Consumer vs. Lender Credit Scores

I know it's true that we have so many FICO scores and different kind of credit scores and they might be different from each others. But one person either is a credit trustworthy or not. I mean if you be responsible with your credit and money and pay your bills and loan payments on time you will have a good credit in general. They might be slight difference between scores but in general when a lender takes a look at your credit report he/she finds out that you are a responsible person. So it's better to focus on our financial behavior rather than some numbers. just my 2 cents.

Is there a score higher than 850 for any of these credit bureaus?

I absolutely agree. Focus on paying your bills each month and not taking on more debt than you can handle. Your credit score, no matter which version you or a lender looks at, will reflect your good behavior.

How do they consider HELOCS and Line of Credits

When you apply for a HELOC or line of credit, the lender will still pull your credit score. The score the lender pulls will vary, as the article discusses. But it will still be based on your past history of paying your loans (including your mortgage and credit cards) on time.

Credit scores is a measure of how much a person loves debt. Did you know that if you don't borrow money, you won't have a credit score? People think it is a number that says they are winning with money, when really just means that they are managing their debt how the banks like people to. Well, we all know what that means - the banks have one purpose, and that is to take money out of our pockets and into theirs. So if we manage money the way they want us to, they will be the ones better off in the long run.

Stay or get out of debt, live within your means, and save up for purchases (excepting homes, and even those pay off as quickly as possible while achieving other goals.)

Great quote - the borrower is truly slave to the lender.

MB, You're right that banks have one purpose: to make money. This is why banks also lend to people with lower credit scores -- because they can lend to them at higher interest rates. Of course, the risks are higher for the bank because those low-credit-score borrowers are more likely to not repay the loan at all. But what banks love more than anything is for people to carry a balance month to month and pay a high interest rate on it. Those are the real slaves.

I have been using Experian Triple Advantage Monitoring for about $15 a month since August. My score in August was 653. Today it is 677. I tried getting "pre-approved" for a FHA loan the other day. The lender ran my credit and the score they were given by Experian was 608 which was the "middle" score of the three agencies. Why is there such a discrepancy between my number and the lenders number? I ran the other two bureaus as well and the score reported to me was 49 and 88 points higher than what the lender reported.

TB: Lenders often use their own scoring models that can vary significantly from the scores we as consumers are able to purchase online. The scores you buy online are educational scores that strive to give you an idea of how you might rank in a lender's eye.

I'm currently running into same problem with different scores. Ran into very hard times in 2006-08 with my small, sole proprietor ship business, namely farming. My credit score got really messed up during this time. I sold some land to pay off largest of debts, reduced size of my business, and did a lot better job of managing it. I knew my credit score got awful during this time and well into 2009. Had awful time getting remaining current debts financed into one loan last year, not because local lenders didn't trust me or like my new business plan (over 40 pages long) or didn't want my business. They could not touch me for one reason -- my credit score, even though I had never defaulted on anyone. Finally got my debts refinanced with one community bank lender with my elderly mother co-signing and getting okay but far from great terms. I still needed to re-fi my house, take care of paying back some very patient family members, and seek a better long term structure with my major farm note. I waited a few months after people were paid to start tracking my score, which I knew had been in high 500's and low 600's. Purchased service to get my personal 3 scores from an internet company about 7 weeks ago. 2 scores were in 730's and one was about 680. Started pursuing financing options. Now I find out that the scores lenders are getting are running about 80 points lower on average than the score I was being given from the service. This really steams me! I understand about there being some discrepancies in different reports, but 80 points each! This information does me no good with approaching lenders, and makes me look like a fool for approaching them as if I was really in the 730's. This hurts my credibility with lenders I approach for future follow up opportunities as well. The lack of transparency in this is absolutely ridiculous. I also have come to deeply feel that a scoring system which takes into account business ownership and net worth needs to be developed for small business owners like myself. Would appreciate any suggestions, particularly if someone knows where you can get access to similar numbers to the ones lenders see.

Hi DSF-Sounds like you've been doing an admirable job of paying back your debts and consolidating remaining loans. I know what you mean about wanting access to the scores that lenders use, preferably before you've submitted an application for a loan! The consumer scores you can buy online only take into account the information on your credit report. The formula that lenders use may also factor in other portions of your loan application, such as income. I'm really sorry to hear the discrepancy was so large in your case. There has been some push for legislative reform that would force the credit bureaus and lenders to be more upfront with the credit scoring process, but right now, unfortunately, the industry holds their formulas really close to the chest. My advice would be continue to try and improve your credit situation, and within a year you should see significant credit score improvement, no matter who is calculating it.

I just started working with a credit repair company to analyze my scores and help me improve them. They are 659,667, & 645; and I need to get them up to minimum 680, hopefully 700 ASAP. According to them, it turns out the biggest hit on my score is unused credit on several open accounts with no activity. (mainly store charge cards which my wife had cut up but I knew not to close) They say I've now got to go shopping and get the usage up on those cards, as well as not completely pay off the balances on the other cards I am still using. Having new usage and carrying about a 30% balance on the cards will apparently make me look prettier to the scoring computers. While this may be true, this FLIES IN THE FACE of every common sense thing I was ever taught, and also in the face of basically every bit of credit advice you hear on TV or read. If that's the game I must play, I'm going to play it because I've got around $2 million of total lending in the air between business and home. But to think that the only way that I can clear the hurdle with a lender who knows me is to go spend money on stuff I don't need so that my score will shoot up for his credit folks is INFURIATING AND RIDICULOUS. Any comments appreciated.

Yeah, sometimes the factors that go into making up a credit score can feel like ingredients in a witch's brew; you never really know the recipe. The most likely reason the credit repair folks are telling you to use your older cards is so those accounts get regularly updated with the bureaus and are given as much weight as other accounts you regularly use and pay. Truthfully, though, the science is unpredictable. You could rack up more debt on those cards only to find that your utilization ratio then becomes too high. On a side note, I hope you aren't paying large, upfront fees to the credit repair company you're working with?

It's $400 and they were recommended by the mortgage broker I'm working with. With my permission, he went on and forwarded my info to them. I thought it seemed like a lot, but they seem pretty sharp and I'm getting personalized attention. If they help me get a loan done 10 days or so quicker, then the additional amount (versus what a discount credit repair agency charges) will be saved in interest paid and in good nights sleeps.

Does this agency you are working with do rapid re-scoring? Some credit resellers can do rapid re-scoring, raising the potential borrower's score by an average of 30 points. From what I understand, though, your mortgage lender is supposed to pay for this service on your behalf. Because of this reason, the process is not very well known. Or does the company you are working with just make personalized suggestions of how you can improve your credit?

I think it's the rapid rescoring, but I'll have to find out tomorrow. They talked like getting to 680 wouldn't be a problem, but 700 might take a little longer. So that would be about 30 points.