Experian - 76 point drop

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I am a bit new so please forgive my ignorance.

I have been tracking all three of my scores nearly everyday for the last 6 months. I have been rebuilding my credit and have had significant improvements. Yesterday I pulled my Experian report and it dropped 76 points literally over night! I frantically went through all three of my reports searching for something negative and there was nothing. In fact the last "Alert" I received was from more than two months ago for a hard inquiry (I am trying to buy a house). My TransUnion and Equifax did not change at all.

So basically my credit report has not changed in two months but my score dropped 76 points in one day. Does this seem normal to anyone else? I called Experian and received non-American support who insisted that my hard inquiries from over two months ago were to blame. I don't know a lot but I have never heard of a hard inquiry affecting your credit that much, plus a two month delay? It does not make sense to me.

Does anyone have any insight? Is there anyway to talk to someone at Experian who actually has a clue? If I can't figure this out I am not going to qualify for the house. So any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Patrick

[MarineVietVet]

Hello and welcome to the forums.

I hate to be the one to tell you this but I doubt if any of your scores are FICO scores. At this time as far as I know there is no 3 in 1 monitoring service out there that sells FICO scores. All the ones you see on TV or online such as freecrditreport.com, freescore.com, etc. sell what we call FAKO scores because none of these "scores" are based on formulas used to calculate FICO scores and are really useless in determining your actual credit worthiness.

So may I ask where you got your scores? No one has been able to buy their own Experian FICO score since February of 2009. Creditors can pull Experian and also there is a CU (PSECU) in Pennsylvania that supplies that information to it's members only. You can only buy true FICO scores at a few places. One place is here at myFICO. I suggest you do an internet search for "myfico discount codes" to save a little money.

At one time you could also purchase your Transunion score at transunioncs.com but that site seems to have stopped doing that. Equifax will still sell you a FICO score but you have to look very hard to find it.

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 3/11 pulled by lender- 835, EQ - 2/11-816, TU - 2/11-782

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

[Anonymous]

Hello and thank you for your service,

I did read the sticky about FICO vs FAKO and I was a little confused as to what I am actually receiving. Not sure if we are allowed to post links so if not I apologize in advance. I am receiving my reports and scores from the following 3 places:

• First is "Experian Credit Report and Score" http://www.experian.com/personal-credit/report-and-credit-score.html.
• Second is "Equifax Report and Credit and Score" from http://www.equifax.com/credit-product-list/
• Third is a product called "Zendough" sold by TransUnion here http://www.transunion.com/corporate/personal/creditTools.page

So now I am really confused. Even though I am purchasing my scores directly from Experian, TransUnion and Equifax they are not my real scores? I was a long time MyFICO customer but when we began repairing my credit, same time we decided to purchase a new home, it was important to check our progress daily, weekly etc. and I could not find a product that allowed me to check as often as I needed.

Any explanation is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Patrick

[MarineVietVet]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello and thank you for your service,

I did read the sticky about FICO vs FAKO and I was a little confused as to what I am actually receiving. Not sure if we are allowed to post links so if not I apologize in advance. I am receiving my reports and scores from the following 3 places:

• First is "Experian Credit Report and Score" http://www.experian.com/personal-credit/report-and-credit-score.html.
• Second is "Equifax Report and Credit and Score" from http://www.equifax.com/credit-product-list/
• Third is a product called "Zendough" sold by TransUnion here http://www.transunion.com/corporate/personal/creditTools.page

So now I am really confused. Even though I am purchasing my scores directly from Experian, TransUnion and Equifax they are not my real scores? I was a long time MyFICO customer but when we began repairing my credit, same time we decided to purchase a new home, it was important to check our progress daily, weekly etc. and I could not find a product that allowed me to check as often as I needed.

Any explanation is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Patrick

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Hi Patrick,

For sure the scores you get at Experian and Zendough (Transunion) are FAKO's. Until  recently you could buy a TU FICO at transunioncs.com but no more.

The Equifax score might be a FICO. EQ started selling their own proprietary "Equifax Credit Score" to compete with FICO. If you don't see the word "FICO" anywhere on the report and score you got from EQ then you can be sure you weren't sold the real deal. I think you can still get an EQ FICO at Equifax.com but I haven't been able to find the link to it in quite some time.

 Also the "Equifax Complete" package they have for sell  provides FAKO's.

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 3/11 pulled by lender- 835, EQ - 2/11-816, TU - 2/11-782

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

[michaels88369]

Correct me if I am wrong but equifax uses
"risk" score on their website. That's what they tried to sell me the other day when I aloes in to dispute a collection on my report. She kept saying "you can keep track of your credit score, and I asked was it fico and she said no it's called risk score" hope this helps.

[MarineVietVet]

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@michaels88369 wrote:
Correct me if I am wrong but equifax uses
"risk" score on their website. That's what they tried to sell me the other day when I aloes in to dispute a collection on my report. She kept saying "you can keep track of your credit score, and I asked was it fico and she said no it's called risk score" hope this helps.

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I believe that is what EQ is selling now as their "Equifax Credit Score" but I still think (could be very wrong) that their FICO Score Power product is still available if you can find the link or talk to a knowledgeable CSR.

But again if you think about buying a score anywhere make sure you can see the word "FICO" before purchasing.

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 3/11 pulled by lender- 835, EQ - 2/11-816, TU - 2/11-782

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

[ScoreBooster]

I'm only purchasing credit-reports from these 3-in-1 sources to access the content of my credit-reports - but as said before, the scores they provide are useless. They can be used to determine a tendency - but certainly not as direct comparison. In fact, they even calculate them in a totally different way which makes it impossible to compare to FICO-scores.

Example: My 3-in-1 service is teling me that my score is lower due to low credit-LINES. The credit-LINES, however, aren't even considered when calculating your FICO, only the utilization. So the FAKO gives you a higher score for carrying $900 on a card with a $30,000 CL than for $9 on a $300 CL while FICO makes no difference between the two.