FICO Scores

[Anonymous]

So I just got my credit scores from all three agencies Equifax, Transunion and Experian. Experian and Transunion were both similar at about 840 but Equifax had me at 713. All three had the same info on the credit report. Why would Equifax be so much lower that the other two?

[vawt]

Are you sure those are real FICO scores?  Where did you get them at?  840 is insane is they are real!

That kind of difference (127 points lower) would imply Equifax has a derogatory item like several lates or a collection on it.

[haulingthescoreup]

I agree --EQ will sell you your true FICO score off their site, but TransUnion and Experian sell you their home-grown FAKO scores, which are on a scale with a higher top figure, so their "scores" are often higher.

There are many different credit scores floating around, but the only useful ones are FICO's. You can get all three (EQ, TU, and EX) here at the myFICO site. (Be sure to google FICO discount code first.) You can also get your EQ FICO from the Equifax site. You can get your TU FICO from www.transunioncs.com. (Note the cs.) You can get your EX FICO here and only here, and unfortunately, that's only for the next several days, due to their recent decision.

All other scores --those sold by TU and EX from their sites, and those sold by credit monitoring services like TrueCredit, PrivacyMatters, free-credit-report-dot-com, and so forth, are what we call FAKO's. They are created by a different formula than FICO's; they don't track your FICO scores; and they aren't used by lenders.

Save your money and get FICO's.

[marty56]

IMHO TU and EX are now selling Vantage scores which is what I think you got from them.