When Your Credit Score Isn’t Really Your Credit Score
Potential home buyers are often told to “check your credit score” before applying for a mortgage. That’s a great idea, but many buyers don’t realize that not all scores are the same. What they should be checking is their FICO credit score.
What happened? How can the credit score you buy be higher than the one the lender receives? The answer is a simple one – there is more than one kind of credit score. Each of the three main credit bureaus – Equifax, Experian and Trans Union, uses a different method of determining credit scores. While the scale and criteria they use are roughly the same, the formula is slightly different at each bureau, so checking with all three bureaus could provide you with three different scores. Or even four – the three bureaus are now also making use of a unified scoring system. But which one is the “correct” score?
Mortgage lenders almost universally check the FICO score, created by Fair, Isaac, and Co. The FICO score is similar to many others, but it’s the one that lenders are checking. That means that if you want to know exactly where you stand ahead of time, you need to check your FICO score yourself. And you need to make sure that the number you receive is, in fact, your FICO figure and not some other arbitrary score.
How can you do that? There are many places on the Internet where you can obtain a credit score, but not all of them will offer the FICO figure. Make sure that the site you visit offers the FICO score before you agree to pay. Equifax makes the FICO figure available on their site, as does MyFICO.com. If you aren’t sure, you might check with one of those two Websites. Making sure you have an accurate representation of your financial health prior to applying for a home loan is a great idea. Just make sure that you are looking at the same measure of financial health that your lender will use – your FICO score.