How to Build a Good Credit Score

[MarineVietVet]

EQ sells both the FICO Beacon 5.0 sold here and their own proprietary (useless) "Equifax Credit Score" so you have to be very careful what you buy when you go there.

Equifax will still sell you a FICO score found here: www.equifax.com/web-myfico-products/

[GregB]

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@MarineVietVet wrote:

EQ sells both the FICO Beacon 5.0 sold here and their own proprietary (useless) "Equifax Credit Score" so you have to be very careful what you buy when you go there.

Equifax will still sell you a FICO score found here: www.equifax.com/web-myfico-products/

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Good point. It is possible to find the EQ FICO from Equifax but generally if you get all three "scores" you would end up with FAKOs. Seems like they make it hard to find.

[MarineVietVet]

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@GregB wrote:

 

Good point. It is possible to find the EQ FICO from Equifax but generally if you get all three "scores" you would end up with FAKOs. Seems like they make it hard to find.

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I agree. We need to constantly educate new members that there is no site that sells you all three FICO scores. Only a lender can pull all three at this time.

[jacksonvillejaguar]

So I ordered my FICO scores today from myFICO Equifax 628, TransUnion 661

[GregB]

Ouch, I must admit I expected your real FICO to be better than the FAKO scores that you had reported.

Now that you have real FICO reports, what are the items listed that are helping your score and the items listed that are hurting your score? These should be page 2 of your reports.If you only have one handy, lets start with the EQ FICO.

[jacksonvillejaguar]

Transunion

Hurting your score

1. Delinquency collections- 1 collection account that will fall off 8/12

2. Bad payment history

3. Seeking credit

4. Short account history

Helping your score

1. Low credit usage

2. Old collection

Equifax

Hurting your score

1. Delinquency collections- 1 collection account

2. Short account history

3. Recent missed payment

4. Bad payment history

Helping your score

1. Low credit usage

2. Recent credit card use

[GregB]

It is going to be hard to have a good score with the collection on there. It is #1 issue hurting your score on TU and EQ. I'm assuming it is the same collection and there is only one.

Interesting that the collection being old is helping TU but not on the list for EQ. That is an indication of the difference in the algorithm between the two versions. That is more likely to be because TU is using FICO 98 version and EQ is using FICO 04.

Sorry to say that the EQ FICO is probably more accurate for you. It will be much better when the collection falls off.

[jacksonvillejaguar]

It is a different collection for each report , Transunion will fall off this year(date assigned Dec. 2005.) Equifax is a bite tricky, I had an unpaid balance from Comcast cable that went to collections, I paid Comcast and have a zero balance but the collection agency is still on my report.

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@GregB wrote:

It is going to be hard to have a good score with the collection on there. It is #1 issue hurting your score on TU and EQ. I'm assuming it is the same collection and there is only one.

Interesting that the collection being old is helping TU but not on the list for EQ. That is an indication of the difference in the algorithm between the two versions. That is more likely to be because TU is using FICO 98 version and EQ is using FICO 04.

Sorry to say that the EQ FICO is probably more accurate for you. It will be much better when the collection falls off.

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