MyFico vs free credit report.com and a shady pre approval guy

[Anonymous]

I am using a company called Mortgage trust to get pre approved for my first home loan.  I turned in my application and he calls me back asking about my credit score.  He wanted to know if there were any issues and I told him I thought my score was between 670 and 700.  He asked me to check it at annualcreditreport.com so he didn't have to waste his time checking out options that were not viable because of a low credit score(is this common practice?)  But what do I send him?  On June 30 free credit had my experian "plus" score at 660 and myfico has my equifax at 713 so which should I use?

[Lel]

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bigtarv wrote:
I am using a company called Mortgage trust to get pre approved for my first home loan.  I turned in my application and he calls me back asking about my credit score.  He wanted to know if there were any issues and I told him I thought my score was between 670 and 700.  He asked me to check it at annualcreditreport.com so he didn't have to waste his time checking out options that were not viable because of a low credit score(is this common practice?)  But what do I send him?  On June 30 free credit had my experian "plus" score at 660 and myfico has my equifax at 713 so which should I use?

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Uh, part of the job description of a loan officer is to check the credit of persons who want loans.  I have never heard of a loan officer telling someone to check their own scores.  I think you should find someone who will actually do his or her job.  Checking credit is easy - if he's not willing to do that, then how can you trust him to actually find the best loan for you?

If you really want to go with this guy, then your true FICO score from this site would be the one to use.

[Anonymous]

Actually, he's doing you a huge favor.  If he pulls your credit then your score is dinged due to a credit check.  However, if you pull your own credit, your score is not negatively affected.  So, much better for you to have a very good idea of what your score is and to communicate that to your lender to determine what loan programs you would be eligible for.  Once he determines that, then he will pull your score simply to verify and confirm with no surprises.

[Lel]

This thread is well over a year old, and the OP hasn't logged back in since July 2009. 

Still, while it's important for all loan applicants to be aware of the contents of their credit report, to be told that you should check your own score so you don't waste the loan officer's time is pretty rude.  In addition, mortgage inquiries are suppressed from scoring for 30 days, and do not affect subsequent mortgage inquires for a period of 14 or 45 days.  The effect of inquiries is relatively small, and its effects diminish over time.