FICO, the company that develops proprietary scoring models for credit bureaus and lenders, announced August 7 that a new model (FICO Score 9) would be released this fall. FICO’s press release caught buyers’, Realtors’, and lenders’ attention, as the new model was touted as significantly more “borrower friendly”. Paid collections would no longer impact credit scores. Medical debts (paid or not) would hurt scores less as well. FICO predicted some consumers’ scores could rise by 25 points, an amount that would significantly reduce their loan costs or interest rates.