Really confused

[Anonymous]

OK. This might take a bit to make my point.

After filing online disputes with both EQ and TU, as of this morning I am now happy to report that all three credit bureaus have removed erroneous derogatory information from my report! Yeah! Let the back pews say AMEN! All three bureaus have almost the exact same information and accounts on them, and all of it is accurate. And it only took three acts of Congress to get it that way.

Now, here's where the confusion comes in. When I spoke with a representative at Equifax yesterday about my report with them, she informed me that there was no derogatory account information on the report, unlike the EQ report I am looking at from the my Fico site. She went on to say that the report I was looking at was obviously outdated and that I needed to join equifax.com to get the REAL report, as well as those of TU and EX. I did, at 16.95, and now I can see that there is in fact no derogatory information on all thee of them. This is great. But, hold on to your hats, the SCORES posted on that site are several points off from what I see on the my Fico site, as listed below:

     My Fico Scores             Equifax.com scores

         EQ   696                             EQ  663

         TU   707                              TU  679

Experian is even more out of sync. I have an account with experiandirect.com, and it lists my score as 765, but on equifax.com it's 691!

I feel like I've accomplished quite a bit by just getting all three reports to line up with correct information. But I sure wish there was ONE REAL place where you could get your REAL SCORES. How am I to know what my real credit risk is to a lender with such varying information available?

Any suggestions?

[GregB]

The term "real score" doesn't mean very much unless you are applying for a mortgage. Mortgage scores are mostly standardized since they are either guaranteed by another agency or are resold to another agency that requires certain types of scores.

A lender will want to use whichever score is best for their purposes. If you are just considering a score based upon the information in your EQ report, they could pull around 15 different scores or use a custom score. Most of those scores are based around the information in FICO based scores. That is why the Beacon 5.0 that is available here is the best indicator of a score that will be pulled by most lenders.

The normal scores used for a mortgage are:

- EQ Beacon 5.0, that you get here

- TU Classic 04, a later version similar to the Classic 98 that you get here

- EX Fair Issac v2, the score you could get here until EX made it unavailable

If you go to EQ, they have the Beacon 5.0 available but would rather sell a score on which they make more money. Those scores are not used by any lender.

If you go to EX, they will sell you their score and tell you that it isn't used by any lender.

You didn't make it clear if you paid EQ $16.95 for one EQ FICO report or if you signed up for something that lets you see all three CRAs. If it was an EQ FICO, it is the same Beacon 5.0 that you get here based upon the same data. If the data is different, it is because one report is later than the other and the data changed. If it lets you see all three CRAs, then it is FAKO scores but is still based upon updated data.

If you want to spend $16.95/month with EQ you need to justify it by looking at the information contained in the reports. Looking at the scores just confuses things since they are useless.

[Anonymous]

So the scores that I get here, as far as EQ and TU anre concerned, give the closet approximation to the score a lender would get if they pulled my credit? Is that correct?

In that case there is no need to be a member of experiandirect, since they only have PLUS scores, or equifax.com, since the score there doesn't reflect my true credit status.

I cancelled the experiandirect account just now, and will probably cancel the equifax one as well.

Thanks for the information.

I guess the only way to get a lender's score is to apply for credit  at my bank, and see what they come back with, even though the inquiry might ding me a bit.

[GregB]

I like Experian monitoring because it is faster than the others. If I am looking for something that affects changes to all 3 CRAs, EX will update at least a day, and usually 2-3 days faster than the others. The Plus score, sometimes just called the Experian credit score is a complete joke. They do acknowledge that is is used by NO lenders.

If you are applying for a mortgage, you can be pretty sure your EQ score will match the one you get here. That is because FHA, Freddie, Fannie, etc. require certain scores if they are involved.

CC and auto loans usually only pull info from one CRA. If your bank uses EQ and you are applying for a credit card, they might use the BankCard enhanced version of Beacon 5.0. This takes your Beacon 5.0 and runs it through an additional Scorecard that may help or hurt it based upon info that is BankCard specific. Some of them are starting to use Beacon 9, which also has a BankCard enhanced version. The idea behind industry enhanced FICO versions is to be able to sell more loans, qualifying people that didn't quite make it using the Classic versions.

[Anonymous]

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@GregB wrote:

I like Experian monitoring because it is faster than the others. If I am looking for something that affects changes to all 3 CRAs, EX will update at least a day, and usually 2-3 days faster than the others. Completely agree, EX always updated faster for me as well. The Plus score, sometimes just called the Experian credit score is a complete joke. My Plus EX score is 761 and my true EX FICO is 786 provided by AmEx (VIA Congratulations letter) when I apped for my BCP Card. They do acknowledge that is is used by NO lenders.

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