topic Re: My credit union doesnt use a FICO in General Credit Topics

My credit union doesnt use a FICO

Booner72 — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 00:28:26 GMT

Got the letter that my equifax score is 647 and that the score range is 350 to 950. Which FAKO is that?

Dontcha think that's kinda weird that a credit union doesn't care about FICO's and FAKO's?

Re: My credit union doesnt use a FICO

MarineVietVet — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 00:41:12 GMT

@Booner72 wrote:
Got the letter that my equifax score is 647 and that the score range is 350 to 950. Which FAKO is that?

Dontcha think that's kinda weird that a credit union doesn't care about FICO's and FAKO's?

Does your CU happen to use CSC Credit Services?

I recall an older thread talking about CSC using that score range. But it's almost 4 years old and might not apply any more.

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 3/11 pulled by lender- 835, EQ - 2/11-816, TU - 2/11-782

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

Re: My credit union doesnt use a FICO

Booner72 — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 00:59:21 GMT

I don't know, MV. The letter says "We also obtained your credit score from this consumer reporting agency (EQ) and used it in making our credit decision."

Is that the EQ version of the EQ score then?

Re: My credit union doesnt use a FICO

pizzadude — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 01:02:32 GMT

I've seen where CUs will sometimes pull what appears to be a non~FICO score for credit card approvals. Was this for your CC app ?

I'd be very suprised if they didn't use FICO for mortgage/auto lending.

Re: My credit union doesnt use a FICO

Booner72 — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 01:06:08 GMT

Yep, it was for that CC. (I was gonna put that in the post originally so someone didn't have to ask). )

Re: My credit union doesnt use a FICO

MarineVietVet — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 01:11:28 GMT

@Booner72 wrote:
I don't know, MV. The letter says "We also obtained your credit score from this consumer reporting agency (EQ) and used it in making our credit decision."

Is that the EQ version of the EQ score then?

EQ uses CSC in some parts of the country. What parts exactly I don't know.

Re: My credit union doesnt use a FICO

RobertEG — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 09:41:18 GMT

Perhaps the actual score is secondary to them, and they are more interested in reviewing certain items in your credit report than your actual score.

FICO scores are just a part of creditor decision-making factors. Their letter did not say that your score was a primary consideration, just that they considered it.

Re: My credit union doesnt use a FICO

Booner72 — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 18:21:57 GMT

Probably so, RobertEG.

MV, I looked up CSC or whatever it is, and I don't know if they use that - I do know this is the CU that approved my Subaru loan at 5.42 when no one else came close to this. They agreed to use my EX Auto Enhanced FICO of 714 even though they "use" Equifax.

They must not be the type that is totally hung up on the score. Now, THAT I LIKE!!!!!

Re: My credit union doesnt use a FICO

AndySoCal — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 01:34:27 GMT

Only on this forum is there a concern about FICO and FAKO ( all non FICO socres). In the real world there is no such conern. The decision based on your credit worthiness ( income and credit history and level of indebtedness). Depending on the score what it is evaluating it is integrated into the underwriting decsion. On CSC question it does not make a difference it is an Equifax score based on your credit profile. Yes I agree that CSC is hard to deal with at times.

Re: My credit union doesnt use a FICO

Booner72 — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 01:45:52 GMT

NO NO, Andy. The FICO counts in the real world. It sure counted between November 10 and August 18 when I was going through the housebuying process!

But I get what you mean in general.

Re: My credit union doesnt use a FICO

pizzadude — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 01:47:10 GMT

@AndySoCal wrote:
Only on this forum is there a concern about FICO and FAKO ( all non FICO socres). In the real world there is no such conern. The decision based on your credit worthiness ( income and credit history and level of indebtedness). Depending on the score what it is evaluating it is integrated into the underwriting decsion. On CSC question it does not make a difference it is an Equifax score based on your credit profile. Yes I agree that CSC is hard to deal with at times.

I would disagree with this. In mortagage lending people are routinely denied via underwriting for not meeting a certain FICO score threshold, despite having sufficient qualifications in all other areas. In auto lending there are various financing tiers that are based on some types of FICO scores.

Many CCs will also deny you via their automated underwriting system based on having scores that are too low.

I agree with your statement if it is the context of manual underwriting, however the reality is there are many underwriting decisions based exclusively on a credit score.

Re: My credit union doesnt use a FICO

Revelate — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 02:50:23 GMT

@pizzadude wrote:
@AndySoCal wrote:
Only on this forum is there a concern about FICO and FAKO ( all non FICO socres). In the real world there is no such conern. The decision based on your credit worthiness ( income and credit history and level of indebtedness). Depending on the score what it is evaluating it is integrated into the underwriting decsion. On CSC question it does not make a difference it is an Equifax score based on your credit profile. Yes I agree that CSC is hard to deal with at times.

I would disagree with this. In mortagage lending people are routinely denied via underwriting for not meeting a certain FICO score threshold, despite having sufficient qualifications in all other areas. In auto lending there are various financing tiers that are based on some types of FICO scores.

Many CCs will also deny you via their automated underwriting system based on having scores that are too low.

I agree with your statement if it is the context of manual underwriting, however the reality is there are many underwriting decisions based exclusively on a credit score.

I don't think that's what Andy was getting at.

Virtually all major lenders have their own internal algorithms, or may pull a specific score from a specific CRA, or third party, that we have absolutely no idea or knowledge of.

About all we know somewhat conclusively is that mortgage brokers and mortgage loan originators, will almost always currently pull EX FICO 2, EQ Beacon 5.0, and TU04. Beyond that the only scores that matter are the individual ones the lender calculuates on a pull of the report... so from that perspective, even the majority of FICO scores are not worth much more than FAKO's if your lender doesn't use them. Their only innate benefit is *maybe* they will be used, whereas we know the majority of current FAKO scores are not.

Andy is correct: it's the base underlying data in the report the matters, the algorithm is run against that and weights various things differently from other algorithms, to generate a score for an underwriting decision on any loan or credit product.

Re: My credit union doesnt use a FICO

llecs — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:13:22 GMT

OP, there is a FICO version that goes to 950. Without looking it up, it might be NextGen.

Re: My credit union doesnt use a FICO

AndySoCal — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 02:11:03 GMT

Pizzadude,

Revelate is correct on the point I was trying to make. You are correct the mortgage industry is uses FICO's scores as a part of the decisioning process. You are also correct that some mortgage have a minimum score needed to qualify. Even with the minimum score requirement met it does not mean you will get the loan. IE if you do not have sufficient income or downpayment etc.

The bottom line it is your creditworthiness that drives the underwriting decision no matter what type of loan you apply for. The credit score is one part of that evaluation process. One of the reasons FICO score is the accuracy and reliability of the score. Keeping in mind that a FICO score is predictive score and not a grade on your credit history per se. What score product a lender uses wether it be a ureau credit score IE TU Risk Score, a FICO score or a Vanatage score is up to the lender. The difference the score is what is evaluated in the credit hstory.

Re: My credit union doesnt use a FICO

GregB — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 02:26:45 GMT

@llecs wrote:
OP, there is a FICO version that goes to 950. Without looking it up, it might be NextGen.

The design range of Next Gen is 200-950 so it does go UP to 950 but doesn't match 350-950.

The Industry Option Classic FICOs all have a design range of 250-950 so they match at the high end but not at the bottom.

Being a CU, they could use FICO 350-850 plus in-house modifications that can add up to 100 points.