Is one CRA's score more important than the other?

Question

I have scores of 700+ from two CRA's, and a score of 658 from the other. How would lenders look at these scores?

Answer 1

Some creditors only use one CRA. One area of the country tends to use one CRA while another part of the country uses a different one.

The CRAs use different methods to arrive at your credit score. Equifax uses FICO. The other two use fako which has a different scale. Average FICO score is 725. Average fako is around 650.

Answer 2

Speaking as a nationally known credit score and mortgage lending expert (book, radio shows, newspaper columns, etc.)...

An auto lender may use only one score--either one they always use, or one that is randomly selected. Ask your auto lender how they'll select the credit repository.

We mortgage lenders almost always use the middle score, so having one score that's low rarely matters--unless that bureau is reporting something in your Public Records section like a judgment or tax lien or some such

Answer 3

Finance is what I do for a living and it depends on the lender.

Most lenders have a default bureau that they use based on Zip codes.

Some lenders look at all three and average the scores.

You can always request the lender to look at another bureau and in my experience most will.