USBank vs MyFico vs FICO

[MidnightVoice]

 couple of weeks ago I bought all 3 scores from here - average score was 829, range 813-836.

Yesterday I got a mortgage preapproval to buy a retirement house - using USBank.  Average score 759, not one over 800.

Now this score is fine with my bank - get top rate and lots of help.  But I am fascinated by the difference - 70 points!  I am afraid it makes me wonder about the utility of the MyFico scores.  They may be real, but there are so many scores, even Fico ones, that they are becoming as much a "guide" as Credit Karma!  Actually, my CK score is 775, which seems a better guide than MyFico!

[Anonymous]

Somewhere I read there was at least 45 + versions of FICO Scores before factoring in local lender risk models. Then some like to throw in Equifax's Beacon, or Trans Union's Vantage or Experian's Plus and what do you have? Confusion. You hit it on the head ... scores are serving as a guide. Auto lenders and mortgage lenders have their own scoring so you wonder what will I get for a score. When I did my home loan my FICO Score matched what you could pull from myfico but others have had quite different results. Your point is well made! As to my mortgage scores ... forgot to mention they were pulled from the FICO 04 before myfico went to FICO 08.

[Anonymous]

As ArmyVietVet says, there are lots of variations of FICO.  The scores here are FICO 08 and most mortgage companies use FICO 04. Here's a good thread to read:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/The-many-flavors-of-FICO-Editions-version...

[mitchblue]

All I know is if you want a score for mortgage, the ones here won't do you any good. 

[Anonymous]

Fico 08 and Fico 04 are the two that you honestly need to worry about. Outside the auto financing world you'll have these 2 scores pulled 90% of the time. In the last 5 years I've had 2 creditors pull 04 and 10 pull 08. No other score was used for any other inquiry. 

[AndySoCal]

The scores used most commonly for morgage loans are

Experian FICO V2

Trans Union FICO v04

Equifax Beacon 05

Depending on your credit history including inquires some will see variiations like you see and others will not.  Ask US Bank for a consumer copy of your credit report to see what scores where pulled.

[MidnightVoice]

I will probably have to get another set of scores before I actually get round to closing on any deal - this is the early stages.  So I did not bother to ask where they got their scores from.  My point was really that whan I started getting seious about credit scores (when this place opened) the scores here were a good guide to what a lender would pull.  They are a far less reliable guide now, due to the proliferation of options that a lender has available

[Anonymous]

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@MidnightVoice wrote:

I will probably have to get another set of scores before I actually get round to closing on any deal - this is the early stages.  So I did not bother to ask where they got their scores from.  My point was really that whan I started getting seious about credit scores (when this place opened) the scores here were a good guide to what a lender would pull.  They are a far less reliable guide now, due to the proliferation of options that a lender has available

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There really isn't that many.  Focus on FICO 04 for a good guide.  Of those listed above, 2 are FICO 04 (Beacon 5.0 is just what Equifax calls it).  The other is a FICO 98 which mostly has been moved off of most lenders list.

Edit: corrected typo / small factual error --Rev

[daudi81]

You'd think with how important credit scores are to the average consumer, the Fed would make lenders consolidate the unbelievable amount of credit scoring algorithms there are. It's not fair to the average Joe to be nearly blind to something that has such a profound effect on one's finances.

I feel like I'm a fairly intelligent human being, and I've spent the last 2-3 months researching FICO scoring and monitoring any changes in my score like a hawk. I'm still no where near figuring it out (other than the typical rules). There are so many things that just make no sense as to why my score does what it does sometimes. For example, carrying over a high balance on a credit card, but paying it down to 10% EVERY month can have a 20-50 point difference if you don't pay it before the card reports to the CRAs. I found that doozy out the hard way. What's more crazy, if you pay the card off completely (which one would think as a good move), that can also have a major negative effect depending on how you utilize your other cards. And don't, I repeat, DO NOT pay your car off, as that might drop your score another 10-30 points. I mean, come on. It completely defies logic sometimes.

Combine all of the above with 50 different algorithmic ways (not counting all the fako treats that various banks and lenders use), it's almost impossible to get an accurate reading on one's score. And when even ONE point can mean the difference between thousands of dollars (if not more) saved over the life of the loan, its ludicrous that there isn't a standard set in place where the average consumer can get a 100% accurate reading on their score. I'm sure lenders love the confusion so they can rake in the interest on loans, but it's not very beneficial for us.

[MidnightVoice]

So it is not as bad as I thought, but here we go;

Equifax Beacon 5                          803      MyFico  836

Experian Fair Isaac V2                  785      MyFico  831

Transunion FICO Classic 4           759      MyFico  819

So the Bank averages out at 772 and MyFico averages out at 829, so the difference is only 57.

Another intersting thing I found (I am WAAAAAY out of touch!) was the score range of the USBank models:

Equifax Beacon 5                          334-818

Experian Fair Isaac V2                  320-844

Transunion FICO Classic 4           309-839

Still means that Credit Karma is a better guide to my score than MyFico.  They say my TU score is 774