Beacon Score Basics

The MyVirtualMortgageBroker site now has an informative overview of Beacon scores, what affects them, and what you need to do to keep yours high.

Comments

[Quentin]

FYI - the overview link is not working.

[Canadian Mortgage]

Fixed! Thanks for the report Quentin...

[yash]

is it true that if one has a collection the beacon cant go beyond 650
what are the ways to get it back to 720 plus

[Anthony]

Equifax offers FICO, not Beacon, scores on their website. I was wondering if they were the same, but based what I read on wikipedia, the numbers aren't quite the same. I didn't see any reference to Beacon scores on Equifax's website.

[Canadian Mortgage]

Hi Anthony,
It's a good question. A FICO and Beacon score are basically the same thing. They're both calculated by Fair Isaac. FICO is a brand name used more in the U.S.--despite it being on Equifax's Canadian website. In Canada, at least in lender circles, the brand name used most often is "Beacon." Note: In the U.S. the scoring algorithm is a bit different to reflect the different risk metrics down there.
Cheers,
-rob

[Joe]

FICO is American.

[Anthony]

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_score_(United_States)#FICO_score
the FICO and Beacon scores are somewhat different, even though they're both done by Fair Isaac. Definitely makes it a little confusing when trying to compare scores. Not that wikipedia is the end-all in info, but...

[Canadian Mortgage]

Hi Anthony,

Yes, as noted above, the Beacon and FICO score have slightly different algorithms. However, they are very similar and are both based on the Fair Isaac Risk Model.

I've heard the average scores for each are within (roughly) 20 points of each other. I can't verify this because Equifax doesn't tell anyone, but it's not that far off.

Cheers, - rob

[Anthony]

Thanks Rob--and again, excellent site!