My score is off by 60 +/- points using myFICO score watch

[Anonymous]

Long story short. I ordered myFICO score watch to monitor my credit score to buy a home. I worked hard to improve my score by doing PFD's. Even though the accounts have been removed which would increase my score the score did not increase. I decided to do a hard pull with Quicken loans yesterday my score is WAY off from what My Fico reports. In my opinion myFICO Score Watch is a TERRIBLE product.

[Anonymous]

I'm in the same boat! thank you for sharing the difference, I know they are different models but you would not think it would THAT far off, you don't have as much work to do as you thought my MYFICO 08 scores are EQ 594- EX 619- TU 594 - I'm hoping to get 640 or above from the lenders on at least 2 scores.

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@Anonymous wrote:

Long story short. I ordered myFICO score watch to monitor my credit score to buy a home. I worked hard to improve my score by doing PFD's. Even though the accounts have been removed which would increase my score the score did not increase. I decided to do a hard pull with Quicken loans yesterday my score is WAY off from what My Fico reports. In my opinion myFICO Score Watch is a TERRIBLE product.

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[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Long story short. I ordered myFICO score watch to monitor my credit score to buy a home. I worked hard to improve my score by doing PFD's. Even though the accounts have been removed which would increase my score the score did not increase. I decided to do a hard pull with Quicken loans yesterday my score is WAY off from what My Fico reports. In my opinion myFICO Score Watch is a TERRIBLE product.

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The scorewatch product might have its share of flaws, but the problem here is likely your understanding of how credit scores work. Generally, scores can be lumped into two broad groups: FICO scores and FAKO (non-FICO credit scores). FICO scores are provided by the Fair Isaac Company (here at myfico) while FAKO scores are provided by others. 

The vast majority of lenders use some variant of FICO scores. A frequently quoted statistic is that 90% of the top 100 lenders use FICO scores. The problem, however, is that you have many types of FICO scores. The FICO score available here is the FICO 08 score. The FICO 08 score is the score used by most credit card companies. However, not all types of lenders nor all credit card companies use FICO 08. Many of credit card companies use their own internal scoring system. Non-credit card lenders often use other variants of FICO scores. Auto lenders often pull auto enhanced (focus more on auto loan payments) FICO scores and home lenders often pull older FICO versions like FICO 04. Moreover, even in any given FICO score (e.g. FICO 08), you have 3 scores (Experian FICO 08, Trans Union FICO 08, and Equifax FICO 08). Only the FICO 08 score is available to borrowers.

FICO scores are useful to see general trend of our scores. FICO 08 scores are also useful when dealing with credit cards since most use the FICO 08 score and many have standard credit bureaus they pull from (e.g. Barclays will always use FICO 08 Trans Union score). For home loans and auto loans it is a bit more tricky. Anyway, if you are subscribing to Score Watch to know exactly the score every lender sees, you should cancel your subscription. Score Watch and other similar products are useful to see the general trend of your score and get notifications if something negative gets posted on your report. 

[Barneygirl]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Long story short. I ordered myFICO score watch to monitor my credit score to buy a home. I worked hard to improve my score by doing PFD's. Even though the accounts have been removed which would increase my score the score did not increase. I decided to do a hard pull with Quicken loans yesterday my score is WAY off from what My Fico reports. In my opinion myFICO Score Watch is a TERRIBLE product.

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The scorewatch product might have its share of flaws, but the problem here is likely your understanding of how credit scores work. Generally, scores can be lumped into two broad groups: FICO scores and FAKO (non-FICO credit scores). FICO scores are provided by the Fair Isaac Company (here at myfico) while FAKO scores are provided by others. 

The vast majority of lenders use some variant of FICO scores. A frequently quoted statistic is that 90% of the top 100 lenders use FICO scores. The problem, however, is that you have many types of FICO scores. The FICO score available here is the FICO 08 score. The FICO 08 score is the score used by most credit card companies. However, not all types of lenders nor all credit card companies use FICO 08. Many of credit card companies use their own internal scoring system. Non-credit card lenders often use other variants of FICO scores. Auto lenders often pull auto enhanced (focus more on auto loan payments) FICO scores and home lenders often pull older FICO versions like FICO 04. Moreover, even in any given FICO score (e.g. FICO 08), you have 3 scores (Experian FICO 08, Trans Union FICO 08, and Equifax FICO 08). Only the FICO 08 score is available to borrowers.

FICO scores are useful to see general trend of our scores. FICO 08 scores are also useful when dealing with credit cards since most use the FICO 08 score and many have standard credit bureaus they pull from (e.g. Barclays will always use FICO 08 Trans Union score). For home loans and auto loans it is a bit more tricky. Anyway, if you are subscribing to Score Watch to know exactly the score every lender sees, you should cancel your subscription. Score Watch and other similar products are useful to see the general trend of your score and get notifications if something negative gets posted on your report. 

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Good points, and totally true, while inconvenient.  If you're looking at ScoreWatch as a means to track for a mortgage you are wasting your money.  It's FICO 08, and the mortgage industry hasn't adopted FICO 08 yet. 

I WAS using the myFICO scores to monitor for a mortgage until they updated everything to 08.... now the scores are useless to me.  While I still subscribe to ScoreWatch, I keep the subscription so I can monitor activity.   As of right now, there's no place you can buy TU and EX mortgage credit scores.  EQ you can actually buy off of the EQ site (think it's called scorepower...either way, it's the EQ FICO that you can buy).....however keep in mind, as stated above, this is just ONE of THREE scores..... and could be wildly different than the other two scores!! (right now my mortgage scores have a 50+ point differential between EQ and TU/EX!!)

If you're looking for a mortgage score, and can afford the inquiry hit, you may want to just have your lender run your credit....so you know where you stand

[Anonymous]

Yes the EQ power score is FICO 04 so it's a big help, but It sucks you can't buy the mortgage scores of either TU or EX - So because I know my CK FAKO score is lower than my FICO 04 and FICO 08 I will get that to a 640 and go from there because I know it can only be higher, You can only do what you can do..  

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@Barneygirl wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Long story short. I ordered myFICO score watch to monitor my credit score to buy a home. I worked hard to improve my score by doing PFD's. Even though the accounts have been removed which would increase my score the score did not increase. I decided to do a hard pull with Quicken loans yesterday my score is WAY off from what My Fico reports. In my opinion myFICO Score Watch is a TERRIBLE product.

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The scorewatch product might have its share of flaws, but the problem here is likely your understanding of how credit scores work. Generally, scores can be lumped into two broad groups: FICO scores and FAKO (non-FICO credit scores). FICO scores are provided by the Fair Isaac Company (here at myfico) while FAKO scores are provided by others. 

The vast majority of lenders use some variant of FICO scores. A frequently quoted statistic is that 90% of the top 100 lenders use FICO scores. The problem, however, is that you have many types of FICO scores. The FICO score available here is the FICO 08 score. The FICO 08 score is the score used by most credit card companies. However, not all types of lenders nor all credit card companies use FICO 08. Many of credit card companies use their own internal scoring system. Non-credit card lenders often use other variants of FICO scores. Auto lenders often pull auto enhanced (focus more on auto loan payments) FICO scores and home lenders often pull older FICO versions like FICO 04. Moreover, even in any given FICO score (e.g. FICO 08), you have 3 scores (Experian FICO 08, Trans Union FICO 08, and Equifax FICO 08). Only the FICO 08 score is available to borrowers.

FICO scores are useful to see general trend of our scores. FICO 08 scores are also useful when dealing with credit cards since most use the FICO 08 score and many have standard credit bureaus they pull from (e.g. Barclays will always use FICO 08 Trans Union score). For home loans and auto loans it is a bit more tricky. Anyway, if you are subscribing to Score Watch to know exactly the score every lender sees, you should cancel your subscription. Score Watch and other similar products are useful to see the general trend of your score and get notifications if something negative gets posted on your report. 

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Good points, and totally true, while inconvenient.  If you're looking at ScoreWatch as a means to track for a mortgage you are wasting your money.  It's FICO 08, and the mortgage industry hasn't adopted FICO 08 yet. 

I WAS using the myFICO scores to monitor for a mortgage until they updated everything to 08.... now the scores are useless to me.  While I still subscribe to ScoreWatch, I keep the subscription so I can monitor activity.   As of right now, there's no place you can buy TU and EX mortgage credit scores.  EQ you can actually buy off of the EQ site (think it's called scorepower...either way, it's the EQ FICO that you can buy).....however keep in mind, as stated above, this is just ONE of THREE scores..... and could be wildly different than the other two scores!! (right now my mortgage scores have a 50+ point differential between EQ and TU/EX!!)

If you're looking for a mortgage score, and can afford the inquiry hit, you may want to just have your lender run your credit....so you know where you stand

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[Anonymous]

On Wed, November 26, 2014 my mortage broker pulled my TU fico score it was 698 the score that Myfico is reporting to me is 579 for TU. No mater if you are using FICO 04 or FICO 08 the score would not be 119 points different. myFICO.com needs to be improved. 

[HiLine]

One of those days I should write a post on why FICO scores are so confusing.
Short version: there are many FICO scoring models. Myfico.com products use the scoring model that credit card issuers use instead of the model that mortgage lenders use.
The improvement would be that mortgage lenders use the newer scoring model, which has not happened yet because Fannie Mae is still using the old model.
I other words, Myfico is too "futuristic".
When Fannie Mae finally makes a move though, Myfico products will sell like hot cakes. I'm hoping for the change to happen in the next year or two.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

On Wed, November 26, 2014 my mortage broker pulled my TU fico score it was 698 the score that Myfico is reporting to me is 579 for TU. No mater if you are using FICO 04 or FICO 08 the score would not be 119 points different. myFICO.com needs to be improved. 

It's actually not uncommon to see large score differences between standards. I see them here almost weekly. MyFico privides a Fico 08 score. That's exactly what you get. What needs to be improved? You can be diappointed with the scoring but the score here is correct. Other than mortgage these scores are used by almost all creditors at this point.

[Calidreaming]

I wouldn't say that myfico needs to be improved, but I do think they need to make clear exactly what it is they are providing.  Tons of people come on here and buy their products thinking that it is the fico score they need for mortgages and its not, myself included.  I was rudely awakened when the lender pull was 60+ lower for my EQ and EX scores.  I was lucky in that we were not looking to apply for a mortgage for another year but many people come on these boards and have made concrete plans re applying for a mortgage based on the myfico scores.

Now that the shock has worn off I do think that the Scorewatch product is still useful, but I would have liked to have understood what I was getting it before I plunked down the money.  FICO scoring is very confusing and it's not unreasonable for people to think that the myfico scores are the ones used by all lenders.  Equifax has a long disclaimer on the page where you buy its ScorePower product, so I think it's telling that myfico does not do the same.  I think they know most people are not going to understand exactly how it works and they are profitting by misleading people.