Credit Score-Beacon Score-Fico Score-Explained

Sometimes when you are getting ready to make a purchase you will find everyone calling credit scores different names. You will hear FICO Score, credit scores, and Beacon score are the typical terms for credit scores. One of the problems is when you don’t have a good standardization in a industry, you get different versions of a product or service. That is currently the problem with our credit scoring models being used. You have more than a couple issues. In this article I wanted to discuss this because it can be confusing out there for the average consumer. If you are getting ready to make a purchase, this is a must read.

Credit Score
A credit score is a numerical expression based on a statistical analysis of a person's credit files, to represent the creditworthiness of that person, which is the perceived likelihood that the person will pay debts in a timely manner. This is the most standardized term for what a credit score is. Most people relate to the term credit score. This is the most widely used term out of the 3 terms used in this article.

FICO Score
FICO is an acronym for Fair Isaac Corporation the creator of the FICO Score. This terminology is becoming widely used in the mainstream public. The reason for this is FICO scores are what 80% of the banks use to determine your risk. FICO scores range between 300 and 850. The higher your FICO score the more favorable your rates and terms are on a loan. FICO scores are somewhat the standard that the 3 credit bureaus use to determine your scores as well. Even though Equifax is the only bureaus that using the FICO scoring system, the other two credit bureaus TransUnion and Experian have their own version designed based on the FICO score model which was created by Fair Isaac.

Beacon Score
Beacon is a version of FICO created by Equifax. Typically when you hear someone ask you about your beacon, that would be your credit score with Equifax. This software was called “Beacon.” Now currently the FICO score model created by Fair Isaac has became more of a standard than the scoring models created by the other credit bureaus.

When buying your credit scores with all three credit bureaus, each bureau will have their own version of your credit score. The scoring model standard is suppose to be based on Fair Isaac’ scoring model FICO. So who knows, it’s a little confusing, but that’s what banks, car dealerships, and credit card companies pull to determine your risk.

If you are getting ready to make a purchase, make sure you get all 3 credit scores, because that is what the lenders are looking at.

About the Author: Mike Clover is the owner of http://www.creditscorequick.com/. CreditScoreQuick.com is the one of the most unique on-line resources for free credit score report, fico score, free credit check, identity theft protection, secured credit cards, student credit cards , credit cards, mortgage loans, auto loans, insurance, debt consolidation ,and a BlOG with a wealth of personal credit information. The information within this website is written by professionals that know about credit, and what determines ones credit worthiness.

Sallie Mae causes credit score error.

Some borrowers that have sallie mae student loans were shocked last week when they checked their credit report with Equifax, only to find that their credit scores have dropped. Some of the borrowers were delinquent, and some were not.

Here is what happened
Last Thursday May the 8th Sallie Mae made a error in the way some student loans were reported to the credit bureau. They reported graduated or extended repayment plan as arrangements for partial payment. This caused Equifax the biggest and oldest credit bureau to code the accounts as delinquent, even if they were current.

An extended payment plan allows the borrower to pay the loan out over 12 to 30 years. The standard plan usually is in repayment over 10 years. A graduated payment plan starts out as a low payment, and gradually increases every two years over a term of 12 to 30yrs.

“ There are some repayment plans that on our system are considered a partial payment. They are still in current status, but they are essentially for an extended or graduated repayment plan, and with our understanding of these industry guidelines on how to code that is where we made an error,” Says Martha Holler, spokeswoman for Sallie Mae. “

Borrowers with extended or graduated repayment plans who applied for credit or pulled their credit scores in the last three business days may have had “one or more of their accounts show up late, and had a negative impact on their credit scores,” Says Tom Joyce, spokesman for Sallie Mae

Some students that had these types of loans complained in the FICO forums that their FICO scores had dropped a total of 100 points because of this mistake.

Joyce says ” less than 10 percent” of their 10 million borrowers, or less than 1 million borrowers were affected by this mistake.

Action being taken
Sallie Mae plans on working with Equifax to fix this problem with borrowers who’s credit reports were affected. These errors will be deleted from the Equifax, and the borrower’s credit score should return to the scores they were.

Meanwhile Sallie Mae said they would provide letters to those that need them. Sallie Mae urges borrowers concerned about this mistake to call (888) 272-5543

This is a great reason to pull your credit report; you never know when a creditor is going to make a mistake. Current statistics show that 80% of credit reports have errors on them.

Get your free credit score report today !

This article was wrote: by www.bankrate.com

Mike Clover is the owner of http://www.creditscorequick.com/. CreditScoreQuick.com is the one of the most unique on-line resources for free credit score report, fico score, free credit check, identity theft protection, secured credit cards, student credit cards , credit cards, mortgage loans, auto loans, insurance and a BlOG with a wealth of personal credit information. The information within this website is written by professionals that know about credit, and what determines ones credit worthiness.

Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian Credit Reports

Equifax, TransUnion and Experian all provide you access to your free credit score reports. Does it really matter if you get a credit report just from one bureau? Maybe you don’t even know who the credit bureaus are. Here is a little background about each that spit out the life altering three digit credit score..



Equifax credit report history
Equifax Inc is a consumer credit reporting agency in the United States. Equifax is considered one of the three credit reporting agencies along with TransUnion and Experian. Founded in 1899, Equifax is the oldest of the three credit bureaus, and holds credit records totaling around 400 million worldwide. Equifax is based in Atlanta, Georgia and is a global service provider with $1.5 Billion in revenue along with 5000 employees in 14 countries.





TransUnion Credit Report History
TransUnion was created in 1968 by Union Tank Car Company as their holding company. Its credit business began with the purchase of Credit Bureau of Cook County (CBCC) in 1969. Trans Union was built from acquisitions of major city credit bureaus, with service agreements with local owners of bureaus which were not for sale. Today it operates 250 offices in the U.S. and in 24 other countries. It is based in Chicago, Illinois.
TransUnion was a subsidiary of The Marmon Group until January 2005. It is now an independent, privately held company.

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Experian Credit Reporting History
Experian is formerly known as CCN Systems. Experian is considered one of the three big credit bureaus along with Equifax and TransUnion. TransUnion is global credit information group, with operations in 36 countries.
Experian was founded in 1980 in Dublin Ireland and employees 15,500 people worldwide.

Since all three of the credit bureaus provide the same information it really does matter where you pull your credit report, as long as they provide you with a 3-1 credit report from all three credit bureaus. Your credit scores will always be different with each credit bureau. The reason for this is each creditor that reports your credit history may not report to all 3 bureaus. Plus the three credit bureaus all use their own credit scoring software. So with this being said, it is important to pull a copy of your free credit score report with all three credit bureaus. You can get a copy of your 3-1 credit report with each of the credit bureaus. If you just pull a credit report with one bureau, and it’s not a 3-1 credit report, then you are missing critical information from the other two agencies. So make sure you get your 3-1 credit report with all 3 credit scores.

About the Author: Mike Clover is the owner of http://www.creditscorequick.com/. CreditScoreQuick.com is the one of the most unique on-line resources for free credit score report, fico score, free credit check, identity theft protection, secured credit cards, student credit cards , credit cards, mortgage loans, auto loans, insurance and a BlOG with a wealth of personal credit information. The information within this website is written by professionals that know about credit, and what determines ones credit worthiness