Rebuilding Your Credit

[olderwiser3]

Okay so this isn't the end of the world since I've applied for a couple other cards and was approved.  I'm just annoyed and surprised at the difference.  I pulled my reports from all three CRAs on the same day and then eventually bought the FICOs from TU and EQ once I realized I had first gotten FAKOs.  Here's the thing.  I had 730s FICOs for both of them and a 686 for an EX FAKO.  I finally got the letter from AMEX with my EX FICO and it's a 630!  How in the world can the scores be that wildly different? 

All my CCs are listed as closed (until the two new ones were opened) and paid satisfactorily except for one.  I have one Chase account that's kicking my butt with lates from 2.5+ years ago (paid and closed).  And I have one Sallie Mae student loan that's almost 5 years old and reporting Open and Current (it's always been paid on time as have all my other closed cards).

It would be interesting to see what the EX FICO will be once the two new accounts are reporting.  My AAoA even with adding those will still be almost 7 years because I have such a long history (20+ years).  The factors they list are the following:

Serious Deliquency

Too few accounts currently paid as agreed.

Lack of recent revolving account information.

Lack of recent bank/national revolving information.

[Burned2manybridgesB4]

Internal scoring.

[olderwiser3]

When you say internal scoring, you mean that if I were to apply for say a Discover card and they pulled EX as well, it could very well be a different number than the FICO from AMEX?

[Burned2manybridgesB4]

Does the letter say "exp fico," or "score obtained from.."

*edit* Dug up an old letter from them, and that is your exp fico. It's an enhanced scoring model, and I'm not sure if the version is 04/08.

[Burned2manybridgesB4]

I had to knock on their door a few times over a six month window, before they let me in.

[phillyguy12]

i had a similar sit. last yr i am still in rebuilding mode got my tu score up to around 676 i think at the time so i applied for a discover card they approved me but w. a higher rate then i applied for when i got the disclosure they said my tu score was only 640 something . apparently the scores sold on here are a older version which are used more for mortgages and cc companies can pull what they call an industry enhanced version. if you call Myfico customer service you will find the reps follow a script and wont tell u anything other than the score you get is widely used but each creditor can use a different model

[olderwiser3]

It says

Information about your FICO(R) Score

Reason(s) for our Decision

Your FICO score (See below)

Information about your FICO Score

We obtained your FICO score from Experian and used it in making our credit decision.... Bunch of stuff about what a FICO score is and how it can change and then lists the four reasons I posted above.  So as far as I can tell this is the actual number that EX gave them.  Just odd.  I'm going to wait until the two new accounts report (should know from my DCU score changes) and then at least pay for a FAKO to compare to what it was when the FICO was this.

[olderwiser3]

Oh right.  I forgot about the different versions that I've heard about TU - 98, 04, 08 or whatever.  It'd make sense that there'd be different versions of the others as well.

[phillyguy12]

yea i believe the score sold here is TU 98,

[Kevin5974]

did you recon?