Persons with identical credit scores may wind up with different quotes due to the fact that loan determinations are based on a multitude of qualifiers (upwards up two dozen to be exact) not just the person’s credit score.

Additional lending qualifiers may include:

In what form were your late payments i.e. were you delinquent on your house payment as opposed to your automobile loan? The house payment is considered a worse offense than a car payment.

For what length of time have you been at your present place of employment?

What amount of disposable capital will you have after putting out for the down payment and covering the associated closing cost fees?

What is the loan-to-value ratio on your desired mortgage?

Do you plan to actually live in the property or simply rent it out to tenants?

How would you classify the property you are planning on purchasing?
Note: The reasoning behind this is that a mortgage for a single-family dwelling is considered to be less of a perceived risk than one purchased for a unit in a high-rise condo building.

As the entire risk-based pricing practice is about collecting and analyzing data, it is up to the lenders to evolve over time in ways that they can better assess and make determinations based upon their findings. Hence, eventually lenders will and perhaps have come up with system by which they can standardize the inputting and classifying of the applicants’ data.

Over time, lenders' ability to determine an applicant’s perceived amount of risk becomes more and more discerning. A couple of years ago, two people with very close credit reports may have both been looked upon as B borrowers, whereas nowadays one may be an B-minus and the other an A-minus.

At the present time, the distinction between prime and nonprime mortgages is becoming less and less clear. Many lenders still operate according to what industry experts call a “one-door policy” whereby all applicants’ information is inputted into the same IT system. The computer then responds by generating lenders interested in funding mortgages for persons with similar qualifications.

Perhaps, a consequence of standardization of risk-based pricing is that there now exists a smaller gap between the amount lenders charge for interest on a prime loan versus a subprime (nonprime) loan. Simultaneously, the major companies have developed more sophisticated practices and are, therefore, better able to sidestep the loans which present the greatest risk.