Understanding FICO® Scoring

[ApathyNext]

I just pulled both my Equifan and TU scores from MyFico and I got a 669 on TU and 622 on EQ. I went back and double checked and both reports had the EXACT same information on all my accounts and everything with the exception that TU had one more inquiry than Equifax. How is it possible that MyFICO scores have a 47 point difference with the exact same information?

[pizzadude]

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ApathyNext wrote:

I just pulled both my Equifan and TU scores from MyFico and I got a 669 on TU and 622 on EQ. I went back and double checked and both reports had the EXACT same information on all my accounts and everything with the exception that TU had one more inquiry than Equifax. How is it possible that MyFICO scores have a 47 point difference with the exact same information?

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Are you sure that there aren't any differences, with late payments, or balances ?   Also the TU98 version sold here at MyFICO scores charge cards differently than EQ ~ do you happen to have an AMEX charge card ?

[ApathyNext]

Nope, just 2 credit cards, and yes I am POSITIVE that everything in both reports is identical (except one more inquiry)

[pizzadude]

Well I guess the difference would just be attributed to the differences between the FICO98 and 04 score models, and also due to the additional inquiry.

There have been a lot of people who have reported large differences between their TU98 and TU04 scores, so I guess it makes sense that the EQ04 model would show some variance as well.   YMMV.

[MarineVietVet]

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ApathyNext wrote:

I just pulled both my Equifan and TU scores from MyFico and I got a 669 on TU and 622 on EQ. I went back and double checked and both reports had the EXACT same information on all my accounts and everything with the exception that TU had one more inquiry than Equifax. How is it possible that MyFICO scores have a 47 point difference with the exact same information?

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Hello and welcome.

I also have a wide gap between my EQ and TU FICO scores here. Each CRA has their own unique way of looking at and scoring the same information. For example my TU report is always dinging me for having "non - mortgage balances are too high: whereas EQ seems to ignore the same data.

IMO (In My Opinion) it's not a big concern.

[kjm79]

+1 - Currently my TU is higher then my EQ, not always the case.  But for me TU lists 23% util as hurting my score and on EQ 23% is helping my score. TU is pickier about util and for me, EQ has been pickier on inquiries.  Look at the what's hurting/helping your score and you can see the differences between TU and EQ and what each considers good/bad for your reports. 

[cybarra2003]

I don't know how much stock i would put in the helping/hurting section. Last TU pull it said my AAoA was good....i pulled again three weeks later and it listed that same factor but as now a negative. I'm not sure if TU is having issues (i.e. i dropped my util from 50% to 36% and lost 3 points) but they've been really hit and miss.

[kjm79]

As your report changes, so do the factors that help or hurt your score.  The cleaner your file gets the more inquiry or util sensitive it could be.  There will always be something helping/hurting your score. 

[ApathyNext]

So when I posted this I had 2 credit cards, one with a limit of 300 and a balance of 297, another with a limit of 601 and a balance of 67.

So my total utility was 40%, and this was when I was having the big scoring discrepency. 

I paid off the 300 dollar card, and its balance went to 5 dollars and when it updated on my reports, both my scores went to 695ish.

So, what I learned, is that Equifax takes into account your utility on a per card basis, whereas TU just calculated total utility.