FICO is the scoring model used to determine credit risk of a consumer for the purpose of lending and finance. The scores range from 350-850 and pulled from the 3 major credit reporting agencies: Transunion Experian & Equifax.
The whole purpose of the credit score is to determine risk for financing yet do you ever wonder why when you pull your credit on sites such as Credit Karma, Credit Sesame and other Free consumer sites, the scores are different from when you have a loan officer or bank pull your credit?
There are Auto Scores, Consumer Scores, Bank Scores, Mortgage Scores, Credit Card Scores etc… Depending on the type of financing you are trying to obtain will usually determine the type of report & score that is pulled.
That’s because there are several different types of credit reports & scores. You would think they would all be the same, but they are not. For one there are multiple versions of the FICO score system, they are currently on FICO 9. So depending on what version the banks have will also determine the scoring calculation differently… There are Auto Scores, Consumer Scores, Bank Scores, Mortgage Scores, Credit Card Scores etc… Depending on the type of financing you are trying to obtain will usually determine the type of report & score that is pulled.
The ones you, as a consumer, can pull yourself is called a Consumer Report & Score and those are NOT the same as finance reports & scores. Even if you go directly to Transunion, Experian & Equifax to pull yourself, those are still consumer scores and will be much different than scores used for financing.
Sites like Credit Karma, Credit Sesame, Annual credit Report (and any others you pull for free) are all Consumer sites and the scores vary from 20-150 points higher or lower than finance reports.
If you ever want accurate scores and reports you have to pay for them. Go to www.myfico.com
