topic Re: 50+ point spread across 3 bureaus?!? in General Credit Topics

50+ point spread across 3 bureaus?!?

FN — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 14:18:57 GMT

I've had the score-alert thing going on Equifax for the past year plus and dutifully each month the service comes back with a score in the 700-710 range. Then today, for kicks, I got a report (through MyFICO) for the other two services. So the three reports on the same day gave me:

Equifax - 708

Experian - 714

TransUnion - 760

That seems like quite a spread to me. Since you never know which service someone will use, what to do about this? Is the spread normally this large?

Re: 50+ point spread across 3 bureaus?!?

cobra19 — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 14:24:48 GMT

Remember not all creditors report to all 3 bureaus. That, and the fact the 3 bureaus each use different scoring models, can easily account for the 52-point swing. Before applying for a card, or a loan, ask the creditor which report they pull.

Re: 50+ point spread across 3 bureaus?!?

MidnightVoice — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 15:07:32 GMT

FN wrote:
I've had the score-alert thing going on Equifax for the past year plus and dutifully each month the service comes back with a score in the 700-710 range. Then today, for kicks, I got a report (through MyFICO) for the other two services. So the three reports on the same day gave me:

Equifax - 708
Experian - 714
TransUnion - 760

That seems like quite a spread to me. Since you never know which service someone will use, what to do about this? Is the spread normally this large?

Not a really big spread - I have suffered worse!

My EX is currently more than 50 points below my others because it is the only CRA that calls a HELOC a CC.

Re: 50+ point spread across 3 bureaus?!?

irishphenix — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 21:09:16 GMT

I checked my credit reports before I decided to go for my first home mortgage loan, TU was 661 Ex was 652 and no idea what EQ was because they go with the middle score, so I figured they do about 640 and I am good. Then they had all the paperwork together and ran a trimerge. TU was 598 What the heck??? There is a 100 point drop from EQ and TU and 63 point drop from TU site and when they ran the trimerge???????? Why is this I have been trying to get some answers for two weeks????

Re: 50+ point spread across 3 bureaus?!?

Lel — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 21:26:00 GMT

irishphenix wrote:
I checked my credit reports before I decided to go for my first home mortgage loan, TU was 661 Ex was 652 and no idea what EQ was because they go with the middle score, so I figured they do about 640 and I am good. Then they had all the paperwork together and ran a trimerge. TU was 598 What the heck??? There is a 100 point drop from EQ and TU and 63 point drop from TU site and when they ran the trimerge???????? Why is this I have been trying to get some answers for two weeks????

Hi irishphenix, and welcome to the FICO Forums.

When you checked your credit reports prior to applying, where did you get them from? Were they from a lender, or from another credit report/score website?

If the latter, then the scores that you pulled were not FICO scores, but rather scores generated from a formula that is different from the actual FICO score formulas. We lovingly refer to then non-FICO scores as "FAKOs". Unfortunately, there is often little correlation between non-FICO and actual FICO scores.

All Experian scores obtained by consumers, with rare exceptions, are not FICO scores. So unless the EX score that you mentioned above falls into one of these exceptions (for example, obtained through the Pennsylvania State Employees Credit Union), it's probably not a FICO score.

Re: 50+ point spread across 3 bureaus?!?

bigeasy — Wed, 23 May 2012 16:48:36 GMT

Can someone please provide the 3 websites to go to to recieve the 3 different scores. Thanks.

Re: 50+ point spread across 3 bureaus?!?

pizzadude — Wed, 23 May 2012 17:43:22 GMT

bigeasy wrote:
Can someone please provide the 3 websites to go to to recieve the 3 different scores. Thanks.

Welcome to the forums !!

I'd suggest you take a look at this thread first, frequently requested threads - the first one listed, Credit Scoring 101, should help you understand how and where to get FICO scores.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Frequently-Requested-Threads/td-p/19320

Re: 50+ point spread across 3 bureaus?!?

llecs — Wed, 23 May 2012 17:46:57 GMT

bigeasy wrote:
Can someone please provide the 3 websites to go to to recieve the 3 different scores. Thanks.

There are two type of credit scores: FICO scores and everyone else (we call these FAKOs). Everyone it seems offers credit scores but virtually none of them are FICOs. Places like creditkarma, freecreditscore, smartcredit, privacyguard, quizzle, truecredit, creditscore.com, identityguard, experian.com, equifax.com, transunion.com, creditreport.com, and hundreds of other places offer scores but they aren't FICOs.

The places to get your FICOs are very limited:

You can buy your Equifax FICO from myFICO.com, www.equifax.com/myfico-products, or from your lender.

You can buy your TransUnion FICO from myFICO.com or from your lender.

You cannot buy your Experian FICO from anywhere. At one point you could buy it from myFICO, as indicated in OP's first post, but as of a few years ago, Experian blocked access to your own EX FICO.

Finally, there are a small handful of banks and CUs that offer FICO scores as part of a benefit or service. For example you can get your EQ FICO from Digital Credit Union, Unitus Community Credit Union, M&T Bank, and some others. You can get your TU FICO from Wal-MArt if you happen to have one of their CCs. Finally, you can get your EX FICO from a CU called PSECU. There are others out there so check with your local CU to see if this is an option.

Re: 50+ point spread across 3 bureaus?!?

ready13 — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 03:54:45 GMT

yes thats very true i researched who the company pulls from that i am applying for credit through to pull my report the night before i submit my application to view what i would be working with before my two last payments hit my credit report on cycle 1 of their reports figuring if i get one more last score raise it cant hurt it any. I viewed on the score watch it had already been at 65-- something on the last monitoring of cycle 3 of the reporting to credit bureaus so i was waiting for this last minute thing to set up for my view of next few weeks which i completely hit my marks skipping into 700's somewhere in next few days...how can i be mad at that????;) ALL GOOD STAYING WITH MY MOTIVATION CAN ONLY HELP MY DAILY GRIND !!!!!WOOP WOOP:smileyembarrassed:

Re: 50+ point spread across 3 bureaus?!?

masscredit — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 02:00:00 GMT

My EX score always seems to be much lower than the other two. It's hard to get a score from them so I pretty much don't follow that one now. As long as the others are close and ok, I should be good. I'll keep up with the report though.

Re: 50+ point spread across 3 bureaus?!?

cemmnkay — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 00:55:42 GMT

I really don't understand why the Experian scores are sooooo much lower (almost 100 pts in my case), that Trans and Equi. I applied for a frequent flyer CC and was denied based on the EXP rating. Granted, my scores aren't stellar; Trans- 688, Equi- 670 and EXP- 579... how is that even possible? I'm going straight to the EXP report, there has to be problems with it. This whole credit dance is extremely exausting, i'm really about to give up...completely. All I have is student loan debt and a Walmart card, both of which are always paid on time and kept at a low debt to credit ratio.

Re: 50+ point spread across 3 bureaus?!?

Shogun — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 03:20:44 GMT

Since you were denied for credit, you are entitled to pull your report for free. l would pull it and see what's on there that's holding it back.