topic Re: FICO vs Beacon 5.0 in Understanding FICO® Scoring

FICO vs Beacon 5.0

Anonymous — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 17:48:57 GMT

My husband checked his Equifax FICO score here on 6/9/13 and it was 570.
He applied for a very small personal loan 3 days later on 6/12/13 and the lender said his Equifax Facta Beacon 5.0 score was 497.

Lurking on these message boards I read where FICO & Beacon 5.0 were pretty much the same. There was no changes on his report in those 3 days so how in the world could there be such a difference in those 2 scores?

Re: FICO vs Beacon 5.0

pizzadude — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 19:44:30 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
My husband checked his Equifax FICO score here on 6/9/13 and it was 570.
He applied for a very small personal loan 3 days later on 6/12/13 and the lender said his Equifax Facta Beacon 5.0 score was 497.

Lurking on these message boards I read where FICO & Beacon 5.0 were pretty much the same. There was no changes on his report in those 3 days so how in the world could there be such a difference in those 2 scores?

One possibility is that the creditor used an installment loan enhanced FICO version rather than the Classic FICO sold here.

Re: FICO vs Beacon 5.0

Anonymous — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 21:09:35 GMT

Thank you for your reply!

So the installment loan enhanced FICO version would be based on the history of installment loans on his credit report, correct? He does have a few neg installment accounts so the very low score make sense if so. He was actually approved so hopefully the on time payments will help bring that up.

Re: FICO vs Beacon 5.0

pizzadude — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 21:13:56 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Thank you for your reply!

So the installment loan enhanced FICO version would be based on the history of installment loans on his credit report, correct? He does have a few neg installment accounts so the very low score make sense if so. He was actually approved so hopefully the on time payments will help bring that up.

Yes, the installment loan enhanced FICO version would just weigh installment loans more heavily than other accounts, like credit cards, but all accounts would be still be included in the scoring.