Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Take control Tuesday and I have Mansa Moussa on the phone. Mansa, we are talking about our credit score, how to make it higher, getting some knowledge. And we're going to get into the meat of things today with one of the seven realities of our credit score.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: Yeah, we were talking about the seven realities of credit score in 2025.
And today we want to talk about. Your credit score is dynamic and basically what that means is that it changes. So let's talk about why it changes and some other things relative to that. First of all, there are different scoring models. So your score depends on which model of the algorithm is scoring, the factors that impact your credit score. Your credit score is also impacted, impacted by on what you're borrowing money for mortgages scored differently. The exact same data that a car loan would score. So it depends on what you're borrowing.
[00:01:07] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:01:08] Speaker B: It depends on what version of the credit score is being used. The credit score is a commercial product. It's frequently updated.
So one lender may be using FICO number 8, one may be using FICO number 9, one may be using FICO 10. So there are different scores out there now. They're industry specific scores too. There are scores that are driven by the credit card industry. That's the biggest one. But also for auto loans and those type of things. There are also three credit bureaus, most of us are aware of that. Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Each one of their scoring models has been tweaked for their use. Okay, so they're not the same across all three. Now that's the FICO score and the other one is the Vantage score. Now this was developed as a competitor to the FICO score by lenders. Listen, the FICO score was invented in 1956. It was first introduced in 1981.
By 1995, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac required FICO score for mortgage approvals. And from there it just took off. And in 2006, bandage was launched as a competitor to FICO because FICO was just dominating the market. Now the other thing is, are what we call consumer facing scores. Now that's Experian Boost, Ultra fico, Credit Karma, those kind of things. That is another scoring model that won't necessarily reflect what the lender scoring models do. And then there's custom models or a lender may have their own model. A lot of times banks do that when they're underwriting mortgages and then their international scoring models as well. So the main thing is the factors that impact the score are the same regardless of the model.
[00:03:23] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:03:24] Speaker B: So if you control the factors impacting the score, you control your credit score.
So that's why I tell people you want to know what credit score neighborhood you live in. Do you live in the 800 credit score neighborhood, the 700 credit score neighborhood, 600 credit score neighborhood, 500 and below neighborhood?
[00:03:52] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:03:53] Speaker B: Once you know that, the factors that are generating that score out of one model will generate the exact same information in other models. Now, the score itself may differ by a couple, 3, 4, 10 points, but the factors are the same. If you are consistent paying bills late, all of your credit scores will not reflect well, period. So be aware that your score is always changing. It depends on what score model that you're looking at. But you can control those factors and determine which neighborhood your credit score resides in by how you behave and the decisions you make. And those will be things we'll be talking about in upcoming sessions.
[00:04:43] Speaker A: Well, I'm certainly looking forward to future episodes so we can all learn how to better our credit scores, live in those good credit score neighborhoods and a lot more. And if you're enjoying this as well, make sure you go to Take Control Tuesday so you can listen to all of the archives and also make sure that you, like, follow and share our episodes so that everyone can get the knowledge. Thank you, Mansa.
[00:05:09] Speaker B: Thank you.
