A consumer who borrowers $200,000 today and puts 20% down this is how there score now affects them with the new pricing rules for conforming loans:

620-639 mid score - $5,000 in fee or 0.875% in rate (almost a full interest point higher)

700-719 mid score - $1,000 in fee or 0.125 to 0.25% in rate

People now need a 720 score to have no penalty on their rate/fee structure when buying homes AND it has gotten harder to get approved on the lower scores we used to take for granted for approval.

Jeff Berglund is holding classes for consumers to review their credit, show them where to obtain their 'true' scores and where to get a free credit report.  (they are not the same site!)

www.myfico.com is the ONLY place you can buy your true scores, the rest of the sites offering scores are just General Scoring Models, and may be up to 50 points artificially high!  You may get your free credit report at www.freeannualcredit.com, BUT don't pay for scores there.