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Old 09-20-2016, 12:23 PM
 
17 posts, read 12,011 times
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I know there is so much discrepancy with Credit Karma's scores and what your credit score actually is in terms of getting approved for a mortgage. What is the deal? How "off" is a credit karma's score?


On a related note, credit karma does use a "vantage score" correct? It differs from a fico score anyway in that it's lower, at least in my case. My fico scores (like from my credit cards) are all in the mid to upper 700s but my vantage is like 680 ish right now (expecting it to go up next month after a cc is paid off)


I don't want to go pulling my credit left and right to actually see the number since we are months off for applying for a mortgage. Just curious to see if we'll be ok to obtain a mortgage in the months to come.
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Old 09-20-2016, 01:18 PM
 
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My Credit Karma score was a little higher than my actual score, between 8 and 10 points higher.
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Old 09-20-2016, 01:47 PM
 
17 posts, read 12,011 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LifeIsGood01 View Post
My Credit Karma score was a little higher than my actual score, between 8 and 10 points higher.
well that's not bad at all. I have read forums where it varied greatly.
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Old 09-20-2016, 01:56 PM
 
Location: Free State of Florida
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Mine differed by as much as 60 points.
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Old 09-20-2016, 01:59 PM
 
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There are different FICO scores for different purposes since they are calculated using different algorithms. The score pulled by an auto loan lender will be different than the score pulled by a mortgage lender for the same person; people don't actually have one FICO score, they have MANY. I believe you can buy all three credit bureau scores from FICO.com and they will include the weighted mortgage score but it's $60 or so. That might be worth it right before you apply for a mortgage but not now.

You will qualify for the best mortgage interest rates as long as your score is over 760 so just do everything you can until you apply to get your score as high as you can: keep credit card utilisation as low as possible (I pay my cards off before the statement closes to keep them below 10% utilisation, which is ideal), don't close any long standing accounts or open new ones (you want your length of credit history to be as long as possible), don't allow any hard pulls on your credit (another reason not to apply for new accounts) and pay everything on time.

Our Credit Karma score was actually pretty close to the score the mortgage lenders pulled last year when we bought our house. (Credit Karma showed our mid score at 820 and the lender score pulled was 813. The lender will throw out the highest and lowest FICO score of the three and just use the middle score.) We figured, given that we just needed a mid score over 760 and Credit Karma showed our scores all in the 810-820 ranges, that we would be fine (and we were) so we didn't bother to buy our scores.
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Old 09-20-2016, 03:14 PM
 
Location: Cali
162 posts, read 197,557 times
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2 of my Fico scores: 810 ex and 815 tu. My last inquiry falls off next month so I should have a tiny score jump then.
My Credit Karma score: 775
My Credit Sesame score: 772

I don't know about you but I consider 30 points quite the swing when comparing my Fico scores to the "For entertainment purposes only" scores, which is essentially what Vantage scores are.
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Old 09-20-2016, 03:19 PM
 
Location: Atlanta, GA
14,834 posts, read 7,361,795 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by k101108 View Post
On a related note, credit karma does use a "vantage score" correct? It differs from a fico score anyway in that it's lower, at least in my case. My fico scores (like from my credit cards) are all in the mid to upper 700s but my vantage is like 680 ish right now (expecting it to go up next month after a cc is paid off)
The only score that usually matters for mortgages is the FICO mortgage score, which as mentioned is different from other scores, including other FICO scores. You can order it from myfico.com.


Quote:
Originally Posted by k101108 View Post
I don't want to go pulling my credit left and right to actually see the number since we are months off for applying for a mortgage. Just curious to see if we'll be ok to obtain a mortgage in the months to come.
Pulling your own credit does not affect anything, you could check it every day and it wouldn't matter.
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Old 09-20-2016, 03:55 PM
 
284 posts, read 267,403 times
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I read where people said it differed by 100 points! Its a little hard to believe though. Ive paid down a credit card significantly so I'm waiting for my score to go up from that. My score is mediocre because I have a lot of inquiries and I STUPIDLY closed my oldest account which I'm still mad at myself for. Half of those inquiries will remain when we apply for the mortgage though. Payments are 100% on time, utilization is relatively low. I figured its really just a waiting game. Hubby's is worse because he has a few late payments so that's really a waiting game as well.


You say I will get the best rates with a score over 760 but... you can still get approved with lower correct? Could I actually get approved now (based on credit solely)?
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Old 09-20-2016, 04:23 PM
 
Location: 5,400 feet
4,825 posts, read 4,731,646 times
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Discover Card, Citibank cards and Amex cards have your FICO score on your account on their web site. Just sign into your account and you can access it. Discover prints it on the monthly bill.
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Old 09-20-2016, 04:43 PM
 
Location: Atlanta, GA
14,834 posts, read 7,361,795 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jiminnm View Post
Discover Card, Citibank cards and Amex cards have your FICO score on your account on their web site. Just sign into your account and you can access it. Discover prints it on the monthly bill.
This is not the mortgage score however.
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