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Recent News and Articles on the Keywords: fico score + credit + fico  Related to the article below (Last Update: 8/4/2008)

Baltimore Sun How-to Monday Baltimore Sun, United States - Next week: tips on improving your credit. Today: how credit scores work. Many companies look at your FICO score if they're deciding whether to extend you ... Let's face up to our credit-card ignorance Sun-Sentinel.com Don't know the score InvestmentNews all 3 news articles » Triad Guaranty Inc. Reports Second Quarter Loss as Reported ... MarketWatch - ... $10933 $10239 Primary risk in force by credit score FICO less than 575 0.4% 0.4% 0.5% 0.5% 0.5% FICO between 575 and 619 3.0% 3.1% 3.1% 3.2% 3.2% FICO ...TGIC Clean credit score can lighten home Poughkeepsie Journal, NY - When you apply for a mortgage, most lenders will review your FICO score, a widely used score developed by Fair Isaac. A few months ago, borrowers with a ... Should unused credit cards be closed? Abilene Reporter-News, TX - 31 minutes ago After all, your FICO (Fair Isaac Company) or Credit Score is about how you use credit, not about how much money you make or have on hand. ... Your money: Qualify for a mortgage The Wenatchee World Online, WA - Anything negative on your credit report can hurt you, even if it's not right. Boost your FICO score. Most mortgage lenders use the FICO score to determine ... The Home-Equity Door Slams Shut on Many Homeowners KREN CW 27 TV, NV - You'll have to produce full documentation of your means, and you'll need a minimum FICO score of 680 -- possibly more if you're self-employed. Canceling store card could hurt credit score DetNews.com, MI - Aug 3, 2008 "Closing a credit card won't help his FICO score and in some cases could lower it," Watts said. "So (the) best advice is to refrain from closing any ... Earthtimes (press release) Fair Isaac Innovation Will Restore Authorized User Accounts to ... MarketWatch - Jul 31, 2008 The company is working closely with credit reporting agencies to bring the new FICO(R) 08 score to market as quickly as possible. Since its introduction in ... Authorized user 'piggybacking' for better credit score given ... CreditCards.com Protect yourself from the credit crunch Corning Observer How to Improve Your Credit Report Finance Daily CreditCards.com all 17 news articles »  FIC First Aid For An Ailing Credit Score Hartford Courant, United States - Jul 27, 2008 Obtaining a FICO score and credit report from one of the credit bureaus costs $15.95; the combination of all three scores and reports costs $47.85. ... Steps to take to repair your credit CreditCards.com Bad credit can be overcome to get an affordable mortgage Cherry Hill Courier Post all 6 news articles » Ask the expert: What exactly is a credit score? St. Cloud Times, MN - Aug 2, 2008 The score widely used by lenders is the FICO score developed by Fair Isaac and Company. It ranges from 300-850. It provides the lender with information to ...

VantageScore vs. FICO credit score

I recently obtained my credit score, and unfortunately you can only obtain the Vantage score from TransUnion and Experian. But when I applied for a mortgage they used the old scoring systems. Isn't this going to cause major issues for borrowers?

If you purchase your score and do not have the option of seeing what the lenders will see this will cause people to apply for credit they just won't get. My middle score with Vantage is 668 but with the old scoring system it is only 574. Of course I didn't know this until I applied for a loan.

I am in the process of rebuilding my credit but I feel there is a discrepancy in the awareness of your actual credit score. Can you provide any suggestions as to determining what your score is and how to obtain the classic scores?
-- Chantale

Article continues below and (thank you)

Dear Chantale,
Section 609(f) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, reproduced below, spells out that the score you get from the consumer reporting agencies (credit bureaus) doesn't have to match the score used by the lender.

They're not unrelated, since what's in your credit report is, in both cases, the information used to compute your credit score.

(f) Disclosure of Credit Scores
(1) In general. Upon the request of a consumer for a credit score, a consumer reporting agency shall supply to the consumer a statement indicating that the information and credit scoring model may be different than the credit score that may be used by the lender, and a notice which shall include --
(A) the current credit score of the consumer or the most recent credit score of the consumer that was previously calculated by the credit reporting agency for a purpose related to the extension of credit;
(B) the range of possible credit scores under the model used;
(C) all of the key factors that adversely affected the credit score of the consumer in the model used, the total number of which shall not exceed 4, subject to paragraph (9);
(D) the date on which the credit score was created; and
(E) the name of the person or entity that provided the credit score or credit file upon which the credit score was created.

The consumer reporting agencies are glad to take your money and the score you get will relate to the credit score that the lender gets from them, but it isn't likely to be the exact same number. Experian is, as you point out, now offering the Vantage credit score on its Web site, versus the FICO score.

Vantage score vs. FICO score

The Vantage score is based on six variables, versus the FICO score's five variables. Here's a comparison of the two:

Vantage score

• Payment history 32%
  
• Utilization 23%
  
• Balances 15%
  
• Depth of credit 13%
  
• Recent credit 10%
  
• Available credit 7%
  Total 100%

FICO score

• Payment history 35%
  
• Length of credit history 15%
  
• Amounts owed 30%
  
• Types of credit uses 10%
  
• New credit 10%
  Total 100%
  

In my mind I relate these changes to the change in the scoring of the Scholastic Aptitude Tests, or SATs. The information is still relevant, but everyone is feeling his way around using the new score in decision making.

The top Vantage score is 990, in contrast to the top FICO score of 850. You could multiply your Vantage credit score by 0.86 (850/990) to get a rough approximation of your FICO score -- that worked like a charm with your numbers. Or use Bankrate's free FICO score estimator to get an idea of what your "FICO Classic" score is.