very competitive rates and terms on loan products.
• Some lenders may require additional information, such as income or time at job, to help them more accurately set the terms of your loan product.

Since when did 712 fall below the avarage score of US consumers.  I've heard that it is somewhere around 690 and given the current economic situation would expect it to be much lower than that.

[beamMEup]

I believe the average FICO score is about 723.

More knowledgeable folks will chime in, I'm sure.

[MBOhio2]

The median FICO is 723.

[RobertEG]

Good question.  Answering that question begs the question of who retains a broad database of current credit scores that would enable them to compute nationwide averages or medians?

Fair Isaac develops and licenses the algorithms for credit scoring, but as far as I know, does not maintain a database of all scores generated by users of their algorithms.  The actual scoring is not done by Fair Isaac, it is done by the holders of the consumer databases (i.e., the CRAs) using their licensed FICO algorithms.  I am not aware of whether Fair Isaac has broad feedback on the actual scores produced.  The separate CRAs dont have access to each others databases, so I doubt that they share scores in any central location.

So it also puzzles me as to who has the database of information necessary to generate nationwide averages.  Maybe that explains the broad discrepancies in the averages stated by different parties.

[SocalMark]

Oh No!!! If RobertEG is confused then we are all in trouble.