Mortgage scores vs 08 scores?

[Anonymous]

Just wondering what factors are more heavily weighted and/or impact FICO mortgage scores more compared to the FICO 08's that we always talk about?

I would think installment loan history would be a bit more meaningful to mortgage scores just shooting from the hip, but I have no idea really.

[Anonymous]

What I do know is collections will kill your motgage FICOs, no matter how tiny. My Equifax score jumped something like 70 points when I got 4 very small medical collections offf. They didn't impact FICO 8 so it did not change.

[manyquestions]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Just wondering what factors are more heavily weighted and/or impact FICO mortgage scores more compared to the FICO 08's that we always talk about?

I would think installment loan history would be a bit more meaningful to mortgage scores just shooting from the hip, but I have no idea really.

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Off the top of my head, my rememberance is that the older (mortgage) FICOs  reacted more negatively to small changes such as  a few inquiries, a couple new accounts, and the number of accounts with balances. As far as installment loans go, they appear to count less on the older FICOs vs. newer FICO 8.  There are probably several threads around here somewhere with data comparing the older FICO with FICO 08.

[Anonymous]

I have not looked at my mortgage scores, ever, but probably should.  Do most mortgage companies use these scores?  That seems like an obvious question but I really don't know.  I've had 2 mortgages (one paid off and one current) and don't recall when score of mine they used in either case when approving me for the mortgages.

I plan on buying another house around this time next year, so I figured I'd start thinking about those scores now a little bit anyway.

[Anonymous]

As far as lates go, I believe the consensus is that FICO 8 is more forgiving of a person who had some fairly minor lates but had zero derogs for the last 24 months.  The previous FICO models were more draconian about exacting punishment for 7 years.  I can't confirm any of that personally since my Dark Night of credit was back in the late 90s -- and my strategy (knowing very little at the time) was simply to crawl under a rock for 7 years.  I didn't start pulling my scores until after everything had fallen off.

[Anonymous]

I've still got 2 major lates on my report, a 90 and a 120 from 2/3 years ago so they will be 3/4 years old at least when I apply for the mortgage.  With any luck I'll get at least one of them removed by then; I'm fairly confident in getting the 120 removed as I've gotten other delinquencies removed from the same creditor... but the 90 day late has been the real difficult one that I imagine will remain through next year and likely the full 7 years.  I'm going to keep plugging away through GW letters, though.

[Anonymous]

At some point you will want to pull your mortgage scores, but as I am sure you realize it's best to wait until improvements to your profile have been made.  Otherwise you have to keep paying money to have them pulled again and again.

So... if you feel like the 120 day late might well come off by January (via the GW letters, etc.) I'd be inclined to wait on pulling your mortgage scores until after then.  On the other hand, if it looks like it might take significantly longer, then it probably makes sense to not wait.  Either way, get your CC balances in perfect shape first.

The approach I use is to sign up for the myFICO 3B monitoring tool, pay $30 for one month, get all the scores, and then cancel after a couple weeks (though be sure to print out everything first).  I used to think that I would do that once a year, but since free monthly FICO 8 scores became available everywhere (all three bureaus) and the same for credit reports, I stopped.  I might be looking at buying a house in a year in which case I imagine I''ll do the mortgage scores six months beforehand -- though in my case I still have no good reason to do it since my FICO 8's vary between 810 and 830.  The fact that I'll get my FICO 9 will be enough to make me want to do it.

BTW, the "mortgage" flavor of FICO has for a long time been two very old outdated models: FICO 04 (for EQ and TU) and FICO 98 (for EX).  It's certain that eventually that will change (with lenders able to use much more recent models) though when is unclear.  It's conceivable that the change could happen next year though I am not suggesting it will happen that soon. 

[Anonymous]

It's too bad mortgage ficos are so much lower.  I just hit my first 720 fico 8 score on TU since my disasters several years ago, but Bank of America's triple mortage pull came up 693.  Still, it's good enough for a 30 year fixed at 4.5%.  I'm trying to refi a HELOC with a very low interest rate (2.99) but the 15 year repayment amount ($900) will be high. The refi isn't great ($570/month with $3500 in closing costs).  I'm waiting for the cosinger and owner of the property to make up her mind what she wants to do.  The outstanding balance is $108,000.  Any advice on this?

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Just wondering what factors are more heavily weighted and/or impact FICO mortgage scores more compared to the FICO 08's that we always talk about?

I would think installment loan history would be a bit more meaningful to mortgage scores just shooting from the hip, but I have no idea really.

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Here is what I have observed:

1) The 1st few inquiries are weighed more heavily in Fico mortgage (Fico 04 and Fico 98) more than they are in Fico 08

2) Fico 08 is more lenient to # cards (open accounts) reporting balances than is Fico 04 (particularly EQ Fico 04)

3) Fico 08 likes to see an open installment loan on file and the aggregate of open loans should be substantially paid down. Fico 04 does not require that you have any open lnstallment loans and does not look at B/L ratio in scoring. Fico 98 does look at open installment loans. Fico 04 does look for installment loans as part of mix but, they can be closed.

4) Only Fico 98 (EX Fico score 2) looks at NPSL charge card B/HB as a scoring factor. Fico 04 and Fico 08 do not.

5) Fico 08 is more sensitive to high utilization on credit cards - particularly in aggregate compared to the older Fico mortgage models.

6) AU cards are fully factored into the older Fico mortgage models. This is conditional in Fico 08. [my AU status on my wife's card is ignored by Fico 08 but not the older models. I suspect Fico 08 requires the AU account holder to have a card issued in their name and that the AU holder use the card periodically. I have not used my AU card in over 15 years]

7) Small < $100 amount collections are ignored in Fico 08 but not the Fico mortgage algorithms.

8) Fico mortgage models factor in small changes in account status (such as opening one or 2 accounts and an isolated 30 day late payment). Fico 08 is more lienient to small changes but, weighs larger changes more heavily (more than 2 new accounts, repeat late payments).

P.S. Fico does actually have a Mortgage Fico 08 algorithm which is different than the Classic Fico 08 algorithm. Both have the same score range. However, the Mortgage Fico 08 has 17 scorecards which supposedly improves accuracy (is more always better?). In any event, Mortgage Fico 08 does not appear to have gained much traction with lenders.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/The-many-flavors-of-FICO-Editions-versions-and-variations/m-p/4553382#M107982

[Anonymous]

T.Thumb, very good information above and thank you for it!