FICO Score Variations from MyFICO.com to Broker's Report

[Anonymous]

I checked my scores on this web site before applying for a car loan and a mortgage. They were 719 (TU) and 712 (EQ). I thought these were good enough to move forward with my loan applications, so 3 days later, I did. You can imagine my surprise when the scores that came back from the mortgage broker were over 50 points HIGHER. The card dealership's FICO scores were nearly 70 points higher! How is this possible? Not that I'm complaining about having a higher score than I was told, but I thought the scores I paid for on MyFICO.com were real and accurate. Does anyone know why the extreme variation?

[Anonymous]

Did you have any Authorized User tradelines on your credit report? The same thing happened to me and we figured out that MyFICO.com's "consumer credit scoring model" excludes the consideration of AU lines from the score when calculating credit scores, but that all lenders give you a credit score benefit for having them, as long as the history is positive.

It has something to do with the Equal Credit Opportunity Act requiring that all lenders consider AU lines in the score, but MyFICO.com does not have to abide by that because they are not a lender.

[Anonymous]

I am a mortgage broker and have noticed a similar trend, as well. Several of my clients have utilized "credit piggybacking" services and have noticed the score increase on other credit reporting web sites, but not on MyFICO.com or Equifax.com, even though we see the change on our broker generated credit reports/scores.
 My guess is that MyFICO.com does not want to show the benefit to the credit score when adding AU lines.  Anyone else out there know for certain?

[Anonymous]

Yes. I just double checked and 2 of my girlfriend's credit cards are on my report. That must be the reason...thanks for your help in getting to the bottom of this!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I checked my scores on this web site before applying for a car loan and a mortgage. They were 719 (TU) and 712 (EQ). I thought these were good enough to move forward with my loan applications, so 3 days later, I did. You can imagine my surprise when the scores that came back from the mortgage broker were over 50 points HIGHER. The card dealership's FICO scores were nearly 70 points higher! How is this possible? Not that I'm complaining about having a higher score than I was told, but I thought the scores I paid for on MyFICO.com were real and accurate. Does anyone know why the extreme variation?

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What scoring models were the source of the scores pulled by the broker? MyFico provides the TU'98 and EQ Beacon 5 version scores. Many lenders use the TU'04 version, and there are other '08 and '09 versions that have been released but are not widely used.

Auto lenders often use industry-specific scoring models or other models that are different from the TU'98 and EQ Beacon 5 models. It's not surprising at all that a score pulled by an auto lender is significantly different.

Also, credit reports are continually updated. There might have been a positive event during the 3-day gap which could have contributed to part of the difference in scores.

TU'98 and EQ Beacon 5 do count AU tradelines. Versions released after '08 claim to treat AUs differently, but there has been some skepticism of that claim.

There isn't a "lender" version and a "consumer" version of the TU'98 and EQ Beacon 5 models. If a score is pulled from MyFico on the same day that a score is pulled by a lender, and the same scoring model is used, the scores will match. There have been many confirmations of an exact match from people whose lenders used those two versions. When the EX score was still offered to the public, there were many confirmations that all three scores from MyFico matched the lender scores when pulled at the same time. Unfortunately, because the majority of lenders use TU'04 these days, it is becoming more common that the EQ Beacon 5 score is the only score that consumers can purchase from MyFico or Equifax, and reasonably expect the majority of mortgage lenders to pull as well ...

[Lel]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I checked my scores on this web site before applying for a car loan and a mortgage. They were 719 (TU) and 712 (EQ). I thought these were good enough to move forward with my loan applications, so 3 days later, I did. You can imagine my surprise when the scores that came back from the mortgage broker were over 50 points HIGHER. The card dealership's FICO scores were nearly 70 points higher! How is this possible? Not that I'm complaining about having a higher score than I was told, but I thought the scores I paid for on MyFICO.com were real and accurate. Does anyone know why the extreme variation?

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For the mortgage loan application, were both your TU and EQ scores considerably higher?  Or was it just one score that was higher?

On this site, the EQ FICO score version that is used is Beacon 5.0.  This is the EQ version that is still the most widely used among mortgage lenders.  Most users of this site report that if they pull their EQ score here on the same day as their mortgage lender, the scores are identical.  Keep in mind that the FICO score is an instanteous snapshot of your credit profile.  Changes can occur even overnight that can result in a score change.  If it is a major change - the appearance of a derogatory comment, or the removal of one, for example - the score change can be significant.  If your EQ scores really were drastically different, then I'd first look at the credit reports side-by-side to make sure that there were no such changes.

There is a newer version of the EQ FICO score out there, called Beacon 9.  It was rolled out last summer.  I do not believe that many lenders have moved on to this version, but I imagine that some have done so.  If your mortgage lender pulled Beacon 9, then this could explain the difference in score as well.

With regard to TU, a difference in score between myFICO.com and mortgage lenders is almost expected.  This is because myFICO.com vends the TU 98 version of FICO, whereas most lenders have moved on to the TU 04 version.  Some people have gotten TU scores that are as much as 30 points higher or lower than the TU 98 version.

With regard to the scores pulled by the auto lender, be aware that there are also industry-specific FICO scores out there - in this case, the so-called auto-enhanced FICO score.  These scores give added weight to current or prior auto loan history, so the scores can be different as well.

The bottom line is that myFICO.com scores are real.  The EQ score from here is the same as that used by the significant majority of mortgage lenders.  But in the case of TU, the score that is currently offered unfortunately is different from what most mortgage lenders use.  We'd all love to be able to pull TU 04.  Why isn't it being offered?  It appears to be a business decision by TransUnion.  TU isn't even offering TU 04 on the transunioncs.com website - they also sell TU 98.

ETA: Revike is obviously quicker and less verbose.

[Lel]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Did you have any Authorized User tradelines on your credit report? The same thing happened to me and we figured out that MyFICO.com's "consumer credit scoring model" excludes the consideration of AU lines from the score when calculating credit scores, but that all lenders give you a credit score benefit for having them, as long as the history is positive.

It has something to do with the Equal Credit Opportunity Act requiring that all lenders consider AU lines in the score, but MyFICO.com does not have to abide by that because they are not a lender.

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The score versions offered here do include authorized user accounts in their score calculations.  As mentioned above, the EQ score is no different from that used by the majority of creditors.

Two years ago, there was consideration given to eliminating AU accounts from scoring, in part because of the unethical credit repair practice of piggybacking on a stranger's credit to artificially boost one's credit score.  However, because this change would have also eliminated legitimate AU accounts from scoring (e.g. spouses and children), the powers that be have allowed the AU accounts to continue to be included in the FICO score.

[Anonymous]

The report from the mortgage guy says, "Beacon 5.0 Score" (EQ), "Classic Score" (TU), and "Fair Isaac Score 2" (XPN). I cannot remember which versions the car dealership was using.

I looked for any changes between the reports pulled at MyFICO.com and the reports from the car dealership - while sitting in the finance manager's office, no less - as well as the reports pulled by the mortgage broker. All were exactly identical (except MyFICO.com's report did not have any inquiries, and the car dealership's report had one extra inquiry as a result of the mortgage broker's credit pull earlier that day). There were absolutely no differences, beyond the inquiries, other than the credit scores, which were drastic - 50-70 points on both TU and EQ.

After doing some research , it seems like a lot of people out there are seeing the same pattern occur with regards to the MyFICO.com/Equfax.com scores, as opposed to the scores pulled by lenders. I don't think we are allowed to post links in this forum, otherwise I would reference those testimonials (Google search for "MyFICO.com Equifax.com score different from mortgage broker"). After a search on this web site, I did notice the explanatory statement, "...may not be scores that are used by lenders in making credit decisions," buried in the fine print.

Either way, I think I was able to get the answer to my question. Unless I am completely missing something here, and even though you say there isn't a different version of the scoring model from a broker to MyFICO.com, the only logical explanation is that there is...maybe this was a more recent change...?

[llecs]

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@Anonymous wrote:

The report from the mortgage guy says, "Beacon 5.0 Score" (EQ), "Classic Score" (TU), and "Fair Isaac Score 2" (XPN). I cannot remember which versions the car dealership was using.

I looked for any changes between the reports pulled at MyFICO.com and the reports from the car dealership - while sitting in the finance manager's office, no less - as well as the reports pulled by the mortgage broker. All were exactly identical (except MyFICO.com's report did not have any inquiries, and the car dealership's report had one extra inquiry as a result of the mortgage broker's credit pull earlier that day). There were absolutely no differences, beyond the inquiries, other than the credit scores, which were drastic - 50-70 points on both TU and EQ.

After doing some research , it seems like a lot of people out there are seeing the same pattern occur with regards to the MyFICO.com/Equfax.com scores, as opposed to the scores pulled by lenders. I don't think we are allowed to post links in this forum, otherwise I would reference those testimonials (Google search for "MyFICO.com Equifax.com score different from mortgage broker"). After a search on this web site, I did notice the explanatory statement, "...may not be scores that are used by lenders in making credit decisions," buried in the fine print.

Either way, I think I was able to get the answer to my question. Unless I am completely missing something here, and even though you say there isn't a different version of the scoring model from a broker to MyFICO.com, the only logical explanation is that there is...maybe this was a more recent change...?

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Out of curiosity, and my answer is hinged on this, what were the positive and negative items listed on your EQ report from myFICO.com?

[Anonymous]

Can someone explain my situation to me?  I pulled all 3 of my credit scores, which were in the 750's.  I applied for an auto loan and was told my FICO was 609.  I argued with the finance manager and he told me there were 31 score options from Experian alone and it was the smallest of the 3 agencies.  Is this true?  I am sure he used the worst one.  I don't know why I have a low auto score.  I have had my car 10 years, it was paid for and due to health reasons, I took a loan using my car title as collateral with American General.  My pay date varies and when I asked to change the due date, they wanted me to refinance.  This happened twice. 

Could this have brought my auto score down?  The car dealership told me I was approved thru Toyota Finance and I signed all the papers and drove the car home.  Then I get a call 3 days later saying Toyota Finance turned down my credit and I might have to bring the car back.  It is the last day of the month today and something has to be decided by close of business today.  Right this minute I don't know if I own the car of the Toyota dealership does.  Can someone educate me on how many scores really exist?  I had no idea there were more than 3!