Question about FAKO vs FICO and trying to get a home loan

[want to love my credit 1]

So we hve been working really hard to get my husbands credit score up. His scores have went from the upper 500s to 622,623 and 644 according to the Equifiax web site. I know these are FAKO scores. The lender we are working with said that our middle score had to be 620 or higher. So here is my question are FAKO scores typically lower or higher the FICO? Not sure whether we should call up the lender and give it another try or not.

  Another thing that we have done to raise our score was to get a small personal loan. Now I am hearing that we need to have two lines of credit as in the loan we have and a credit card. Is this true?

[willingtocope 1,335]

There is NO WAY to predict FICO from FAKO.  The FICO calculations are secret and the FAKO calculations are just a guess. 

 

I'd give the mortgage lender another try and see where you stand...

 

Remember, there are many different FICO scoring models...having no CCs may actually help your FICO Mortgage Score, depending on your past history and the size of your down payment.

[RockDaddy 58]

Another thing that we have done to raise our score was to get a small personal loan. Now I am hearing that we need to have two lines of credit as in the loan we have and a credit card. Is this true?

 

Credit Bureaus like to see a 'mix' of credit types:  Mortgage, revolving / loan, credit cards are three different types of credit.

Length of time your accounts have been open counts, as well as your utilization percentage.

[willingtocope 1,335]

Mortgage underwriters, on the other hand, like to see 1 or 2 CCs, with credit limits totaling less than $10k and a $0 balance.  A car loan helps.  Personal loans hurt...not a lot, but money in a savings account is better.

[admin 884]

Mortgage underwriters, on the other hand, like to see 1 or 2 CCs, with credit limits totaling less than $10k and a $0 balance.  A car loan helps.  Personal loans hurt...not a lot, but money in a savings account is better.

 

Personal loans hurt?  Even though they are installment loans?

[willingtocope 1,335]

Personal loans hurt a bit.  Not as bad as too many credit cards (because they can't rate jack you), but they do constitute "unsecured" credit which may result in a law suit.  Even the sucker score doesn't like personal loans because they don't quite fit the "utilization" scam.  Now, a line of credit, is more like a credit card...and hurts more.

[RockDaddy 58]

Though I wasn't going for a mortgage, but rather trying to improve my credit score, I went for a secured loan.

 

This one thing improved my credit score almost 100 points.  YMMV.

 

WTC's rationale does make sense though, as an unsecured loan 'could' be defaulted on, so a lender may not think it a good thing.

[want to love my credit 1]

We got a small personal loan to help are credit but its small small like $325 small. Hopefully it wont do the opposite and hurt his credit

[vision2014 3]

So, how does one tell if the score that is on the CR is a FAKO or FICO?  If it is a FAKO, how and/or where do you obtain and accurate FICO?

[willingtocope 1,335]

The only true credit scores come from myfico.com.  If you order a credit report directly from one of the three credit reporting agencies, it may include a FICO score from that CRA, but, any reference to scores from the other two will be out of date.  They are competitors and do not willingly share up-to-date info with each other.