Question about credit scores for mortgage

[csa5376]

Just wondering how they get your "final" credit score to evaluate what your APR will be. Do they take all three and average, or something completely different?

[Holly1221]

They take all 3 credit reports & look at the middle score.

[getahead]

what bureau would be the middle score, sorry I'm so new at this.  What is your middle score?

[Holly1221]

In my scores below, the 1st pull on 10/28 mid score would be 555 from Equifax.  The lender told me I needed to get 580 or would have to put 10% down instead of 3.5% for FHA (most lenders will ask for 620 or 640 for minimum FHA loan).  All of my cc's were maxed out so I paid them all down & lowered my utilization from overal 97% to 20%.  My newest mid score is 599 TU on 11/28!

Current: 594 EQ/ 616 EX/ 599 TU (lender pulls 11-28-11)
Previous: 555 EQ/ 552 EX/ 573 TU (lender pulls 10-28-11

[getahead]

thank you, now I understand about the middle score. My utilization is at 86%, so I'm paying down my balances & hopefully that will boost up my scores, righ now my fico scores is EQ 639, TU 644 not too sure about EX.  Dont know how to get the actual EX score without having a lender pull it, dont want to lower my scores until I pay my balances down.  I'm so going to own a home by next year, very determined.

[getahead]

Sorry, forgot to ask you how do you get lender pulls without applying for credit?

[notmyj]

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@getahead wrote:

Sorry, forgot to ask you how do you get lender pulls without applying for credit?

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Either have a friend that can pull them or apply for credit. I had a friend at a mortgage company pull all three reports for me when I first started rebuilding my credit. To get your EX score you either have to have a lender pull it or get into PSECU (Credit Union in PA).

[sandieleslie]

Wouldn't that pull classify as a hard pull and then be placed as an inquiry? Wouldnt that end up hurting your score?

I am in the education phase of this as well.

OP: which lender are you using?

Sandie

[notmyj]

Yes, it was a hard pull when the lender pulls it. But its not a hard pull when you pull it, nor when PSECU pulls your EX for your monthly score. They will do a hard pull if you apply for something though.

[ChemGuy]

There's no need to scramble to figure out Experian FICO for determining which score is middle score.

Mathematically, with both a EQ FICO and TU FICO you always know the maximum or minimum of your middle score.

Case in point:  Let's say 720 TU, 690 EQ. If Ex (unknown) is 600, then 690 EQ is middle score.  If Ex (still unknown) is 800 then 720 TU  is middle score.  If EX (still uknonwn) acutally turns out to be 710, then it's worse than 720 but no worse than 690. 

So, your middle score can never be lower than the lower of either your known TU or EQ scores.   

I suppose anxiety arises when you have 700 TU and 500 EQ.  But this is an extreme and although not exactly rare, nonetheless an extreme. 

Besides, I think that if there are collections etc. on any report, the bank will want that cleaned up regardless of whether it is present on the middle report.