Difference in Scores

[hanify2001]

I'm new here so this may have already been covered. My apologies if so. The July issue of Consumer Reports had an article on the value of comsumer purchased credit scores. The thing that really caught my attention was that Fair Issac has 49 different scores availble to lenders but only two available to consumers. Why is this and how represenative is the FICO score I purchase from Fair Issac? If my FICO from Equifax is say 680 roughly how much variance will there be from the other 47 FICO scores made available to lenders?

[pizzadude]

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@hanify2001 wrote:

I'm new here so this may have already been covered. My apologies if so. The July issue of Consumer Reports had an article on the value of comsumer purchased credit scores. The thing that really caught my attention was that Fair Issac has 49 different scores availble to lenders but only two available to consumers. Why is this and how represenative is the FICO score I purchase from Fair Issac? If my FICO from Equifax is say 680 roughly how much variance will there be from the other 47 FICO scores made available to lenders?

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Welcome to the forums !

You're right that there are many different FICO scores available to lenders, which we can't purchase.    Many of these are industry specific, such as bank card enhanced, Auto enhanced, etc... they weigh certain accounts more heavily based on the model.     Some of them have a max score range which is higher than 850.

As consumers we can only purchase the Classic FICO score ~ other specality scores just aren't available to us.

[hanify2001]

Thanks for the quick reply. What then, is the "Classic FICO" score? An average of the others? How does it relate to the "specialty scores"? I get the feeling here that my $14.95/mo is not connected to the reality of FICO based lending. Is the "Classic" a benchmark that relates with some accuracy to the other speciality scores? If so how? If not, what is its real value?

[pizzadude]

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@hanify2001 wrote:

Thanks for the quick reply. What then, is the "Classic FICO" score? An average of the others? How does it relate to the "specialty scores"? I get the feeling here that my $14.95/mo is not connected to the reality of FICO based lending. Is the "Classic" a benchmark that relates with some accuracy to the other speciality scores? If so how? If not, what is its real value?

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No, it's not a blending or average of the others.   The Classic score is just the basic FICO score, it's what MyFICO sells.

Most mortage lenders pull the classic FICO 04 score ~ the Equifax score sold here is the FICO 08 score model and will not generally match up with mortgage pulls.

Many auto & CC lenders will use the Auto enhanced or Bankcard enhanced scores.

[hanify2001]

So when you say "enhanced" do you mean more weight put on the performance of an auto loan or CC when it's scored? Less weight? What other factors? Can you give me an idea of the breadth of the FICO scores from 1 to 49?

[pizzadude]

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@hanify2001 wrote:

So when you say "enhanced" do you mean more weight put on the performance of an auto loan or CC when it's scored? Less weight? What other factors? Can you give me an idea of the breadth of the FICO scores from 1 to 49?

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That's correct ~ for example a FICO auto enhanced score places more weight on auto loans & leases.    Bankcard enhanced FICO scores place more weight on Credit Card accounts. 

Here's a link helps explain Auto enhanced scoring:   http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Auto-Loans/FICO-Auto-Enhanced-Scores/td-p/228198

[hanify2001]

Then, in determining an auto enhanced score, for example, is the information that is in my credit report that I can pull on this site the same info that will be used to calculate my "auto enhanced" score?

[pizzadude]

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@hanify2001 wrote:

Then, in determining an auto enhanced score, for example, is the information that is in my credit report that I can pull on this site the same info that will be used to calculate my "auto enhanced" score?

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Yes, the information on your credit reports, pulled either from this site ( or from each CRA ) is used to calculate your FICO score.

[hanify2001]

Then why are there 49 different FICO scores available to various lenders and, I assume, other agencies? Has each group paid Fair Issac to develop an algorithim to suit their needs? How was the "classic" score determinined? It's getting late Pizza Dude,and I appreciate you responses, but I'm left with the feeling I know a whole lot less about the credit score business than I thought I did.

[HoldingOntoHope]

Well there are so many score variations available because some statistics guru has convinced everyone that by focusing more on Factor K when deciding whether to approve credit for Product Y that you can get a X% lesser default rate. Seriously it's simply supply and demand. If Fair Isaac could sell 1275 different score reports at a cost to enable profit then they would. And someone on this board would be willing to pay $19.95 for each of them if they were publicly available.