I just pulled all three credit reports and really studied each one.
Transunion:
Fico: 808
Accounts: 43 listed
Active accounts with balance: 3
Accounts opened in past year: 2
Dings: New credit account but they didn't say what the "magic" amount of time is that they don't want to see new credit accounts opened in order to not get dinged.
Pro: Best FICO score for me. They listed my maiden name and the othere two CBs did not.
Con: Inaccurate. Did not report a car loan or a line of credit for overdraft protection attached to a checking account.
Experian:
Fico: 781
Accounts: 50
Active accounts with balance: 5
Active accounts opened in past year: 2
Dings: "Made heavy use of revolving credit." Dinged me for having greater than 7% of credit utilization.
Pro: Most accurate, they had the car loan that the other two CBs missed and one credit card that I opened at the same time which was also missed by the other CBs. Experian had the most active reporting of any overdrafts or balances carried, even if the balance was carried for only a few days. The other two CBs did not even report that I had an overdraft line of credit attached to my checking accounts.
Con: They did not have my maiden name listed.
Equifax:
Fico: 773
Accounts: 46
Accounts with active balance: 3
Accounts opened in past year: 2
Dings: "You recently opened a new credit account. Your newest account was opened 5 months ago. Fico high achievers opened their most recent account 27 months ago, on average."
Pro: This would be the Credit Bureau report I would pull if I was worried about getting a falsely low FICO score and I was trying to get a mortgage. This FICO score underestimates my ability to repay debt.
Con: They didn't report the car loan through my credit union, they didn't report the overdraft line of protection through my credit union, they didn't have my maiden name, their length of time for my credit history was 19 years whereas Experian was 23 years.
Summary: Experian must cull information from creditors most often as they picked up significantly more information. Interestingly, the credit products that I purchased (car loan, overdraft line of credit) that Experian reported (that Equifax and TU did not) should have resulted in the lowest FICO score, but it didn't. My Experian score was 781, which is between Equifax's 773 and TU's 808. Experian was the most accurate for reporting my credit activities. Equifax was the most negative for me in terms of the FICO score and was as inaccurate as TU's, although TU's was more positive (in my favor) in terms of the FICO score calculation.
