General Credit Topics

[shorefox]

I've been browsing the forums & see a large number of different scores being talked about (such as equifax fico, transunion fico, etc) and know of creditkarma, vantagescore, and more. What score should someone look at to get the most accurate representation of their credit? Thank you.

[mmmmmm]

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shorefox wrote:

I've been browsing the forums & see a large number of different scores being talked about (such as equifax fico, transunion fico, etc) and know of creditkarma, vantagescore, and more. What score should someone look at to get the most accurate representation of their credit? Thank you.

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Your FICO scores are the ones you want to watch.  There's a couple different versions of them, however, so you'll want to know which ones you want.

Equifax

• BEACON 5.0 (used by nearly all lenders) - available on myFICO.com
• BEACON 9.0 (newer scoring model, however, seldem used by lenders) - available only from a lender
  

TransUnion

• Classic 98 (FKA Empirica 98) (used by some lenders) - available on myFICO.com
• Classic 04 (FKA Empirica 04) (used by majority of lenders) - available only from a lender

There is also a TU08 score that is only available if you have a line of credit with Walmart, however, it isn't actually used by any lenders, so it's useless.

Experian

• Fair Isaac Risk Model (used by nearly all lenders) - available only from a lender

Any score available online claiming to be an Experian credit score is a FAKO score, and useless.

Please note many lenders also have their own internal scoring models that aren't available anywhere.  Different types of lenders may value certain areas of your credit more than others, so they might view you as a higher or lower risk than your FICO scores may show.

[shorefox]

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mmmmmm wrote:

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shorefox wrote:

I've been browsing the forums & see a large number of different scores being talked about (such as equifax fico, transunion fico, etc) and know of creditkarma, vantagescore, and more. What score should someone look at to get the most accurate representation of their credit? Thank you.

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Your FICO scores are the ones you want to watch.  There's a couple different versions of them, however, so you'll want to know which ones you want.

Equifax

• BEACON 5.0 (used by nearly all lenders) - available on myFICO.com
• BEACON 9.0 (newer scoring model, however, not used by any lenders) - available only from a lender
  

TransUnion

• Classic 98 (FKA Empirica 98) (used by a majority of lenders) - available on myFICO.com
• Classic 04 (FKA Empirica 04) (also starting to be used more by lenders) - available only from a lender

There is also a TU08 score that is only available if you have a line of credit with Walmart, however, it isn't actually used by any lenders, so it's useless.

Experian

• Fair Isaac Risk Model (used by nearly all lenders) - available only from a lender

Any score available online claiming to be an Experian credit score is a FAKO score, and useless.

Please note many lenders also have their own internal scoring models that aren't available anywhere.  Different types of lenders may value certain areas of your credit more than others, so they might view you as a higher or lower risk than your FICO scores may show.

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That is VERY helpful. Thank you very much. Just to sum up, the only scores I really need to worry about are (Equifax 5.0 & TU Classic 98) available from myfico, correct? Thanks again..much much appreciated. Btw..a mod might want to sticky this because I am sure there are more people with the same question I had. 

[mmmmmm]

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shorefox wrote:

That is VERY helpful. Thank you very much. Just to sum up, the only scores I really need to worry about are (Equifax 5.0 & TU Classic 98) available from myfico, correct? Thanks again..much much appreciated. Btw..a mod might want to sticky this because I am sure there are more people with the same question I had. 

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For the most part, yeah, watching your EQ and TU98 FICO scores on here will give you a pretty accurate picture of where you're sitting credit-wise.

You can also pull a free report from each of the major credit bureaus once a year at annualcredireport.com (you'll also get a report when you purchase a score on here automatically).

[pizzadude]

I'd suggest that you also take a few minutes to read the credit scoring 101 thread located here, it should be helpful:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/General-Credit-Topics/Frequently-Requested-Threads/td-p/10675

[daboss28]

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mmmmmm wrote:

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shorefox wrote:

I've been browsing the forums & see a large number of different scores being talked about (such as equifax fico, transunion fico, etc) and know of creditkarma, vantagescore, and more. What score should someone look at to get the most accurate representation of their credit? Thank you.

---

Your FICO scores are the ones you want to watch.  There's a couple different versions of them, however, so you'll want to know which ones you want.

Equifax

• BEACON 5.0 (used by nearly all lenders) - available on myFICO.com
• BEACON 9.0 (newer scoring model, however, not used by any lenders) - available only from a lender
  

whether credit card enhanced or not Discover uses beacon 9.0 so this is factually inaccurate

TransUnion

• Classic 98 (FKA Empirica 98) (used by a majority of lenders) - available on myFICO.com
• Classic 04 (FKA Empirica 04) (also starting to be used more by lenders) - available only from a lender

That's pretty much misinforming ... being that mortgages pretty much use 04 exclusively and I have yet to hear about any TU from cc pulls matching 98 either

[pizzadude]

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daboss28 wrote:

TransUnion

• Classic 98 (FKA Empirica 98) (used by a majority of lenders) - available on myFICO.com
• Classic 04 (FKA Empirica 04) (also starting to be used more by lenders) - available only from a lender

That's pretty much misinforming ... being that mortgages pretty much use 04 exclusively and I have yet to hear about any TU from cc pulls matching 98 either

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Yes, that is true that TU04 is pretty much the standard for mortgage lenders......There are still lenders that pull TU98 for CCs, NFCU does for example.......

[mmmmmm]

I would agree more lenders use 04 than 98, hence why I changed it.  Thanks for pointing it out though, I would have forgotten to edit that post, haha.

There's still quite a few CCC that use 98 though.

[RobertEG]

The score that actually counts is the one that your creditor/business uses as part of their decision-making.

[marty56]

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RobertEG wrote:

The score that actually counts is the one that your creditor/business uses as part of their decision-making.

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+1