3 in One Bureau Credit Monitoring Service Question

[Anonymous]

Hello,

Can anybody answer me why the score I got for Equifax through 3-in-One Credit Monitoring Service than what I got while running the credit report directly with Equifax?

Customer Rep told me that its Consumer based score and its totally different from Business based score(?).  I am not aware of this different ways of scores representation. can anybody explain?

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Hi capleo, and welcome to the forum. There's a wealth of information here to help guide you on your way to credit health.

There is the FICO score, which is the true scoring model used by most lenders in making their credit decisions.

And then there are what we call FAKO(pronounced fake-o) scores. To what purpose FAKO scores serves, is a complete unknown. To those trying to make reasonable assumptions on thier own credit, it's extremely misleading, not to mention very discouraging.

I urge you to read the excellent thread called: Credit Scoring 101, found at the top of this page:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&thread.id=2654

[Anonymous]

The FAKO scores Sylvia refers to do something similar; they process the data contained in your report and process it through an algorithm.  This algorithm is known only to a 2,000 year old monk that was last seen during the late Renaissance period, and is reportedly living in seclusion somewhere in the Himalayan mountain range.  FICO does the same thing, but here's the catch - the algorithm is DIFFERENT.  Better or worse?  I'm going to pick my battles and simply call it different.

Where folks get into trouble is assuming FICO and FAKO are the same, which they're not.  The one score can be much higher, or much lower, leading to false senses of hope or despair.  If I could be so bold to assume, I think Sylvia is telling you not to bother with a FAKO, as very few, if any lenders, actually use those algorithms.  It's better to get the straight scoop directly from the FICO's mouth.

Here's a great link to how this all works, it's another thread posted by one of the all-seeing and all-knowing moderators:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&thread.id=2654

Welcome to the forums.

[haulingthescoreup]

And just to melt down your mind a bit more, EQ (Equifax) actually sells FICO scores, but the other two (EX and TU) don't, except maybe there's one spot on TU where you can get one.

So the score you got from EQ is most likely a FICO score, and the one from the reporting service is definitely a FAKO. For what it's worth, at one point my FAKO EQ was 90 points higher than my FICO EQ, but my FAKO EX and TU are both lower than the real things.

Look for the kinda tacky gold seal--that means it's a FICO.

edit: well, I finally found the FICO score from transunioncs.com. Note the cs at the end--that makes it different from plain old transunion.com. It looks a lot like the FICO Quarterly Monitoring product, which they used to market as an identity watch product. But they also offer a one-time pull for $14.95.

Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 11-09-2007 05:06 PM