Disparity in scores despite same reports?

[Anonymous]

After reading the forums for a while i've finally decided to sign up and join everyone.

I've been subscribed to experian for a while and it shows my score's coming in at a healthy(considering my currently sky high utilization) 632, however I found my equifax to come in at 576.

They both have the same exact report information, Except for inquiries, i got hit with a whopping 10 on equifax when i was getting my car in feburary, but i was always told those only count as one. equifax shows 16, experian 7

The biggest hit on me is a very late payment 2 years ago when i didn't know anything about credit. I let it run to 180 days, equifax reports as 180, Experian reports as 120+. The account was eventually paid off in full but it still shows negative on the account.

To complicate things even further, When i signed up for EQ, it showed scores for all 3 accounts, and Eq came in at 576, TU 590, Experian 585.

Long term i know this is all gonna be fine, but in the short term i wanted to get my score up to 680  to Refi my car in the next 2 months by paying down my utlization, which with experian, is entirely possible, With EQ coming in at 576 though, seems impossible. Eq is the score that ultimately matters as its the one they pull. Any input/advice?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

After reading the forums for a while i've finally decided to sign up and join everyone.

I've been subscribed to experian for a while and it shows my score's coming in at a healthy(considering my currently sky high utilization) 632, however I found my equifax to come in at 576.

They both have the same exact report information, Except for inquiries, i got hit with a whopping 10 on equifax when i was getting my car in feburary, but i was always told those only count as one. equifax shows 16, experian 7

The biggest hit on me is a very late payment 2 years ago when i didn't know anything about credit. I let it run to 180 days, equifax reports as 180, Experian reports as 120+. The account was eventually paid off in full but it still shows negative on the account.

To complicate things even further, When i signed up for EQ, it showed scores for all 3 accounts, and Eq came in at 576, TU 590, Experian 585.

Long term i know this is all gonna be fine, but in the short term i wanted to get my score up to 680  to Refi my car in the next 2 months by paying down my utlization, which with experian, is entirely possible, With EQ coming in at 576 though, seems impossible. Eq is the score that ultimately matters as its the one they pull. Any input/advice?

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I would start by trying to get those paid lates good willed off. Nothing you can do about the inquiries. 

[Anonymous]

I've called a few times to no avail to get them off unfortunately. Should I be asking to speak to someone in particular when I do call and ask?

[tufa4311]

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@Anonymous wrote:

After reading the forums for a while i've finally decided to sign up and join everyone.

I've been subscribed to experian for a while and it shows my score's coming in at a healthy(considering my currently sky high utilization) 632, however I found my equifax to come in at 576.

They both have the same exact report information, Except for inquiries, i got hit with a whopping 10 on equifax when i was getting my car in feburary, but i was always told those only count as one. equifax shows 16, experian 7

The biggest hit on me is a very late payment 2 years ago when i didn't know anything about credit. I let it run to 180 days, equifax reports as 180, Experian reports as 120+. The account was eventually paid off in full but it still shows negative on the account.

To complicate things even further, When i signed up for EQ, it showed scores for all 3 accounts, and Eq came in at 576, TU 590, Experian 585.

Long term i know this is all gonna be fine, but in the short term i wanted to get my score up to 680  to Refi my car in the next 2 months by paying down my utlization, which with experian, is entirely possible, With EQ coming in at 576 though, seems impossible. Eq is the score that ultimately matters as its the one they pull. Any input/advice?

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Well, actually, and as you noted, they are not the same reports The inquiries are different as well as the late payments. Different data = different scores.

You can't get rid of the inquires, well I guess you could but it's not likely, and the lates, well, those are major derogs and will continue to hurt your score really for the enitre 7 years but they will lessen over time - you need to work to get rid of those if you have not already (it took me a year to get rid of one 30-day late, you will need to work at this). One thing I would do is determine which is correct - was it 180 or 120? If it was 120 then fix the other reporting for 180 (if it was 180 then don't rock the boat).

Are you sure you are checking your scores from these sources all at the same time? If not then a difference in time can equal a difference in scores based on the same report.

Hoping for a 50 point gain in the short term is not realistic UNLESS you have other areas that can be changed. For example, UTIL, you say it's sky high, well depending on what your definition of sky high is and on how many accounts you could very well be able to grab 50 points by lowering that UTIL to under 10%. And heck, get rid of those lates and you could shoot for the moon.

If you'd like more detailed info you'd need to list all your tradelines with their respective balances and limits.

The median FICO® Score 8 for the entire U.S. was 713 as of October 2014 (50% of the population scores above and below that score). I'll let you determine if you feel your score is healthy based on that data point.

[Anonymous]

I wasn't sure if the way they reported the late balances was just their own way of reporting them, or if the difference actually matters. i do believe the 180 one is correct, experian just shows 3 months with 120+, i figured they didn't go higher than 120. And yeah, my UTI is high, currently trading at 43%.

2x CAPONE QS 940/2000 on one, 169/850 on the other. Discover 386/1500. Fairwinds 782/100   Merrick bank 475/500.   Theres also a Sears Store card with 0/500(not the visa)

Also a car loan at 16,000 and a Student loan for 7.

Experian Seems to think from 632, if i pay down 1100a month  for the next 2 months, i'll shoot up to 687.if i do 740 over the next 3 itll shoot up to 692. Both entirely do-able. the only problem is that EQ is the one that matters and it's trading too low for what i want. For the score to be at 632 despite the high utilization and being 22, yeah i'll take it all day and call it healthy

[tufa4311]

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@Anonymous wrote:

And yeah, my UTI is high, currently trading at 43%.

CAPONE QS 940/2000 = 47%

CAPONE QS 169/850 = 19%

Discover 386/1500 = 25%

Fairwinds 782/1000 = 78%

Merrick bank 475/500 = 95%

Sears Store card with 0/500(not the visa)

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Your overall UTIL is one factor, but your individual is another. 95% and 78% are really hurting your score, in addition, depending on how long you have been using almost 100% of your available credit the OC may get concerned and give you a credit limit decease, others could do the same based on what they see in other cards. And putting aside your UTIL, you have too many cards reporting a balance. You need to bring those two high UTIL's down, then you need to work on systemically bringing all down to 0 except one, that one at less than 10% but still  reporting something.

[Anonymous]

Didn't know individual uti was a factor to the score itself. The Merricks about to be automatically doubled to 1000 in a few days, unfortunately that'll be after it reports, but so it won't be high for much longer. I Should I work on bringing all cards to under 30 first though right? Not killing one card at a time? By the end of August/early September overall UTI 'should' be under 10%. 20% at most. Not worried at all long term, I only became credit aware early last year, though short term, the discrepancy in the reports of 120+ vs 180 days is probably what's making that gap loom so large I'm assuming? I've tried many times to get it removed(even though I was in fact late) are there any chances of hiring one of those credit companies to get it removed? Or are they just a bunch of smoke. I mean it was paid in full, wish state farm would take pity.

[tufa4311]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Didn't know individual uti was a factor to the score itself. The Merricks about to be automatically doubled to 1000 in a few days, unfortunately that'll be after it reports, but so it won't be high for much longer. I Should I work on bringing all cards to under 30 first though right? Not killing one card at a time? By the end of August/early September overall UTI 'should' be under 10%. 20% at most. Not worried at all long term, I only became credit aware early last year, though short term, the discrepancy in the reports of 120+ vs 180 days is probably what's making that gap loom so large I'm assuming? I've tried many times to get it removed(even though I was in fact late) are there any chances of hiring one of those credit companies to get it removed? Or are they just a bunch of smoke. I mean it was paid in full, wish state farm would take pity.

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First, do not hire anyone to do something you can do on your own, especially a credit "repair" company. All they will most likely do is shoot out disputes, not something you want and not something that has results.

Yes, individual UTIL is very, very important as well as overall UTIL.

If you know you will be lowering UTIL down to at most 20% within 8 weeks I wouldn't worry too much about the strategy but I would start on the highest UTIL cards first. As well, if you can only lower it to 20% try to have it on only one card. And whatever you do always meet your minimum payments for all your cards - this is number one.

[Rebuilding69]

I could be wrong about this(please correct me if I am, I want correct info out there), but I believe you can be hit 3 times in the credit card scene. 1 ding for individual util%'s, 1 ding for overall util%, and a final ding if more than 50% of your total number of cards have any balance at all when they are reported to the bureaus. If this is the case, would it be prudent to pay off the lower balance cards first, thus immediately removing one of the cc dings I believe you are receiving?

However, I suppose if you can lower util% across all cards in a couple weeks to what they should be, it doesn't really matter anyways, heh.

[Anonymous]

Well 8-10 weeks, only so many paychecks in a month and i'd have to wait for them to report, but yeah, they'll start plummeting soon enough. I hate myself for letting that SFB card go late, especially because it's closed and i could be using that card and having it grow with me.