topic Re: Equifax FICO and Equifax Score in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Equifax FICO and Equifax Score

KristinH — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:27:38 GMT

I was amazed to find out that Equifax's score was 51pts. higher than my Equifax FICO score! :o CRAZY!!!! But good to know.

Re: Equifax FICO and Equifax Score

llecs — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:29:01 GMT

Where did you pull your EQ score from? Did you pull both on the same day?

Re: Equifax FICO and Equifax Score

KristinH — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:33:54 GMT

The Equifax score came from BestCreditReports.com (truecredit). And the scores were pulled about 5 days apart, maybe 3 days. My TransUnion score was lower than my TransUnion FICO score, and I have no idea about my FICO Experian. My Experian score never changes. grrr @ Experian

Re: Equifax FICO and Equifax Score

KristinH — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:34:56 GMT

However, Experian had better change soon since 18 items have been deleted.

Re: Equifax FICO and Equifax Score

llecs — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:59:14 GMT

KristinH wrote:
The Equifax score came from BestCreditReports.com (truecredit). And the scores were pulled about 5 days apart, maybe 3 days. My TransUnion score was lower than my TransUnion FICO score, and I have no idea about my FICO Experian. My Experian score never changes. grrr @ Experian

Ignore those scores. They are not FICO scores, but rather a score we call FAKO. They have no relationship at all to the real deal. These other scores can go up and FICOs down for the same event and vice-versa. My TC scores have been as much as 120 points lower and as much as 40 points higher when pulled on the same day at the same time. In fact, I pulled my TU TC score today and noticed a 27 point increase. Got all excited and my TU FICO was the same as it was when I last pulled it.

Re: Equifax FICO and Equifax Score

llecs — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 17:00:58 GMT

I meant to add that if you were to pull your score from Equifax.com (hence the question on the source of your score), then you'd find that your EQ myFICO score and your EQ score pulled directly from EQ would match.

Re: Equifax FICO and Equifax Score

sobit618 — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:46:56 GMT

I received a letter from one of my credit card companies that due to a report from equifax they were closing my account. I had just paid off the balance, and was somewhat surprised. I went to freecreditreport.com and got my 3 free credit reports/scores, and my equifax score was 729. When I called the credit card company they told

me that equifax reported my score as 656. All the info on the reports is the same, so what is up? When I called

equifax they told me they can't be responsible for what other credit reporting companies have on their websites.

I'm pretty disgusted. 656 from 729 is a big difference. TU and EX are within 20 points of equifax's. Love some feedback on this.

Re: Equifax FICO and Equifax Score

Susyquk — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 01:12:37 GMT

Sounds like if you are getting an ex score then you must be buying FAKO scores (i.e. ones that aren't used by credit companies) where did you buy them from. FAKO scores can be radically different than your FICO scores (which you can purchase the TU and EQ scores only from this site or direct from the Bureau (as long as you make sure you are buying FICO scores and not their FAKOs) Ex stopped selling their FICO scores to the consumer in Feb of this year and you can only get that score if you are applying for a mortgage (or have a friendly LO on a car loan)

Re: Equifax FICO and Equifax Score

Beth99 — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:08:59 GMT

:smileyhappy:My Equifax score was also much higher when the lender pulled my report, on Myfico.com it says 579 but the lender pulled it and she said it was 602. I couldnt believ it everyone said it would go down not up. Also on myfico.com TU reports my score as 597 but when she pulled it said 640 ish can't remember. Amazing !!!! She said well the the scoring is a hit and miss with cosumers. Some are coming in lower while others are coming in higher. She said that the new scoring is benifting people that are working on there credit more or less. So if you have high scores she is noticing that there scores are going down. But people with lower scoring are coming in higher for some strange reason. For the most part any way. So go figure !! Im happy to see the change we have been working on are credit for the past year and when I saw my scores on myfico.com I was sad to them still under 600.

Myfico.com Eq: 579

TU: 597

Lender pulled Eq: 602

TU: 640 :smileyvery-happy:

Re: Equifax FICO and Equifax Score

kynurse78 — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:47:01 GMT

When I pull myfico equifax it is always lower than from equifax score watch by 20pts give or take and thats the same day. Wonder why there is a difference. Info is always the same. I look at my reports in detail to compare to see if I can find the difference and never do.

Re: Equifax FICO and Equifax Score

R_W_ — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 18:14:54 GMT

I recently paid off a car loan, waited a month and I pulled my Equifax FICO from myfico.com and it had dropped to 665. I then went to equifax.com and pulled all 3. My equifax score was 776 (my equifax.com TU and EX were 777 and 779 respectively). That is a HUGE difference - 111 points!

It is the difference in me getting a great interest rate on my refi and not qualifying at all. So now I am torn about even applying for my refi and taking the hit for the credit pull, putting me further away from the 680 I need or just waiting for my score to slowly creep back up to over 680. But I really would like to have the lower payment on my mortgage sooner rather than later.

I have scrutined both reports. All the details are the same except this car loan. Myfico seems to be interpreting my car pay off as recent late pay (I was 30 days back in March of 2009) and equifax is seeing Paid, was past due 30 days. I have tried 3 different disputes and can't seem to get it fixed, so my guess is that it is just a differnce in their scoringn formulas and there is no fixing it. If my FICO is really what the lenders see then I don't have a chance of getting this refi. My revolving credit Utilization is 1%, The worst delinquency I have is a 30 days late from over 3 years ago. My credit history goes back to 1989... the 770's seem more in line with what I should expect for a credit score.... not a 665. Dare I risk the credit pull to only be rejected?

Re: Equifax FICO and Equifax Score

MarineVietVet — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 18:26:51 GMT

R_W_ wrote:
I recently paid off a car loan, waited a month and I pulled my Equifax FICO from myfico.com and it had dropped to 665. I then went to equifax.com and pulled all 3. My equifax score was 776 (my equifax.com TU and EX were 777 and 779 respectively). That is a HUGE difference - 111 points!

It is the difference in me getting a great interest rate on my refi and not qualifying at all. So now I am torn about even applying for my refi and taking the hit for the credit pull, putting me further away from the 680 I need or just waiting for my score to slowly creep back up to over 680. But I really would like to have the lower payment on my mortgage sooner rather than later.

I have scrutined both reports. All the details are the same except this car loan. Myfico seems to be interpreting my car pay off as recent late pay (I was 30 days back in March of 2009) and equifax is seeing Paid, was past due 30 days. I have tried 3 different disputes and can't seem to get it fixed, so my guess is that it is just a differnce in their scoringn formulas and there is no fixing it. If my FICO is really what the lenders see then I don't have a chance of getting this refi. My revolving credit Utilization is 1%, The worst delinquency I have is a 30 days late from over 3 years ago. My credit history goes back to 1989... the 770's seem more in line with what I should expect for a credit score.... not a 665. Dare I risk the credit pull to only be rejected?

You resurrected an almost 3 year old thread and that's ok but information that old is often outdated and/or incorrect.

The "scores" you get from the Equifax website may or may not be true EQ FICO scores. They also sell their own proprietary "Equifax Credit Score" which is not a FICO score and is not used by any lenders. It sounds like that is what you bought because there is no 3 in 1 monitoring service that sells all 3 FICO scores. So those scores in the 700's are not accurate.

The EQ score you buy here at myFICO is accurate.

Equifax recently stopped selling the 4 FICO reports/yr product but it's still available as an affiliate link:
https://www.econsumer.equifax.com/otc/landing.ehtml?^start=&companyName=mtbk_esn3r

Re: Equifax FICO and Equifax Score

R_W_ — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 15:57:08 GMT

hmm.... well I see several of your members recommend USAA, so I tried that as well and that too has all 3 scores in the mid 700's. I also ran my TransUnion on myFICO and it is in the mid 700's

It seems as though the only one that has the issue is myFICO and only the equifax. The difference between that single score and all the others sees to be averaging 100Pts. I have read through all sorts of the posts of these sites and that doesn't seem like a common problem... 40 points, yes....100+? Not really....I feel as though there is something I should dispute, I just don't know what. myFICO Equifax is showing this one account as a recent late payment, when it is obvious when you look at the payment history that there is only one late payment and it was back in March of 2009.

I tried the link below, but I don't think it takes me to what you intended. It takes me to Equifax.com to a matrix where you can compare their 3 most popular products, one of which I already have purchased. As I browse thei site, I do see that they offer score power, but isn't that what I have with myFICO? I don't want to pay for something that I am already getting from your site.....

Re: Equifax FICO and Equifax Score

MarineVietVet — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 17:32:13 GMT

R_W_ wrote:
hmm.... well I see several of your members recommend USAA, so I tried that as well and that too has all 3 scores in the mid 700's. I also ran my TransUnion on myFICO and it is in the mid 700's

It seems as though the only one that has the issue is myFICO and only the equifax. The difference between that single score and all the others sees to be averaging 100Pts. I have read through all sorts of the posts of these sites and that doesn't seem like a common problem... 40 points, yes....100+? Not really....I feel as though there is something I should dispute, I just don't know what. myFICO Equifax is showing this one account as a recent late payment, when it is obvious when you look at the payment history that there is only one late payment and it was back in March of 2009.

I tried the link below, but I don't think it takes me to what you intended. It takes me to Equifax.com to a matrix where you can compare their 3 most popular products, one of which I already have purchased. As I browse thei site, I do see that they offer score power, but isn't that what I have with myFICO? I don't want to pay for something that I am already getting from your site.....

Yes they are both the same version of Equifax (Beacon 5.0). Of all the places you list only myFICO offers true FICO scores. The version of TU sold here is TU98 which is an older version but the EQ score here is the same EQ score used by most lenders at this time.

Also even if all the information on all your reports is exactly the same (which is very rare) there will likely be differences because each CRA uses different scoring formulas to calculate a score. There is more than a 50 point spread across my 3 scores so it's not unusual at all.

Re: Equifax FICO and Equifax Score

pozativelyliving — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 20:42:25 GMT

The EX score that I received from there is about 60 points lower than my EQ score here. My TU score ws purchased when I requested my report from them. I've looked at so much credit info in the last few weeks. I don't remember where the EX score in my signiture came from. Will have to go through my folder.

So in a nutshell, I guess it's safe to say that the scores that we receive here (myfico) are accurate and what lenders will see?

Re: Equifax FICO and Equifax Score

maiden_girl — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 03:14:42 GMT

The credit scores purchased directly from TU, EXP, and EQ via website are called credit PLUS or FAKO scores. They are not a reflection of your true FICO scores (the scores lenders use). The FAKO scores are typically higher than your true score. There is no point in purchasing those scores as it does not give you a true picture of how lenders view you as a buyer. They even list it on their website in tiny tiny writing that the scores they sell are not the scores lenders use to determine your credit worthiness.

Re: Equifax FICO and Equifax Score

MarineVietVet — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 03:56:34 GMT

maiden_girl wrote:
The credit scores purchased directly from TU, EXP, and EQ via website are called credit PLUS or FAKO scores. They are not a reflection of your true FICO scores (the scores lenders use). The FAKO scores are typically higher than your true score. There is no point in purchasing those scores as it does not give you a true picture of how lenders view you as a buyer. They even list it on their website in tiny tiny writing that the scores they sell are not the scores lenders use to determine your credit worthiness.

You are correct that all of them sell FAKO's but different versions.

EX does sell PLUS scores

Transunion offers VantageScores

EQ sells their own FAKO "Equifax Credit Score" but they also sell the same version of the EQ FICO (Beacon 5.0) sold here. You have to be very care at the EQ website.

Re: Equifax FICO and Equifax Score

maiden_girl — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 04:25:46 GMT

I made that mistake with Experian a few years ago. They claimed they sold FICO scores but really sold the PLUS score. I was in a dispute with them for a few days because I had purchased the bureau 3-1 report/score and they were all FAKO scores (I didn't know that at the time). A lender eventually pulled my scores and informed me my scores were much lower than I had thought which caused me not to get a loan at the APR I had initially anticipated. I was subsequently refunded half the cost of the report due to their lack of properly displaying information on their website.

Re: Equifax FICO and Equifax Score

R_W_ — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 19:50:23 GMT

I think the crucial part to this that I am leaving out is that my myFICO EQ score was also in the mid 700's (737 to be exact) when I paid off this car loan. All other scores that I have been referring to increased to some degree or another and this score DECREASED 75 points to 662 when I paid off and closed this account. (It has since creeped up another few points to 665). When I looked at the score power report it said that the reason it had dropped was that i had recently missed a payment.... which was not only incorrect, but was inconsistant with all of the payment histories listed in the very same report.

I am very frustrated and have no idea how to fix it....if it weren't for my upcoming refi and the assurances by everyone here that this score is what the lenders pull and the most accurate, I would have just given up. But I keep hoping that someone will tell me the way to have it properly reflected in my score.

I looked at the high achiever criteria (>760):

Olderst account >19 years, mine is >20 years credit history
Revolving/CC balance is 7%, mine is 1%
Average age of accounts 6-12 years, mine is 14 years 6 months
Opened their most recent account 27 months ago mine is 10 months ago, before that was 9 years ago.
Average 6 open/active accounts, I have 11 open/active accounts, all "pays as agreed".
FICO High Achievers have 4 to 5 Credit card, I have 4
93% of high achievers have no missed payments, but if they do they are nearly 4 years ago. Here is where I fall into a little trouble I have 5 missed payments in in the past 7 years (30 days). The oldest is almost 7 years old and will fall off in November, the most recent is well over 3 years old and the other 3 are 4-6 years old). The most recent (3.5 years old) is on a car loan which was recently paid off early and closed. (This is what seemed to trigger my dramatic 75 point score drop.
Never had a 60 day or longer
No public Records or collections
Credit Mix: I have 5 Mortages (I own rental properties), 2 installment loans (a student loan and a roof loan), and 4 revolving credit cards. FICO says I have a healthy credit mix

From all that I have read here and on other sites. Closed accounts have slightly less impact than open, so I think that paying off the car that had my most recent missed payment would have been "score nuetral" or even helped rather than hurt my score the way it did.

So there it all is.... maybe that is the profile of a 665.... but I have read through a lot of people's stories on this site and looked at their corresponding scores and I just don't think so. Keep in mind that all of these things were there before I paid my car loan and my myFICO score was 737. All that has changed besides this loan is time... my balances are slightly lower with 2 months more payments and my missed payments are older. None of those should drop my score.

What am I missing? I know there are some serious credit gurus on this site, so I am hoping that someone can tell me.... btw, I called myFICO and Equifax when this happened and they both agreed, this should not have caused such a drop and they saw no reason for such a drop.....the initiated disputes on my behalf but the results did not change anything.

I await your thoughts.... Thanks!

Re: Equifax FICO and Equifax Score

llecs — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 23:02:54 GMT

Paying pff a car note wouldn't drop your scores like that. Your mix is unimpacted and I'd guess a possibility of a slight gain due to adding an extra $0 balance.

Don't rely on your SW alerts to alert you to changes. It'll only show a net gain or loss when there could have been any number of things on your CR that changed and couple have produced a drop like that. In other words, SW alerts don't show the full picture. Pull your EQ report from somewhere and study it in great detail. If it says there's a late, look over your reports in detail. Especially look in your Accounts page (if pulled from myFICO) to see if any red-flagged accounts updated or changed. Your alert is indicative of that.

BTW, EX = Experian and EQ = Equifax. FYI just in case anyone looks at your siggy.