COVID-19 Delayed Mortgage Payments affect FICO scores?

[Carlos Carbajal]

Hi all-

I've got about 8 mortgages (more if you include HELOCs). As many of you have already heard Fannie and Freddie are directing lenders to offer mortgage relief to their mortgages which entails a forbearance of the loan payments for up to 1 year. This is tacked on to the end of your loan term.

The news stories indicate that there will be no late payments reported to the credit bureaus.  HOWEVER, what I am not 100% convinced on yet is if there is a negative effect on my FICO score because in the past any mortgage in forbearance is reported to the credit bureaus under a different code which then in turn lowers your FICO score.

Does anyone have inside knowledge of how this actually does or does not affect FICO scores? Many, if not most of is would welcome this kind of relief but I am much more hesitant to do it if it affects my FICO scores in any way.