Before credit scores were developed, lenders use to physically look over each applicants credit report and credit history to determine whether or not to extend credit. This process was highly time consuming and sometimes resulted in large human errors.

As a result, Fair Isaac created the credit scoring formula to help lenders make better judgments more quickly. The credit scoring formula looks at many variables such as total debt to income ratio, types of debt, number of late payments and other variables.

One thing many people fail to realize is that depending on the type of loan you are applying for, you may find your FICO credit score differs quite drastically. The reason for this is that lenders use various versions of the Fair Isaac FICO scores. The goal of this article is to provide an understanding of the different types of credit scores you may see when applying for credit.

Classic FICO