Free Citi FICO score

[Ghoshida]

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@Anonymous wrote:
That may be true but I have yet to see any lender except Chase send me a letter with a FICO model other than whats listed on my reports from here so while this may be a *true FICO* I don't think calling FICO 08 standard is a stretch since it seems to be used most often by various lenders for credit card approval purposes.

Chase (approvals), Amex, Discover, Citi (denial but still 08 model), Barclay = FICO 08.

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Capital One sent me a score (based on the EX data) which is not my "standard" FICO score.

US Bank regularly makes my approval decisions (and sends scores when denied) based on the Bankcard 04 scoring model from TU data.

Citi uses Bankcard enhanced. All of my denial mails for the Dividend Preferred cite the range from 250 to 900, which is not FICO 08, but is rather the Bankcard enhanced version. That's why I have no problem when they give me the same score that they put in my mail.

If I'm not mistaken, so does FNBO. PenFed (which is a favorite amongst many here) also provides a different score; in my understanding, it doesn't make sense for a lender to provide a different FICO score than the one they are using to make decisions (apart from their in-house model). They would rather pay for one instead of two scores. FICO isn't selling its scores for free, even with a bulk discount.

So yes, I'd not accept the 850 scale as "standard".

[Anonymous]

👍

[Ghoshida]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Ghoshida wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Its the Bankcard 8 model. Goes up to 900. Not a true FAKO, but not one of the standard Experien FICOs either. Take it with a [gigantic] grain of salt. 

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As long as the score is generated using a FICO model, it is a FICO score, 100% genuine. 

The scores you get from this site are one of the multiple dozens of scores that FICO itself sells to CRAs, lenders, etc. 

Even if you buy a score here and it says EX 750 and you app immediately for some credit, the lender may pull EX and get a completely different score, simply because they're using a different FICO model. 

Knowing your score here is 750 doesn't do you any better in that case, except from giving you a guideline about where you stand vis-a-vis the general population. Depending on whether it's bankcard enhanced or auto-enhanced (or who knows, what enhanced), you might be either better off or worse off (or the same) than the 750 equivalent.

TLDR it's a genuine FICO. 

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Generally, when someone refers to a FICO score, they are referring to FICO 8 or, to a lesser extent, FICO 4. To the best of my knowledge, Bankcard 8 isn't used to anywhere near the same extent. Additionally, since Bankcard 8 goes from 250 to 900, rather than the 300 to 850 of FICO 4/8, it is likely that a person's Bankcard 8 is higher than their FICO 4/8. This can lead to people thinking that they have a higher score than they actually will when lenders pull the report. 

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I'd agree to some points and disagree on some.

Disagreement: When a lender is sending us a score, that lender does see the same score when they pull our report. In this case, it's Citi. Yes, they have disclaimers that they might not use the same report blah blah to make their credit decisions but that's just to save their legal ass.

Agreement: Yes; the lenders should make it more clear to consumers that their score is not the score that all lenders use but I think that in some way or another, they generally have those disclaimers put. Most lenders will, with the free FICO score, tell you that it's for educational purposes only.

As to the extent of use, frankly, I don't work in any underwriting team, so I can't say which model is used by banks in general. But I've seen both models being used, and the Bankcard is not that isolated to call it unimportant.

Bottom line: All these free scores come with ranges, and instead of the number, consumers should pay more attention to the range (and their reports themselves) and determine their creditworthyness.

[leoment]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Received the same email tonight, but I don't understand the point of it. Isn't it something we already know? They seem to just shoot out a generic email on an old subject, in case some customers haven't noticed the feature

"view score 24/7" doesn't mean it's monitoring your credit score 24/7 in real time. It's still monthly updated only. And as of 04/05 the latest score was from 02/24 for me.

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I just saw that my reports have last updated on 02/24 as well.  I wonder why it's taking so long to generate another report..

[Anonymous]

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@leoment wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Received the same email tonight, but I don't understand the point of it. Isn't it something we already know? They seem to just shoot out a generic email on an old subject, in case some customers haven't noticed the feature

"view score 24/7" doesn't mean it's monitoring your credit score 24/7 in real time. It's still monthly updated only. And as of 04/05 the latest score was from 02/24 for me.

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I just saw that my reports have last updated on 02/24 as well.  I wonder why it's taking so long to generate another report..

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Same here. 2/24. Strange that they sent out the email when they're not updating the scores. 

[Anonymous]

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@Ghoshida wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Ghoshida wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Its the Bankcard 8 model. Goes up to 900. Not a true FAKO, but not one of the standard Experien FICOs either. Take it with a [gigantic] grain of salt. 

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As long as the score is generated using a FICO model, it is a FICO score, 100% genuine. 

The scores you get from this site are one of the multiple dozens of scores that FICO itself sells to CRAs, lenders, etc. 

Even if you buy a score here and it says EX 750 and you app immediately for some credit, the lender may pull EX and get a completely different score, simply because they're using a different FICO model. 

Knowing your score here is 750 doesn't do you any better in that case, except from giving you a guideline about where you stand vis-a-vis the general population. Depending on whether it's bankcard enhanced or auto-enhanced (or who knows, what enhanced), you might be either better off or worse off (or the same) than the 750 equivalent.

TLDR it's a genuine FICO. 

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Generally, when someone refers to a FICO score, they are referring to FICO 8 or, to a lesser extent, FICO 4. To the best of my knowledge, Bankcard 8 isn't used to anywhere near the same extent. Additionally, since Bankcard 8 goes from 250 to 900, rather than the 300 to 850 of FICO 4/8, it is likely that a person's Bankcard 8 is higher than their FICO 4/8. This can lead to people thinking that they have a higher score than they actually will when lenders pull the report. 

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I'd agree to some points and disagree on some.

Disagreement: When a lender is sending us a score, that lender does see the same score when they pull our report. In this case, it's Citi. Yes, they have disclaimers that they might not use the same report blah blah to make their credit decisions but that's just to save their legal ass.

Agreement: Yes; the lenders should make it more clear to consumers that their score is not the score that all lenders use but I think that in some way or another, they generally have those disclaimers put. Most lenders will, with the free FICO score, tell you that it's for educational purposes only.

As to the extent of use, frankly, I don't work in any underwriting team, so I can't say which model is used by banks in general. But I've seen both models being used, and the Bankcard is not that isolated to call it unimportant.

Bottom line: All these free scores come with ranges, and instead of the number, consumers should pay more attention to the range (and their reports themselves) and determine their creditworthyness.

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Very fair and reasonable counterpoints. I would vastly prefer if companies would stop saying "This is your FICO score," since it implies that there is only one score that everybody uses. It would be nice if lenders would state what models they use, or at least stop trying to hide what model they are providing a score for.