FICO score- Wow! (loan, interest rate, pre-approval, credit score)

[Icenet]

I'm not the boasting type and I certainly don't feel rich but I was shocked that my FICO score is 931. My question is that I plan to sell my condo and buy sometime in the summer of 09. This time, it will be me and my fiancee on the loan docs. Her FICO is in the mid 700s. Will this be a disadvantage with our interest rate? Thanks!

[cdelena]

I was under the impression that the top score is 850. Are you sure you are getting good information?

[rtandc]

Yes 850 is the highest so something is not right somewhere

[Icenet]

I got it from the TransUnion website. I paid $8.00 to see the score. It also had it as a "A" rating. Could there be differences between the big three related the highest?

[cdelena]

Range of scores

"A FICO score is between 300 and 850, exhibiting a left-skewed distribution with 60% of scores between 650 and 799.[7] According to Fair Isaac the median score is 723 (half of scores above and below) whereas according to Experian (using the Fair Isaac risk model) the average credit score is 678 (lowest scores are further from the median than the highest scores). The performance of the scores is monitored and the scores are periodically aligned so that a credit grantor normally does not need to be concerned about which score card was employed."

"Since the Fair Isaac Corp. provides the dominant scoring method, non-Fair Isaac method-generated scores often mimic FICO scores (and are frequently derisively referred to as "FAKO" scores). Although not as widely used, these scores (e.g. TransUnion's "TransRisk", Experian's "ScoreX", and "PLUS" scores), are less expensive to buy than is the FICO score."

[sh9730]

And the vast majority of lenders only use the middle FICO score. Only place to get those is at www.myfico.com . If you google "FICO DISCOUNT CODE" you ll get to some sites that can give you promo codes for discounts to get these scores.

[renriq02]

FICO goes to 850

You're speaking about the new scoring model which goes to 990
VantageScore

[NewJersey?]

Originally Posted by renriq02

FICO goes to 850

You're speaking about the new scoring model which goes to 990
VantageScore

Yes! The OP got me curious to see my score, so I looked it up on Experian. I got 973 and my wife has 977. The range is 501 - 990. We're in the "Super Prime" category. lol "Your score is higher than 98.62% ..." My wife's might be a tad more because her score is higher. Wow.

I'd still like to see my FICO score. I think Equifax does that, right? Last "free"
report I got was 11.5 months ago, so I have to wait another two weeks for that one.

So is this 'Vantage' score legit? Is this the new fico score? I paid $5.99 for it!! lol

[Icenet]

Originally Posted by NewJersey?

Yes! The OP got me curious to see my score, so I looked it up on Experian. I got 973 and my wife has 977. The range is 501 - 990. We're in the "Super Prime" category. lol "Your score is higher than 98.62% ..." My wife's might be a tad more because her score is higher. Wow.

I'd still like to see my FICO score. I think Equifax does that, right? Last "free"
report I got was 11.5 months ago, so I have to wait another two weeks for that one.

So is this 'Vantage' score legit? Is this the new fico score? I paid $5.99 for it!! lol

I knew I wasn't seeing things! I'll take my 931 and quit while I'm ahead. Thanks all.

[Filet Mignon]

These credit scores are basically crap, and every banker knows it.

Several years ago, I sold a house and (of course) paid off the mortgage. My credit score did not increase 1 point. So I called a customer service dork at one of the "big 3" and asked why. He said that paying off a mortgage simply has no bearing on your credit score. I asked him if he thought that paying off a $150,000 mortgage might affect my ability to pay other bills. He just said, "Not really."

Also, about 2 years ago I threw out a pre-approval application to LendingTree.com - not really knowing how the process worked, but knowing it was free (something I'll never do again). What I didn't know is that that application gave potential lenders the right to pull my credit score. 9 of them did, and it drove my score down by 50 points.

But the main reason I believe this whole credit score crap is a scam, is because both my sons - in their early 20s - have credit scores that are 100-150 points higher than mine. Neither of them have any collateral, both have less than one-third my income, and neither has any real payback history. So they both have a MUCH higher credit score than me, but I was able to buy two more houses in two months, earlier this year.


Something is screwed up here. Of course, most things in the financial industry are screwed up.