FICO vs Beacon 5.0

[Anonymous]

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?

[pizzadude]

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@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?

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

[Anonymous]

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.

[pizzadude]

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@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.

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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.