topic Re: FICO scores used for mortgage - and where to obtain them in Mortgage Loans

FICO scores used for mortgage - and where to obtain them

Revelate — Mon, 09 Jan 2017 10:44:19 GMT

The FICO scores used for mortgages

Equifax Beacon® 5.0
Experian®/Fair Isaac Risk Model V2SM
TransUnion FICO® Risk Score, Classic 04

These are sometimes listed on the tri-merge mortgage report as follows:

Equifax/FICO classic V5 FACTA
Experian/Fair Isaac (Ver. 2)
Transunion/FICO Classic (04)

Note: they have been commonly referred to on the myFICO forums and elsewhere as:

EQ 04 aka FICO 5 (on the myFICO report)
EX 98 aka FICO 2 (on the myFICO report)
TU 04 aka FICO 4 (on the myFICO report)

Some Differences from FICO 8

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Mortgage-Loans/Mortgage-FICO-much-lower-than-FICO-8/m-p/4733536/highlight/true#M197852

Availablility

Equifax: myFICO Equifax FICO Standard purchase, or FICO 3 Report View purchase. Equifax Score Power purchase. DCU provides this score monthly to it's membership

Experian: myFICO Experian FICO Standard purchase, or FICO 3 Report View purchase. PSECU provides this score monthly to it's membership. NASA FCU now also provides this score to it's membership and is open to everyone. This score is now purchasable via Experian as well as an "additional score" in their FICO 8 monitoring solution.

Transunion: myFICO Transunion FICO Standard purchase, or FICO 3 Report View purchase.

Updated 3/10/15 - addition of Transunion (yay!) and some clarifications

Updated 9/03/16 - addition of NASA FCU for EX mortgage score availability; linked forum post of differences between score versions

Updated 10/17/16 - forgot the MF interface names for the scores, sloppy on my part

Updated 1/9/17 - addition of Experian monitoring for mortgage score availability.

Re: FICO scores used for mortgage - and where to obtain them

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Feb 2015 18:00:02 GMT

Hi FICO friend!

How close are the FiCO scores that I've been monitoring on this website to what the mortgage lenders use? Why is there a difference?

Re: FICO scores used for mortgage - and where to obtain them

bdhu2001 — Sun, 22 Feb 2015 18:51:45 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hi FICO friend!

How close are the FiCO scores that I've been monitoring on this website to what the mortgage lenders use? Why is there a difference?

The monitoring scores are your FICO classic scores. Not your mortgage score. OP explained how you can obtain two of the three mortgage scores. There's a difference because lenders use various FICO models that are more predictive for the type of loan they are providing.

If you have a recent 3B report, then the additional scores provided include two of the three mortgage scores. When I was home shopping, I used the alerts and simulators to determine what my best options were to improve my scores. Although the simulators aren't specific to mortgage, they do help to determine ways to improve your score.

Re: FICO scores used for mortgage - and where to obtain them

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Feb 2015 19:17:01 GMT

Thank you for clarifying. I had no idea there were so many different variations of my scores.

Re: FICO scores used for mortgage - and where to obtain them

iDShaDoW — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 02:29:49 GMT

So would I just do the FICO Standard Purchase and select Equifax and Experian and that would show me the EQ Beacon 5.0 and Experian V2SM scores that mortgage lenders pull?

Just curious as the ones I get through banks listed in my sig are drastically different from the one a lender pulled - they said mine is 740 but wouldn't give me more information or show me the print out.

Re: FICO scores used for mortgage - and where to obtain them

Revelate — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 06:20:08 GMT

@iDShaDoW wrote:
So would I just do the FICO Standard Purchase and select Equifax and Experian and that would show me the EQ Beacon 5.0 and Experian V2SM scores that mortgage lenders pull?

Just curious as the ones I get through banks listed in my sig are drastically different from the one a lender pulled - they said mine is 740 but wouldn't give me more information or show me the print out.

Yup, though the EX should match your PSECU monthly score; however, both Walmart and Penfed's scores are useless for mortgages.

Re: FICO scores used for mortgage - and where to obtain them

Revelate — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 03:15:16 GMT

Haha, funny; figured would post it here since there's been a bunch of discussion on FICO 8's being higher than FICO 04/98's.

2/27/15:

EQ Beacon 9.0 (FICO 8) = 685

EQ Beacon 5.0 (FICO 04 / mortgage score) = 693

Can't really explain it other than I am beginning to suspect installment lines are getting weighed differently, but needless to say I was shocked seeing that as traditionally my FICO 8's have always been non-trivially higher than FICO 04/98's and I'm pretty much a poster child of broken credit till finding this forum and getting clean since then but with a bunch of derogatories which haven't fallen off yet.

Re: FICO scores used for mortgage - and where to obtain them

Movin_on_up — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 03:37:38 GMT

Revelate - Where are you seeing the FICO 04? I just pulled my 3-report view and am seeing the FICO Score 8 and FICO Score 5 in the Equifax score versions view.

Re: FICO scores used for mortgage - and where to obtain them

Revelate — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 04:02:51 GMT

@Movin_on_up wrote:
Revelate - Where are you seeing the FICO 04? I just pulled my 3-report view and am seeing the FICO Score 8 and FICO Score 5 in the Equifax score versions view.

Beacon 5.0 is Equifax's version of the FICO 04 algorithm. Not certain why myFICO decided to "simplify" the score names, in my estimation it only made it more confusing but the FICO Score 5 and my labelling of FICO 04 are identical as far as algorithms / scores, just different names for the same thing.

Re: FICO scores used for mortgage - and where to obtain them

Movin_on_up — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 04:16:11 GMT

Got it - thanks!

My Equifax scores are indentical:

FICO 8: 763

FICO 5: 763

But my Experian's have distance:

FICO 8: 765

FICO 2: 782

Re: FICO scores used for mortgage - and where to obtain them

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 19:00:57 GMT

ok so question for all of you.....

my mortgage guy pulled my credit in Jan 2015 and here is where i came out:

Equifax: 590

Trans Union: 662

Experian: 606

In order to qualify for "automated underwriting" approve/eligible i need a median of 640.....

have been working on credit utilitization etc.

so for February i paid down cards (I don't have huge limits) to under 30% and then pulled my reports/paid for my scores through annual credit report last week....

Equifax: 636

TransUnion: 655 (from FICO on my Barclays account)

Experian: 678 (i pulled experian directly through Experian)

So obviously i still have work to do....and mortgage broker told me to pay down to 10% or below for credit utilization for bigger bump (my overall utilitization was 19%) but he said it needs to be below 10%.

On the report he pulled in January i see the Source/Model info as follows:

Experian/Fari Isaac (Ver. 2)

Transunion/FICO Classic (04)

Equifax/FICO classic V5 FACTA

so my question......how can i see for myself (don't want him to pull as i don't want to be DINGED for inquiry) what my real score is that the lender sees?

Pulling FICO 8 isn't the same model and seems pointless, right?

I have two of my C/Cs that close on March 12th and 14th that are set to be paid and then i will be under 10% for those two.

Should i expect a score change when that update happens?

I am sooo anxious over all of this...losing sleep.....worried i won't get qualified and i need to move in the coming months.....

Thank you guys for any input.

Re: FICO scores used for mortgage - and where to obtain them

frugalQ — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 19:20:11 GMT

if you purchase your EQ and EX scores from here at myfico, you get the below scores with the purchase. TU is not avaible here yet. By knowing 2 of your 3 scores, you will know the highest your mid-score can be (best case scenario) or the lowest it can be (worst case scenario).

Experian/Fair Isaac (Ver. 2)

Equifax/FICO classic V5 FACTA

Re: FICO scores used for mortgage - and where to obtain them

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 19:57:24 GMT

Thank you.....that is what i thought but wanted to make sure.

Now its figuring out how to get that 640 median.....

Re: FICO scores used for mortgage - and where to obtain them

Lemmus — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 21:33:09 GMT

...a succinct reply if I ever saw one

Re: FICO scores used for mortgage - and where to obtain them

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 10:12:13 GMT

Hello,

I just signed up for the 3B with scores $25.00/month plan (last week) and it gave me my TU04 mortgage score. Must have been implemented last week and I got lucky.

Re: FICO scores used for mortgage - and where to obtain them

Revelate — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 16:37:48 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hello,

I just signed up for the 3B with scores $25.00/month plan (last week) and it gave me my TU04 mortgage score. Must have been implemented last week and I got lucky.

Ooh thanks for the heads up!

I can't find the Transunion disclaimer anywhere on the site anymore so it's entirely possible that it's been added. Going to look for confirmation, and will be pulling my 3B report anyway on 3/16 morning before I submit my first mortgage application regardless.

Re: FICO scores used for mortgage - and where to obtain them

Martis — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 16:51:45 GMT

I pulled my transunion yesterday and I can confirm that now TU hax the extra scores also. PERFECT!

Re: FICO scores used for mortgage - and where to obtain them

Revelate — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 17:43:25 GMT

@Martis wrote:
I pulled my transunion yesterday and I can confirm that now TU hax the extra scores also. PERFECT!

Thank you for the confirmation! I've added the information to the main post.

Re: FICO scores used for mortgage - and where to obtain them

zulutulu — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 15:11:12 GMT

@Revelate wrote:
@Martis wrote:
I pulled my transunion yesterday and I can confirm that now TU hax the extra scores also. PERFECT!
Thank you for the confirmation! I've added the information to the main post.

With regards to the mortgage scores shown below the "standard / classic" fico 8 score, the notation above the mortgage score refers to that score as being the "previously used version" or something to that effect????? Anyone able to shed light on that notation? Also, all of my scores jumped from the 710 range a few months ago (standard fico) to the 740 range for no obvious reason, and last month fell back again with no significant changes to my credit reports. As Commodus would say, "I am vexed, I am greatly vexed! Any tweaking of the scoring model recently? By the way, thanks to all you folks who share on here, tremendously helpful and appreciated.

Re: FICO scores used for mortgage - and where to obtain them

Revelate — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 17:09:59 GMT

@zulutulu wrote:
With regards to the mortgage scores shown below the "standard / classic" fico 8 score, the notation above the mortgage score refers to that score as being the "previously used version" or something to that effect????? Anyone able to shed light on that notation? Also, all of my scores jumped from the 710 range a few months ago (standard fico) to the 740 range for no obvious reason, and last month fell back again with no significant changes to my credit reports. As Commodus would say, "I am vexed, I am greatly vexed! Any tweaking of the scoring model recently? By the way, thanks to all you folks who share on here, tremendously helpful and appreciated.

It simply means that isn't the current version that FICO is currently marketing / selling... and frankly, should be ignored. The fact is that lenders will determine which version they wish to use, and that's what matters at the end of the day. For mortgages we explicitly know which ones are being used, and in this case the "previously used version" is actually the legit gold standard for a mortgage application.

The individual scoring models haven't changed, quite likely there was a change in the underlying reports (like a dispute) which was then rectified / updated back to original status. There may be some wonkiness in the system but it's unlikely it would've affected all three bureaus similarly, so this one was likely a legit temporary change in my opinion.