Credit Karma 579 and Walmart Fico 663 why such a diference aren't both TU?

[zerobacan]

Hello I am new to the boards and sorry if I make any mistake

My question is  why Credit Karma shows 579 (1-13-13) and Walmart Fico 663 (1-3-13) why such a diference aren't both TU pulled?

Which one to believe?

I also show 648 for TU using CreditXpert score.

[Anonymous]

The scores are different as they use different formulae.  The Walmart FICO is a FICO score and should be the closest to the score a creditor will see.  The other scores are refered to as FAKO as they do not use the FICO formula and so may not be comparable to the scores creditors see.  They are mainly there for "educational purposes" so people can get some idea of how well they are progressing with their credit improvement efforts.  Note however as the formulae are different when your FICO score goes up the FAKO scores could go up, go down, or not change.  Use them with caution!

[Walt_K]

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@Anonymous wrote:

The scores are different as they use different formulae.  The Walmart FICO is a FICO score and should be the closest to the score a creditor will see.  The other scores are refered to as FAKO as they do not use the FICO formula and so may not be comparable to the scores creditors see.  They are mainly there for "educational purposes" so people can get some idea of how well they are progressing with their credit improvement efforts.  Note however as the formulae are different when your FICO score goes up the FAKO scores could go up, go down, or not change.  Use them with caution!

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+1.  To add to the confusion, Walmart gives you a version of your FICO score called TU08.  The FICO score you buy on this site is TU98.  And, for double-extra confusion, the FICO score most mortgage lenders use for TransUnion is TU04.  You can't buy your TU04 score anywhere, you have to get it from a lender pull (I think that is accurate, but there always seem to be services popping up providing this or that score).  Finally, for one extra layer of confusion, FICO sells industry specific versions of their scores, e.g., for auto lenders they have an Auto Enhanced Score which will give more weight to your prior history on auto and installment loans.  I don't think you can get any of the industry specifc scores other than through a lender. 

So not only is it important to understand whether you are looking at a FICO score or FAKO score, you may need to understand which version of FICO a lender will be looking at, and whether or not the lender will be using some industry specific enhancement.  All that said, I'd give more weight to your Walmart TU08 score than to those other FAKO scores.  Just pointing out these other versions so that you are not surprised if you go to a lender and they give you a FICO score that does not match the one you got from Walmart.

The EQ FICO score you can buy here is pretty widely used, so that one should match pretty well with any EQ FICO score you get from a lender, especially if it is a mortgage application.

[aussiesareforever]

My Walmart Fico is waaaaaay off. I am not sure why there is such a huge difference. 

Walmart FICO 669

TU98.               715

TU04                 735

All three scores were within 2 weeks of each other with no changes in my credit report. I just got the stupid Walmart card and I was surprised to see how low my first score was (650 in January). I had to pull my report and score here immediately to make sure there was nothing off and my TU98 was about 710 then. 

At least I know my Walmart Fico is worthless. I just regret that I apped for the card.