Scoring Difference between Equifax FICO and an application Equifax FICO

[jls30286]

I recently joined myfico.com again since it helped me get a mortgage refi a few years ago and I'm now in the market to purchase an auto.

So, in my research, I went into a local finance company and spoke with them regarding my financing options.  They pulled my credit report and actually gave me a print out stating my Equifax FICO score at 597; however, I regularly get updated scoring from myfico (and just pulled a Score Power to verify score is still the same) and my EQ FICO with myfico.com is only 506. 

Can anyone explain this to me?  I just read and found out about an "Auto Enhanced FICO" and I would like to know how many other "enhanced FICO" scores there are.

[GregB]

The EQ FICO here is Beacon 5, which is used by virtually all mortgage lenders and many other lenders. There is an AU enhanced version of that FICO. There is also a later EQ FICO and an AU enhanced version of that.

Auto lenders seem to be more likely to use the newer FICO versions since mortgage lenders update very, very slowly.

For there to be that much difference, your Auto loan history must be much better than your other history.

This is all assuming that the report you received actually says "FICO" on it. There are other EQ non-FICO scores.

[jls30286]

Thank you SO much for your reply! 

The finance company that pulled my EQ FICO was not pulling a AU enhanced FICO, just a "regular" one like here, so that's why I was wonder how many other scoring systems there are that could be considered EQ FICO scores.  That was quite a difference that I wasn't expecting, and, of course, I have no way of knowing what my AU enhanced FICO will be until I actually go to get a car.

[GregB]

As I stated before, the 506 EQ FICO you got here is Beacon 5.0. There are also Auto, BankCard, and probably 2 other Industry Options for that score. The Industry Options don't seem to be able to affect a score by more than 50 points. Even that is a large different between the Classic FICO and an Industry Option. I don't think it is possible to have your mystery FICO score be 91 points higher just by it being an Industry Enhanced score.

The later EQ FICO is EQ FICO 09 and has the same general range as Beacon 5.0. It handles Authorized User accounts differently, supposedly removing them unless they are legitimate spousal Authorized User accounts. The other big difference is that Beacon 09 "removes" a single collection and public record item under $100. That one item could account for your 91 point difference if you have such an item on your reports.

There are supposedly the same Industry Options for Beacon 09 as there were for Beacon 5.0 plus the addition of a new Beacon 09 Mortgage Score.

It is also possible that the local finance company used FICO Next Gen, which has a range of about 200-990. That could account for the big difference in scores.

The important thing to know is that the EQ FICO you get here is the best score to help you understand where you stand for getting a mortgage even though the reality is that you have some serious work to do. At least it is better to know the truth, right?

[jls30286]

GregB, you are awesome!

Your info is greatly appreciated and helpful! And, yes, you are exactly right - knowing the truth is best and I do have a LOT of work to do. 

Now that I have this info, I only have one more question - how did YOU learn about all this credit scoring info?