Beacon Score
What Is A Beacon Score?
A beacon score is the name given to a FICO score which uses the credit bureau Equifax‘s data. Each credit bureau has branded their own FICO score, for example Experian also has their own branded score called the Fair Isaac Model or the Fair Isaac Score and TransUnion has the Empirica score.
Beacon Score Scale Range:
| Credit Reporting Agency | FICO Score Name | Score Range |
|---|---|---|
| Equifax | BEACON® Score | 300-850 |
Beacon score
How To Get A Free Beacon Score
If you would like to receive a free copy of your beacon score we suggest you follow our guide to getting all three of your credit bureau branded FICO scores.
What Is Considered A Good Beacon Credit Score?
Anything over a 720 is considered excellent while anything over a 700 is considered a good beacon score. We’ve included a list below as a general guide, this guide also includes what type of interest rate premiums you could be expected to pay if you have a lower beacon score.
| Beacon Score | Grade | Typical Mortgage Rates* |
|---|---|---|
| 720-850 | Excellent | A |
| 700-719 | Very Good | A + 0.13% |
| 675-699 | Good | A + 0.65% |
| 620-674 | Fair | A + 1.80% |
| 560-619 | Bad | A + 4.30% |
| 500-619 | Very Bad | A + 5% |
A represents the current variable interest rate. These are meant as a rough guide only and just because you have a beacon score of 600 does not mean that you will a). be approved for any loans and b). have to pay an additional 4.3% on top of the current variable interest rate.
This is why having a high beacon score is so important, you can end up paying hundreds of thousands of dollars extra in interest over the life of your mortgage if you have a poor score. Before you even think about getting a loan, you should find out what all three of your FICO scores are. Usually you have to pay for this information, but we’ve written a guide on how to get all three of your FICO scores for free.
How To Increase Your Beacon Score Score:
There are three easy things you can do to increase your beacon score, they are;
- Check your Equifax credit report, if there are any inaccuracies (these must be inaccuracies, not just things you want removed from your credit report) then request a dispute form from Equifax and appeal this inaccuracy.
- Lower your credit utilization ratio, a credit utilization ratio is the amount of you’ve used divided by the amount of credit you have available. You generally want to try and keep this below 0.3 (30%) with a ratio of 0.1 (10%) to 0.3 (30%) as being seen as ideal.
- Be patient. One of the important factors of all credit scores is credit history, the longer you’ve had history the more the reliable the data. As long as you haven’t had too many negative things on your credit reports your credit score will improve over time.