Consumer Credit Scores Are Different From Mortgage Credit Scores

As we explain from time to time, most mortgage lenders pull credit scores from the three major bureaus (Transunion, Equifax and Experian) and they correlate to the middle of the three scores. If there are two borrowers, lenders usually correlate to whichever borrower has the lower middle score, often frustrating borrowers with especially good credit.

Something else that is important to understand, however, is that different industries have different scoring models. So, one industry’s score might be totally different from another’s.

For example, there are different scoring models for consumer credit cards, mortgage loans and car loans. Typically, the consumer models have the least stringent scoring criteria while the car loan models have the most stringent.

Most of the online services and apps that offer free credit scores use the consumer model and often provide higher credit scores than what we pull with our mortgage model.

We decided to devote a blog to this b/c it fosters so much confusion and frustration among our borrowers.

Jay Voorhees
Founder/Broker | JVM Lending
(855) 855-4491 | DRE# 01524255, NMLS# 310167