Is it true that when applying for a house, lenders will pull all 3 reports, discard the high and low score, and use only the middle score? If true, as long as 2 reports are good, the third can have anything on it? True? I ask because I'm hoping to buy a house soon and am having good successes cleaning 2 of 3 reports, but TU is being tough.
That is correct usually... They use the middle score for the basis of your rate.. some lenders will also only use the credit report which they use for the score.. disregarding the other 2 reports. however... others will take your other reports into consideration sometimes.. for debt to income ration and potential liens that may occur once you obtian title.. this would be the case if you middle score is marginal.. for example if you have a 680,650 and your low is 595 i wouldnt worry about it too much.. Kev
We just closed on our house last Friday and here's what I found... I think that in general the "middle score rule" is true, but it also depends on who is doing your mortgage. For instance our mortgage broker has a really good relationship with World Savings and they offer a really nice mortgage product called "Equity Builder". In order to qualify for that you have to have 20% down and a FICO of at least 700. On my 3 reports my middle score was a 683 (EQ) and my high score was a 733 (TU). Well, my broker was able to use that TU score to qualify us for the "Equity Builder" program even though it wasn't the middle score. However, if you are not going through a broker, but directly through a bank, credit union, etc... then I believe that they go strictly by the middle score. Hope this helps. Kirk
They may disregard the scores, usually basing your rate on the middle score, BUt if you have anything outstanding on your lowest report that will come into play. Also when applying jointly, most use the lower of the 2 middle scores.
If you had 750---740---500 (because of errors---WRONG INFORMATION)...BE AFRAID... Incorrect information can be added at any time...
