Comey & Shepherd - Cincinnati Living Online

New Credit Scores, The Impact on Cincinnati

For years we have been told to keep an eye on our credit score, commonly called a FICO number. FICO is a score provided by the Fair Isaac Company to the tree credit reporting companies. Fair Isaac charges a premium for this information, and until now has not had a competition.  VantageScore is aiming to become the second provided of credit information, and they have a different rating system. 

The VantageScore ratings look more  like a report card, with scores ranging from 990 – 501. ‘A’ grade scores are 990-901, ‘B’ grade scores are 900-801. The scores continue through ‘F’ grade borrower ratings. The real question is how is this going to impact Cincinnati home buyers.

The reality is that it will depend on the underwriting banks. Switching ratings systems will be expensive for the underwriting banks, and lending officers. If banks begin to switch to VantageScore it may en up costing consumers as they shoulder the price of the change. The only real way to know is when our local Cincinnati mortgage brokers give our buyers their numbers after the changes take place.