You walk into a dealership confident. Credit Karma says 720. The salesman smiles, runs your credit, and suddenly you’re at 660. What gives? The answer lies in the fact that dealers don’t use the same score you see online. They...
Why Mortgages Are Different Most mortgage lenders still use old FICO models (2, 4, and 5), not the shiny new versions. Why? Because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac require them, and lenders don’t want to risk loans being rejected by...
Credit card companies care about one thing above all: how you handle revolving debt. That’s why the Bankcard model weighs factors like utilization (your balances vs. limits) and card payment history much more heavily than loans or mortgages. Example: The...
Millions of Americans are what lenders call “credit invisible.” They don’t have enough history to generate a traditional FICO score, yet they pay rent, utilities, phone bills, and manage bank accounts every month. Until recently, none of that counted. But...
