Most lenders use FICO scores, with FICO Score 8 being the most common for general credit cards and personal loans, while mortgage lenders often use older, industry-specific versions like FICO 2, 4, and 5, and auto lenders use FICO Auto Scores. Lenders select a score based on the product, often pulling scores from all three bureaus (Experian, Equifax, TransUnion) and using the middle score for decisions.
For other types of credit, such as personal loans, student loans and retail credit, you'll likely want to know your FICO® Score 8, which is the score most widely used by lenders.
Yes, you can likely get a $50,000 loan with a 700 credit score, as this falls into the "good" credit range (670-739) that unlocks better rates, but approval also hinges on your income, debt-to-income (DTI) ratio (ideally below 36%), and overall credit history, with lenders looking for stability and repayment ability, so prequalifying with multiple lenders helps compare terms.
Your FICO score is a credit score — and you actually have more than one. If your FICO scores differ from other credit scores you see, it's likely because the scores you're viewing were calculated using a different scoring version or model. Those versions may have different information from each other.
Not all credit reference agencies use the same scale for the credit scores they provide. Experian rates your creditworthiness on a scale of 0 to 999, while ClearScore uses 0 to 1000 and Credit Karma uses 0 to 710. This can make the numbers look quite different, even if they reflect a similar level of creditworthiness.
The 3-7-3 Rule in mortgages isn't a loan type but a federal timeline from the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rule, ensuring borrower protection by mandating disclosures within 3 business days of application, a 7-business-day wait between the initial Loan Estimate and closing, and another 3-day wait if significant changes (like APR) occur, giving borrowers time to review costs before committing to a loan.
It's partly true: most negative items like late payments and collections are removed from your credit report after about seven years, but the underlying debt often still exists, and bankruptcies (Chapter 7) last 10 years, so your credit isn't entirely "clear" but mostly refreshed from old negatives. The 7-year clock starts from the date of the original delinquency, not when you paid it off or sent to collections, and the debt itself can still be pursued by collectors.
A FICO® Score analyzes the information in one of your credit reports to calculate a score. However, it's common for your credit reports from Experian, TransUnion and Equifax to differ. As a result, your FICO® Score 10—or any other type of FICO® Score—could be different depending on which of your reports it's scoring.
The majority of credit providers appear to use a single credit bureau and most often that bureau is Equifax. The ACCC also found that even where the large credit providers contract with multiple bureaux, some see Equifax as the primary bureau and utilise Experian and illion as a secondary data source.
The length of time it will take to improve your credit scores depends on your unique financial situation, but you may see a change as soon as 30 to 45 days after you have taken steps to positively impact your credit reports.
For base FICO® Scores, the credit score ranges are: Poor credit: 300 to 579. Fair credit: 580 to 669. Good credit: 670 to 739.
A minimum credit score of 620 is required to purchase a $300,000 house with a conventional loan. Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans require a 3.5% down payment for a credit score of 580 or above.
PenFed Credit Union is the only loan company that uses only your Equifax credit data. In most cases, you won't be able to determine beforehand which credit bureaus your lender will use.
After you pay off your debt, you may notice a drop to your credit scores. This happens because removing the debt affects certain factors affecting your credit score. These include your credit mix, your credit history or your credit utilization ratio. For example, paying off an auto loan can lower your credit scores.
Using this method, we make reliable decisions which are more consistent than relying upon personal impressions alone. The three main Credit Reference Agencies we use are Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.
Pay your bills on time
Your payment history makes up 35% of your FICO® Score, so making sure that you pay your credit and bills on time is a big deal. Late payments on things like credit cards, mortgages, auto loans, or student loans can significantly impact your score.