New and really confused

[Anonymous]

Hi guys!  I am new to the forums and have a perplexing question (at least it's perplexing to me).  My husband and I are trying to qualify for a mortgage.  I pulled my credit scores from all 3 bureaus.  They were 784 (Equifax), 771 (Transunion) and 761 (Experian).  When I tried to pre-qualify for a mortgage from Quicken Loans, I was told my "median score" was 649.  I went on Equifax's website and purchased their FICO score and it was 644!!  I understand from these forums that a person's FICO score is often lower than their other scores, but this is over 100 points!!

Does anyone know what would make such a big difference in the different scores?  I just pulled my credit reports and sent error letters to the credit bureaus, but any other advice would be greatly appreciated.  We would really like to move and this is the only thing that's holding us back. 

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the Forums!

Question the first:  Where did the scores you mentioned initially come from?

I ask because there are many different scoring platforms, and often anyone giving you a score for free is using one called a VantageScore.  Vantage is a score that hardly any lender actually uses, and because of that it costs virtually nothing to provide, so you will see them everywhere.  And it is not uncommon for Vantage scores to differ by anywhere from 10 to 150 points from actual FICO scores.

Also pertinent - Mortgage lenders do not typically use the same version of the FICO score that credit card lenders use.  Most mortgage companies will pull FICO version 5, whereas the most commonly used score in credit cad land is FICO 8. So there's that variation as well.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your reply.  Sorry I didn't mention that.  The initial three scores from the bureaus were also purchased from Equifax. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks for your reply.  Sorry I didn't mention that.  The initial three scores from the bureaus were also purchased from Equifax. 

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Then you have your answer - I found some fine print for you:

The Equifax® Credit Score and 3-Bureau credit scores are each based on the Equifax Credit Score model, but calculated using the information in your Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion credit files; 3rd parties are likely to use a different score to assess your creditworthiness.4

4 The credit scores provided under the offers described here use the Equifax Credit Score, which is a proprietary credit model developed by Equifax. The Equifax Credit Score and 3-Bureau credit scores are each based on the Equifax Credit Score model, but calculated using the information in your Equifax, Experian and TransUnion credit files. The Equifax Credit Score is intended for your own educational use. It is also commercially available to third parties along with numerous other credit scores and models in the marketplace. Please keep in mind third parties are likely to use a different score when evaluating your creditworthiness. Also, third parties will take into consideration items other than your credit score or information found in your credit file, such as your income.

[Anonymous]

Hello Bee.  Welcome to the forums!  My comments below in blue.

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi guys!  I am new to the forums and have a perplexing question (at least it's perplexing to me).  My husband and I are trying to qualify for a mortgage.  I pulled my credit scores from all 3 bureaus.  They were 784 (Equifax), 771 (Transunion) and 761 (Experian). 

What tool did you use to pull your three credit scores?  For example, Credit Check Total will give you your FICO 8 classic score from each bureau.  If you had done that, then "Credit Check Total" would be the tool.  There are many other tools out there.  Which one did you use?

When I tried to pre-qualify for a mortgage from Quicken Loans, I was told my "median score" was 649.  I went on Equifax's website and purchased their FICO score and it was 644!!  I understand from these forums that a person's FICO score is often lower than their other scores, but this is over 100 points!!

There isn't a single FICO score.  FICO makes many different scoring models.  Even within a certain family (e.g. the FICO 9 family, the FICO 8 family, the FICO 04, family) there are various flavors: the classic flavor, the auto flavor, the credit card flavor.  Thus there are many different scoring models. 

Does anyone know what would make such a big difference in the different scores? 

Yes, but we'll need to know where you got your scores from first (the ones that were in the upper 700s).

I just pulled my credit reports and sent error letters to the credit bureaus, but any other advice would be greatly appreciated. 

Can you tell us more about the error letters you sent to the credit bureaus?  What exactly do you mean by that?  Did you see errors on the reports themselves?  What were the errors?

We would really like to move and this is the only thing that's holding us back. 

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The following may not be what you want to hear, but this is what I think you need to do.  You need to put off buying a house for a little while.  Instead, you need to learn about how to pull your credit reports, how to read them, how to fix anything that is in error on them, and how to fix the things that are true on them but are making you look bad to mortgage lenders.  This last thing is a pretty broad category and could even include the absence of good things that you could get added to the reports.

While you are doing that, you need to learn how credit scoring works.

As you do that, you need to monitor your mortgage scores and see if you can get them to go up.

Finally, after several months of this, you'll be in shape to begin thinking about buying a house.

Again, that may not be entirely welcome advice, but I think it's the best advice I can give you.

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi guys!  I am new to the forums and have a perplexing question (at least it's perplexing to me).  My husband and I are trying to qualify for a mortgage.  I pulled my credit scores from all 3 bureaus.  They were 784 (Equifax), 771 (Transunion) and 761 (Experian).  When I tried to pre-qualify for a mortgage from Quicken Loans, I was told my "median score" was 649.  I went on Equifax's website and purchased their FICO score and it was 644!!  I understand from these forums that a person's FICO score is often lower than their other scores, but this is over 100 points!!

Does anyone know what would make such a big difference in the different scores?  I just pulled my credit reports and sent error letters to the credit bureaus, but any other advice would be greatly appreciated.  We would really like to move and this is the only thing that's holding us back. 

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Without seeing the complete reports it would be guesswork, but it's an academic question.

The scores that count are the FICO mortgage scores across all 3 bureaus.

As far as improving them....

1. send verification letters to the bureaus to try to remove any negatives

2. try to maintain all but one of your credit cards as reporting a zero balance when the statement cuts, with the other card reporting a balance of 29% or less

3. don't make any credit applications anywhere (except soft pull credit limit increase requests)

After you've gone through a couple of monthly cycles like this pull your 3B Report and check the mortgage scores again

[Anonymous]

If your FICO scores are in the 600's, it suggests the presence of negative information that's holding those scores back.  This negative information is what potential mortgage lenders do not want to see, so your goal should be to remove any and all negatives if possible.

As mentioned by others above, you need to pull your credit reports and look over them carefully.  There are monitoring services out there such as Credit Karma that can provide you with essentially everything you need for free.  Or you could spend $1 from Credit Check Total to get you 3 FICO 08 scores and 3B reports which are a little better than what CK provides for free IMO.  Are you aware at this time what negative items are on your reports?

[Anonymous]

Thanks so much for the advice.  I think that is the right thing to do.  I don't know the exact name of the tool I used to pull my credit scores.  In Equifax, it's just called "credit scores." 

I did see some errors on my reports.  There was a medical collection on one account for $213.  It was paid, but still showing up, and won't come off until 2020.  I also had several accounts with late payments (about 5 different accounts).  Most of these were one or two months in the last 5 years that were 30 days late.  We did also have a mix up with one or our Navient student loans where we were 120 days late at one point in 2012.  The letters I wrote to the credit bureaus essentially disputed all of these as errors and asked that they investigate and remove the items.  My understanding is that I should send a second letter for any items that come back verified asking the credit bureaus to provide proof of their investigations into these items.  My husband is going through the same process. 

Thanks again for your excellent advice!

[Anonymous]

Hello Bee!  We all wish you the best of luck with this.  Also, there is a specific forum here at this site called the "rebuilding" forum which may be ideal for you. 

Challenging as it may be, my advice is to slow down on the perceived need to buy a house, and spend time working on your reports (and also understanding how scoring works).

BTW, the dispute process is actually intended for situations where there is in fact something false on your report.  The way that you describe your derogs, it sounds like the report is fully accurate.  For example, paid collections do continue to show up: the simple act of paying them does not remove them from your credit report.  The way that you describe your lates, they all really did happen.

When consumers dispute everything in sight, claiming that derogs are false when they are in fact true, that can lead to being perceived by the CRA as a person who engages in "frivolous disputes" and being tagged as such by the CRA.  This is not something you want to happen:

http://www.debtclear.com/credit-repair/dispute-strategies/avoiding-frivolous-disputes/

You also mention that you plan to follow up with letters for verified items that demand that the CRA provide you with proof that they have investigated these claims to your satisfaction.  The CRA is not required to do this.  IF RobertEG is reading this (he's our resident expert on legal questions) he may be able to confirm.

All of this is why I suggest you slow down and learn how everything works, rather than engaging in a flurry of activity not fully informed by a deep understanding of how reports and scores work.  Learn first, then patiently choose strategies that will clean your reports and therefore raise your scores over time.  Just my thoughts.  As I say, we all wish you the best.

[Anonymous]

If the negative information reported is in fact accurate, rather than initiating disputes (which are meant for inaccurate information) you want to request goodwill adjustments.  In requesting goodwill adjustments you are acknowledging that the negative information is accurate, you're just asking them to remove it.  Different people have different results from different creditors with this.  If you'd like any info on what I believe is the best method for giving yourself the best GW adjustment odds, I suggest this read:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/The-Saturation-Technique-Best-GW-adjustment-o...