1SD Newsletter: June 2004
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YOU NEED TO KNOW: Normal FICO Score?

The simplest questions are often the hardest to answer. That’s how it turned out when I was asked, “What’s a normal FICO score?”

In part, it depends on where you look.

The FICO score was created to answer another simple question, i.e., what is the likelihood a borrower’s mortgage payment will become 90-days late, anytime during the next 24 months. That’s what Wells Fargo was asking back in 1974, and they looked to Bill Fair and Earl Isaac for an answer.

Today – after scrutinizing millions of credit files – we know the answer. According to Fair, Isaac, the odds play out this way:



And if you want to know where you stand against the rest of America, the results have been published in a couple of ways. If you want to look at even sized groups, you get...



Or, you can look at it in increments of 50 points:



But the most important measure we’ve found relates directly to qualifying for a loan:



Finally, our favorite place to look at FICO scores is www.nationalscore.com. You will find the most current calculation of Nationwide scores, and scores your local region.

Of course, there is a short answer. We are told the National Median FICO Score – the point where there are an equal number of scores above and below – is 720, plus or minus a few points.

So when a borrower asks what’s a normal score, you can say that 720 is as normal as you can get.