Beacon Score

What Does Beacon Score Mean?
A number that is generated by the Equifax Credit Bureau to rank the credit-worthiness of individuals. Beacon scores are credit scores, which are determined through a complex algorithm. These numbers tell the lender how likely the chance is that the borrower will repay the loan. When NextGen FICO Scores started being used the Beacon score was replaced with the Pinnacle Score.

Mathematical criteria can include late payments, current debts, length of time account has been open, types of credit and new applications for credit.

Investopedia explains Beacon Score
The term Beacon score can be interchanged with the term "Empirica score" or "FICO score". All of these scores will affect the interest rate on the loan. If the score is too low the lender will charge more interest for the risk or will not lend the funds.

Each bureau uses a different name, even though they use the same FICO algorithm to generate the score. For example:
- Experian uses the term "FICO or FICO II",
- TransUnion uses "Empirica", and
- Equifax uses "Beacon".

For NextGen FICO scores (created by Fair Isaac Corp.) the new names became:
- FICO advanced risk score, used by Experian
- Precision, used by TransUnion
- Pinnacle, used by Equifax