What’s a Beacon Credit Score? – Episode #13

What is a Beacon Score? You may hear “i’ve got your beacon score right here” from a lender, and you may be thinking “wait, I have my FICO score, what’s a Beacon Score?”. As if it’s not hard enough with having to know that you have 3 FICO scores, not just one.

The credit reporting agencies use different brand names for their implementation of the FICO model. Equifax’s version of the FICO model is also known as the Beacon Score. This branding exercise is a little easier with Trans Union. They call their FICO score the TU FICO Classic. Experian calls their FICO score the Experian/Fair Isaac Risk Model. If you hear any of these names, you are getting a FICO score. To make this easier, just ask your lender if their score is a FICO score. They should know the brand name schematic better than you.

Remember the credit bureaus all offer FICO scores indirectly via lenders, but have their own scoring systems for their consumer sites. Through annualcreditreport.com equifax offers a FICO score, but TU and Experian offer the vantage score. On TrueCredit, they offer a TU based credit score. Experian offers the PLUS score. Net net, if you want to compare apples to apple and your lender has a FICO score, you want to get your score from myFICO.com.

Similar Posts:

• What’s a Beacon Credit Score? – Episode #13
• Pre-Approval Credit Scores – Episode #102
• How To Get Your Credit Scores – Lesson #3
• Can I Stop Credit Card Offers? – Episode #14
• Do Lender Credit Reports and Credit Scores Look Different? – Episode #35
• What’s a Good Credit Score? – Episode #4