Began using this site because everyone said "its the score lenders use" and it was supposed to be the most accurate place to get your real actual fico score, especially for equifax, I read post after post stating the the eq score here is the exact score my lender used for my mortgage, based on this I assumed my score was 704, after all, thats what myfico said my equifax score was, I thought I had the credit score part of the mortgage qualification process beat, I moved on to reducing my debt to income ratio, I paid off a auto loan to the tune of 17 thousand bucks, a big chunk part of which was reserved for a down payment on a home but in order to quaify i had to get the dti down. That being done I was in very good shape to get a mortgage, or so I thought. turns out "the score lenders use" provided here was anything but . My actual score was 595! a full 109 points different:
Now I'm out 17k (I know I'm also free of that debt) but I didn't want to pay that all at once.and still don't qualify for a mortgage I have followed recomendations on raising my score by paying down cards, eliminating negatives on my report and all that and a total of 31000 bucks has got me exactly a ten point jump, only 3100 a point. I give up, my dream of owning a home will forever be just a dream I guess. Thanks for the fraudulent information myfico.com. I'll be sure to let everyone I know hear about how sorry this site is.
While I can completely empathize, on the Internet, one has to look at the date of the information.
Unfortunately the Equifax score changed here approximately 4 months ago and the prior 7ish years of posts before that were invalidated. Since then we've been counselling people to go elsewhere, but it's going to take a long time for that to percolate (likely years) through the industry.
One can always improve their scores, though I would suggest if you're at 600ish, there's some things (possibly easy) which can be done to raise your scores: people with serious derogatories (such as myself) typically flatline in the 680-700 range on mortgage scores, so there's room for improvement in your case. I would suggest posting about your derogatories in the Rebuilding forum: simply paying down debts while beneficial, isn't the whole story, and if you can get negative information removed, that's a larger win typically.
@pumpkin1dog wrote:So a better tagline would be "myfico, the score lenders used to use" I guess honesty is truly dead.
Maybe.
The problem is the tag line is almost certainly right (FICO scores really are used in 90% of applications, that's hard to argue and every lender I've worked for used FICO as a portion of their underwriting criteria), the problem is there's over 50-someodd FICO Scores and as such I would agree it's nearly coincidence as to whether a lender uses one that you have access to with the exception of specific situations where we effectively know a particular score is being used. Conventional, FHA, and likely most other mortgages too we know with 99% accuracy what you'll get, and unfortunately it's not the scores which are sold here anymore.
I know I've long since stated that the report data is what matters: if you have a pretty report, you'll have a pretty score, regardless of algorithm selected. As a result my general advice to you doesn't change; work on getting derogatories removed if at all possible, as that's about the only quick fix to raising scores out of the 500 to mortgage qualification territory.
@fungoman wrote:Starting to think the OP is trolling with 2 different EQ scores and 2 debt payoff amounts. Something isnt adding up. What is your EXP score, since I assume it is your middle score, which the lender will likely use.
Nah, it was a bit hard to read but the 17k figure was the auto loan, and the 31K was auto loan plus credit card debt as I understand it.
The problem here is people read things on the Internet and take them as gospel, and when it comes to short-term score improvement (especially when we're talking mortgage hurdle, where there's downpayment, DTI, and asset reserve considerations) there isn't a one size fits all scenario. If someone wants a better than mediocre solution, post... which didn't happen in this instance, and if someone is really interested in a mortgage, spend the yuppie foodstamp with Equifax directly on their Score Power product: we've been consistent in that message since the FICO '04 to FICO 8 change here.
Anyway, was the myFICO score innacurate for a mortgage? Yup, absolutely. Was it avoidable, also absolutely yes, and end of the day if there's derogatory information on the report, try try try to get that fixed before cutting a check for the auto loan for certain. I don't know how to drive traffic to the RYC forum better: "If your score ain't 740+ yo, start here." *shrug*
That all said, a mortgage wasn't in the cards from what was intimated regarding the DTI calculation, and unless there was a 0% offer, carrying 14K worth of debt at napkin math 20% APR isn't a wise financial decision. OP's unquestionably in a better financial position, and the right course of action would be to start addressing the derogatories that have his score depressed so badly... they're likely a few years in the past to have such a disparity in scores between the EQ Beacon 9.0 score here and the presumed EQ Beacon 5.0 on the mortgage app, but nearly anyone can make mortgage qualification in a year even if they can't fix their derogatories, but that doesn't jive with our current instant-gratification society unfortunately. Quick fixes on credit reports rarely produce the desired results in scores unfortunately when there are payment history issues.
Perhaps one way to help the OP is to point out the specific areas FICO 08 differs from FICO 04. Off the bat these occur:
1. CAs and PRs under $100 are ignored by FICO 08 but are big derogs on FICO 04
2. AUs are looked at differently, especially AUs between unrelated persons. *this shouldn't be an issue for the OP.
3. A single late is more negative for FICO 04 than FICO 08.
Perhaps the OP is suffering from an unfortunate combination of these to create such a large difference in FICO scores. If so addressing the areas where FICO 04 is most sensitive might help.
