topic FICO 5/4/2 Scores - Not aligning with FICO 8 in Understanding FICO® Scoring

FICO 5/4/2 Scores - Not aligning with FICO 8

DeanDraper901 — Sat, 06 Aug 2022 10:23:50 GMT

Hi myFICO Community,

Im in the process (or trying to figure out the process) of improving my Mortgage FICO Scores (5,4,2) to purchase an investment property within the next 9-12 months. My currently UTIL is at 3% and 1 Baddie (being removed due to inability to prove debt as accurate).

Currently, my FICO 8 scores are:

My FICO 5/4/2 scores are:

Questions:

When does the FICO 5/4/2 Scores update?

Also how can we directly impact/improve those scores?

Thanks for your help!

Re: FICO 5/4/2 Scores - Not aligning with FICO 8

simplynoir — Sat, 06 Aug 2022 13:06:05 GMT

I don't know when your FICO 5/4/2 scores update hopefully someone will chime in on that. With regard to improving your mortgage scores if the negative item you're getting removed is the only one on your reports and everything else looks clean (no lates and so on) then you should see a huge increase in your scores just from that. Beyond that I do not think there is much else you can do since unpaid collections hurt your mortgage scores more than on FICO 8. You are reporting low utilization and on time payments which are the bigger contributors to FICO 2/4/5

Re: FICO 5/4/2 Scores - Not aligning with FICO 8

Remedios — Sat, 06 Aug 2022 14:41:50 GMT

@DeanDraper901 wrote:
Hi myFICO Community,
Im in the process (or trying to figure out the process) of improving my Mortgage FICO Scores (5,4,2) to purchase an investment property within the next 9-12 months. My currently UTIL is at 3% and 1 Baddie (being removed due to inability to prove debt as accurate).

Currently, my FICO 8 scores are:

My FICO 5/4/2 scores are:

Questions:
When does the FICO 5/4/2 Scores update?
Also how can we directly impact/improve those scores?

Thanks for your help!

Older scoring models are a bit more punishing when it comes to scoring.

Before we get into "let one card report etc", I would like to know about that one "baddie", because your 8s are way too low for a single negative.

You might gain a few points if you allow only one card to report, unless only one card is reporting. If that's the case, there is no way to further improve them without addressing the negatives.

Re: FICO 5/4/2 Scores - Not aligning with FICO 8

FireMedic1 — Sat, 06 Aug 2022 14:50:44 GMT

How did you update your 8's? 3B pull? If they updated on the 3rd. The Mortgage Fico scores updated a week earlier by the date listed in the pics. Do you have the 3rd's Mortgage scores?

Re: FICO 5/4/2 Scores - Not aligning with FICO 8

TheKid2 — Sat, 06 Aug 2022 15:39:26 GMT

My MF subscription updates all my scores when I do a 3B and my 8s update whenever there is an alert, many times throughout the month. If I need an update on any scores until my next monthly 3B I have to pay for another 3B. So, your mortgage scores won't update until your next 3B pull.

I have to agree with Remedios that these scores would not be so slow with only 1 derogatory item. When you click on your FICO scores you will see an "Analysis" and you will see reason codes for the score. What's "Hurting your score"? or better yet give us some more details on your credit profile.

Re: FICO 5/4/2 Scores - Not aligning with FICO 8

SouthJamaica — Sat, 06 Aug 2022 20:34:06 GMT

@DeanDraper901 wrote:
Hi myFICO Community,
Im in the process (or trying to figure out the process) of improving my Mortgage FICO Scores (5,4,2) to purchase an investment property within the next 9-12 months. My currently UTIL is at 3% and 1 Baddie (being removed due to inability to prove debt as accurate).

Currently, my FICO 8 scores are:

My FICO 5/4/2 scores are:

Questions:
When does the FICO 5/4/2 Scores update?
Also how can we directly impact/improve those scores?

Thanks for your help!

1. They update when you pull your 3-bureau report from MyFICO.

2. Based on my experience, I believe that the primary differences between the mortage scores and the FICO 8 scores are as follows:
1. The "age" factors, such as inquiries, new accounts, average age of accounts... are weighed more heavily in the mortgage scores.
2. The mortgage scores are more concerned with number of zero account balances; the more the better, except that one bank card should report a balance each month.
3. The mortgage scores penalize more heavily for very high utilization individual accounts.
4. The FICO 8 scores penalize more heavily for high aggregate utilization.
5. Very low installment utilization (9% or lower aggregate) is rewarded in FICO 8, usually ignored or given little effect in mortgage scores.

This is what you can do to directly impact them:

Of course the biggest impact would be from getting rid of the negative.

Short of that:

Refrain from any applications for new credit or for anything that could trigger a hard pull.

Focus less on your aggregate utilization, and instead focus on individual account utilization. Try to have as many of your accounts as possible reporting zero balances, except for one bank card reporting a small balance before you pay it off.

Re: FICO 5/4/2 Scores - Not aligning with FICO 8

Remedios — Sun, 07 Aug 2022 01:26:06 GMT

@SouthJamaica wrote:
@DeanDraper901 wrote:
Hi myFICO Community,
Im in the process (or trying to figure out the process) of improving my Mortgage FICO Scores (5,4,2) to purchase an investment property within the next 9-12 months. My currently UTIL is at 3% and 1 Baddie (being removed due to inability to prove debt as accurate).

Currently, my FICO 8 scores are:

My FICO 5/4/2 scores are:

Questions:
When does the FICO 5/4/2 Scores update?
Also how can we directly impact/improve those scores?

Thanks for your help!
1. They update when you pull your 3-bureau report from MyFICO.

2. Based on my experience, I believe that the primary differences between the mortage scores and the FICO 8 scores are as follows:
1. The "age" factors, such as inquiries, new accounts, average age of accounts... are weighed more heavily in the mortgage scores.
2. The mortgage scores are more concerned with number of zero account balances; the more the better, except that one bank card should report a balance each month.
3. The mortgage scores penalize more heavily for very high utilization individual accounts.
4. The FICO 8 scores penalize more heavily for high aggregate utilization.
5. Very low installment utilization (9% or lower aggregate) is rewarded in FICO 8, usually ignored or given little effect in mortgage scores.

This is what you can do to directly impact them:

Of course the biggest impact would be from getting rid of the negative.

Short of that:

Refrain from any applications for new credit or for anything that could trigger a hard pull.

Focus less on your aggregate utilization, and instead focus on individual account utilization. Try to have as many of your accounts as possible reporting zero balances, except for one bank card reporting a small balance before you pay it off.

Well, they have two cards only, so 1 reporting is 50% of revolving accounts with balances, and they can only have one card reporting $0.00. Such is thin file life

They stated their utilization is 3% on low limit cards, so obviously that's in check, too.

These scores aren't going to move much until baddie falls off. It's so much easier to play with scoring when file isn't this thin.

Re: FICO 5/4/2 Scores - Not aligning with FICO 8

AndySoCal — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 02:15:38 GMT

@DeanDraper901

FICO 5/4/2 Are the older score models FICO 8 is neewer model than those . There is differences in how FICO 8 treats authorized users for example and other changes. I would not try to compare them.

Re: FICO 5/4/2 Scores - Not aligning with FICO 8

DeanDraper901 — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 08:01:21 GMT

Makes sense. Thanks @Remedios!

Re: FICO 5/4/2 Scores - Not aligning with FICO 8

DeanDraper901 — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 08:07:23 GMT

UPDATE:

Here's my new 5/4/2 Scores below.

The FICO Scores updated when I requested for a manual FICO score update. So it seems that the 5/4/2 Scores lag behind the updates of the 8s for some reason.

Re: FICO 5/4/2 Scores - Not aligning with FICO 8

DeanDraper901 — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 08:15:09 GMT

5/4/2 SCORE UPDATE BELOW:

Here's my updated Mortgage score below.

After I paid for a manual update on the Aug 6th, the scores climbed a bit so I believe there's a bit of delay between the 8s and the 5/4/2 score updates.

Re: FICO 5/4/2 Scores - Not aligning with FICO 8

SouthJamaica — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 15:03:43 GMT

@DeanDraper901 wrote:
UPDATE:
Here's my new 5/4/2 Scores below.

The FICO Scores updated when I requested for a manual FICO score update. So it seems that the 5/4/2 Scores lag behind the updates of the 8s for some reason.

There's a very simple reason. FICO's monitoring service doesn't include updates of any of the scores other than the 3 FICO 8 Classic scores, except when a new report is pulled.

Re: FICO 5/4/2 Scores - Not aligning with FICO 8

ncreature — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 19:18:41 GMT

Congratulations...How did you request a FICO 5/4/2 update score? And how much did it cost? Thank You

Re: FICO 5/4/2 Scores - Not aligning with FICO 8

FireMedic1 — Sat, 20 Aug 2022 08:50:29 GMT

@ncreature wrote:
Congratulations...How did you request a FICO 5/4/2 update score? And how much did it cost? Thank You

Welcome to the forums @ncreature

You can get all of your FICO scores here: https://www.myfico.com/

Re: FICO 5/4/2 Scores - Not aligning with FICO 8

fbalsalubre — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 22:07:19 GMT

Thank you for asking this question. WE have similar scores, with my FICO 8 being higher than the 2, 4, 5 that I would need to qualify for a mortgage. I paid all of my debt down last month which caused the scores to increase. However, I have 10 missed payments reported overall in the last year. I will be AZEO'ing everything from here on out, and hopefully these companies (2 subprime- Credit One Bank and Concora Credit; One Credit Union- NFCU) are more than willing to remove even just one of those missed payments, since I've paid them off.

Re: FICO 5/4/2 Scores - Not aligning with FICO 8

Kh_Samyak — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 02:08:37 GMT

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it will be locked in order to keep discussions current. If you have the same or a similar question/issue, we invite you to start a new thread on the topic.

Thank you for understanding.