Credit score question

[TroyF]

I went to get pre approved for a house from my realtor's lender.

My credit scores are 790, 815 and 821 with the three credit bureaus.

A couple of interesting things happened. The lender came back with a score of 699 for my credit score. They said I was one point away from being able to put 5% down on the dollar amount I was approved for and that since I was the point off I have to put down 20%.

I was told that there were two types of credit scores, a retail score and a mortgage score. I know that mortgages are harder to get than say a car, but I didn't think there were two separate credit scores. I thought they just took into account other factors. Am I wrong?

[gstelmack]

Where did you get your scores? Some quick Binging indicates they are the same, just named differently depending on the purpose, but that where some folks buy scores from (consumer scores) can be different than what lenders see.

I do know that I pay for the myfico.com reports (they include analysis of WHY the score is what it is and what I can do to bring it up), and they've always been fairly close to whatever score the car dealer or mortgage lender has told me my score was when buying a car or refinancing. So I'd be looking at how you are getting the scores.

[cubboyroy1826]

Well they are right. Unfortunately the credit score that consumer's get and the ones we pull for mortgage purposes are always different. The mortgage credit score is always lower than the one the consumer can get directly. I have seen anywhere from 9 points to 30 points off but your scores way off.

As for the 5% down the issue is getting a company that will issue the mortgage insurance.

[CraigSca]

Is there any way a consumer can gain access to their mortgage scores?