The only credit score that matters is the one that your mortgage lender is using. If you are applying for a car financing, it will be the score that the car financing company is using. So which score is the most accurate is irrelevant and hard to define anyway. They all use different algorithms and will tell you that theirs is the best. It does not make much sense to me either but it is what it is.

With that in mind, what you can do is check with several mortgage lenders and see who they use to provide them the credit scores. Hopefully you can find someone using the one that gives you the highest score. As far as I know, they all use one of the three national credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax and Transunion) and at least some of them should be using their scores too.

Also, I would have to disagree ith some of the suggestions other responders have given you, specifically with the one that is advising you to close accounts that you are not using. Don’t do it! It will worsen your debt-to-credit ratio, which is a component of your credit score. What it shows is the overall unpaid balance (across all of your open accounts) as a proportion of your combined credit lines. Ideally, you should keep it below 8%.

What you can do is go to, they provide credit scores to most of the US financial institutions. That’s all they do and they offer a free trial account, which gives you not only the score but information on what to do to improve it. Unfortunately, they don’t give out their formula, but they still provide more than what I’ve found anywhere else.

Good luck!

Each credit bureau rates differently so you will have different scores… With a credit score of 600-660 that is considered good so you won’t have a problem getting a loan.. Just dont apply for every offer you see cause it will lower your score.. Search for the good rates…

They are both right. All 3 bureau’s use different scoring models to calculate credit scores. It is also possible that some bureau’s have some information that other ones don’t This is fairly common. The banks probaly wont even use these scores if you go for a mortgage. They will either use a fico score or what is called a Tri-merge report score. At any rate with scores in the lower 600′s it might be hard to get a conventional mortgage, especially with the way the housing market is. Yo may qualify for FHA, they are more fogiving, but with the housing crisis even they have tightened up there once forgiving criteria. With a score in 600′s you SHOULD be ok for FHA. Hope some of this info helps. Best of luck!

both are correct.

The one most important is the Fair Issac Score , the so called FICO score. That is what 90% of the credit people use to rate you. They take the inout from all 3 credit agency to get their number.

Try to get at least a 760 before you try to get a home loan, over 800 would be ideal,

There are three scores used. (They average them.) 750 or higher is what you should be aiming for. In the 600s is mediocre. Nowadays, banks and loaning co. are skittish. What can you do to improve your score?
1. Pay off any credit card debt you have.
2. Close unnecessary accts.
3. Compare your income v. your spending. If the ratio is not good, change your habits.
For ex., I use credit cards to pay for everything because I want to collect mileage pts, etc. I always pay my bills, but on paper, it looks like I am insane. Someone with my income shouldn’t be charging that much every month if credit cards are for “emergencies, special occasions, etc.” So, if the credit bureau views your spending as inappropriate, they will lower your score (regardless if you are paying your bills). Therefore, change your habits for a 3-6 months before applying for a mortgage to get a better score.

It is normal for your FICO score to be different for each of the three bureaus. There might be different info on each report and they have different formulas. The best place to check for real FICO scores is MyFico.com.

Mortgage companies pull scores from all three and usually go with the middle score. Of course, the better your score, the better the interest rate.

This would be a good time to get copies of your credit report (AnnualCreditReport.com) and see what shows up. Dispute any errors. And start working on settling any derogatory items — start with the newest and work back to the oldest. Mortgage companies will insist all derogatory items be settled before you are approved. Might as well start on it now.

If you are carrying balances on credit cards, pay them off. Carrying balances of more than 30% of your available limit hurts your score. Paying them off is the fast way to boost your score.

Another bit of advice, don’t buy more house than you can really afford. Use the 25% of your monthly income as house payment rule of thumb.

Both, they’re not always equal just cause they use different methods to calculate. And a loan with that score shouldn’t be difficult depending on the price.

one may go back further then the other one. Congrats on your up comming wedding.

Carrie