SW 4/20/14: 652
SW 4/23/14: 645 (dropped from new inq)
Discover App EQ 4/22/14: 711?!
Now, I know there are many different FICO models and that the scores will vary based on how each model is weighted, but dang that's a big difference!
To be fair I only ever expected SW to give a rough guide of what neighborhood my credit was in to know where I stood when apping while rebuilding my credit. However, now I'm a little hesitant to put as much faith in it as I was. I almost wish I wasn't gardening right now so that I could see another EQ lender pull to further compare. I suppose this is better than the other way around, but I'm still not sure what I think of SW now.
When I applied for my auto loan at DCU, the score that they saw was exactly the same as the score that I had here. I told her the score before she pulled it up 
CU's typically hold on to older models for whatever reason anecdotally. Credit card issuers moved more adroitly to both FICO '08 and to the BC-enhanced industry option too. I'm not surprised at all Discover is different, especially when we can't tell for certain whether your account is on Beacon 5.0 or Beacon 9.0 for Scorewatch given their rollout. I had a 50 point swing just between my Beacon 5.0 and any of the FICO '08 models, and that was on the baseline version without any industry option.
@hahayepyep wrote:SW 4/20/14: 652
SW 4/23/14: 645 (dropped from new inq)
Discover App EQ 4/22/14: 711?!
Now, I know there are many different FICO models and that the scores will vary based on how each model is weighted, but dang that's a big difference!
To be fair I only ever expected SW to give a rough guide of what neighborhood my credit was in to know where I stood when apping while rebuilding my credit. However, now I'm a little hesitant to put as much faith in it as I was. I almost wish I wasn't gardening right now so that I could see another EQ lender pull to further compare. I suppose this is better than the other way around, but I'm still not sure what I think of SW now.
I'd put more stock into your SW score than I would a lender pull.
Sorry, but 568 to 715 in 4 months? (according to your sig) I gotta call BS on that.
@TRC_WA wrote:
@hahayepyep wrote:SW 4/20/14: 652
SW 4/23/14: 645 (dropped from new inq)
Discover App EQ 4/22/14: 711?!
Now, I know there are many different FICO models and that the scores will vary based on how each model is weighted, but dang that's a big difference!
To be fair I only ever expected SW to give a rough guide of what neighborhood my credit was in to know where I stood when apping while rebuilding my credit. However, now I'm a little hesitant to put as much faith in it as I was. I almost wish I wasn't gardening right now so that I could see another EQ lender pull to further compare. I suppose this is better than the other way around, but I'm still not sure what I think of SW now.
I'd put more stock into your SW score than I would a lender pull.
Sorry, but 568 to 715 in 4 months? (according to your sig) I gotta call BS on that.
People have gotten that sort of a boost in a single day if a derogatory comes off.
The problem with different score models is they weigh things differently: on the assumption the OP's Scorewatch pull was '04, the difference between Beacon 5 and Beacon 9 at my point was on the order of 50 points and that's with comparitively recent derogs. Really old ones don't count as much anecdotally.
Now put the potential Bankcard Enhanced spice on the score, and if whatever derogs the OP had (repossession on an auto loan for example) weren't factored as heavily, that would again be a boost and sometimes non-trivially (see Auto-enhanced scores for non-first-time buyers).
End of the day, the only score that's important is what the lender pulls for your application: which is why focusing on individual scores doesn't make sense (outside of a mortgage where you're pretty much guarunteed to get a specific and narrow set of scores) and rather it's the report data that's important on the premise that a pretty report will lead to a pretty score regardless of what algorithm is chosen.
@Revelate wrote:
@TRC_WA wrote:
@hahayepyep wrote:SW 4/20/14: 652
SW 4/23/14: 645 (dropped from new inq)
Discover App EQ 4/22/14: 711?!
Now, I know there are many different FICO models and that the scores will vary based on how each model is weighted, but dang that's a big difference!
To be fair I only ever expected SW to give a rough guide of what neighborhood my credit was in to know where I stood when apping while rebuilding my credit. However, now I'm a little hesitant to put as much faith in it as I was. I almost wish I wasn't gardening right now so that I could see another EQ lender pull to further compare. I suppose this is better than the other way around, but I'm still not sure what I think of SW now.
I'd put more stock into your SW score than I would a lender pull.
Sorry, but 568 to 715 in 4 months? (according to your sig) I gotta call BS on that.
People have gotten that sort of a boost in a single day if a derogatory comes off.
Yeah forgot about that... i was just thinking about traditional rebuilding efforts and don't see that kind of an increase ever happening so soon...
But yeah I expect similar boosts when my 13 falls off my report in 23 months.
@TRC_WA: Why so cynical? 
In that time I had a paid CO fall off, got 2 successful PFD's, had two Capital One Credit Steps cards age 6 months and both receive CLI's (for a combined 175% increase), learned about PIF before the CC statement cuts to avoid a balance being reported, and had two inaccurate neg TL's removed. I'm as shocked as anyone by how much I was able to achieve in that short time, but thankfully it's true. Those two scores are from the same lender: 568 on the denial letter, and 715 on the approval letter for the same credit card.
@Revelate: "End of the day, the only score that's important is what the lender pulls for your application..." Precisely! Which is what I guess I was getting at in the first place, though I didn't make that point very well. I should have done a better job of knowing/anticipating what score models individual lenders would be using when deciding to app or wait. I honestly didn't realize until recently that many CCC use weighted scores, AND that the weighting could lean so heavily in my favor given my specific profile.
I don’t necessarily think there’s anything inherently wrong with SW, but I was not using the right tool for the job in that specific case.