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WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?!?!?!?!

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AllusiveGold
Member

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?!?!?!?!

Ok, so I have looked and looked and I can't figure it out. What is the difference between FICO and FAKO? A little over a year ago I was signed up on all 3 credit bureau sites, getting my scores and keeping an eye on my report. From everything that I can read on this site, it seems as if everyone is saying that the scores you get from there are worthless. So. hearing that I don't feel so good about spending money monthly on these services (granted I only pay for TransUnion now) But what I'm not getting is how THIS website could provide a TRUE score versus the actual credit bureaus.

 

Could anyone PLEASE explain this to me or point me in the right direction?? Would be greatly appreciated.

Message 1 of 10
9 REPLIES 9
pizzadude
Credit Mentor

Re: WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?!?!?!?!


Take a look at these sticky threads, they explain the differences:

Credit Scoring 101:
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&thread.id=29793
The Son Of Credit Scoring 101
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/The-Son-Of-Credit-Scoring-101/m-p/718550#U718...
March2010 FICO® ~ 695 TU, 653 EQ, 697 EX
Message 2 of 10
llecs
Moderator Emeritus

Re: WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?!?!?!?!


@AllusiveGold wrote:

.....But what I'm not getting is how THIS website could provide a TRUE score versus the actual credit bureaus.


Ditto to the prev. post. Great links.

 

On your last point...a FICO score is any score created by FICO. A FAKO score is any non-FICO score (e.g. VantageScore (like what you get from TransUnion), PLUS Score, CE Score, CreditXpert, etc.). This is why we call them "FAKOs"...it's a FAKE score (in most of our opinions).

 

The only people who develop and make FICO scores is FICO (formerly called Fair, Isaac Corporation). It's a brand name and of course preferred by most all lenders. It's just like Kool-aid is to sugary drinks, or Xerox is to copiers, or Band-Aid is to bandages. Take Kool-aid as an example. If a kiddo close to you asks for Kool-Aid, they are asking for a sugary drink. If you gave the kid a Capri Sun or a Minute Maid juice box, the kid is happy. The kid doesn't care if the big pitcher guy is running on the front of his/her juice box. Well, take that same mentality with credit scores. You are here with a quest for knowledge of credit and scoring. Most people don't care. Or if they do care they assume that ALL credit scores are FICO scores. The CRAs proceed with that knowledge and the lack of education in consumers and sell scores (FAKOs) on the understanding that consumers don't bother to care or assume that the scores sold are FICOs. It clearly states in the T&C of these services that they aren't selling FICO scores. Even their websites display the score name (Vantage in your example).

 

Why sell FAKOs and not FICOs? It's money. They want to accomplish 2 things...1) increase the number of in-house FAKOs sold so as to increase consumer awareness on their FAKO and to get return customers, and 2) to avoid paying money back to FICO. Each time a lender pulls a FICO, part of that money has to go back to FICO. Each time we buy from these services, they save that money that would have gone to FICO and keep it for themselves. Thus they promote their own FAKO. And at the same time, some of these FAKO promoters hope that their FAKO will gain market share just as the 3 CRAs promote Vantage.

 

IMO, these other services do serve a good purpose. I recommend everyone subscribe to at least one monthly pull service so that you can keep tabs on all 3 reports. You can certainly buy all 3 from FICO but it'll cost $60 to do so, vs. $15-$20+ via some of these other services on a monthly basis. We just ignore the scores and advice and if I want to know my FICO impact, then I come back here and buy it.

 

 

Message 3 of 10
AllusiveGold
Member

Re: WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?!?!?!?!


@llecs wrote:

@AllusiveGold wrote:

.....But what I'm not getting is how THIS website could provide a TRUE score versus the actual credit bureaus.


Ditto to the prev. post. Great links.

 

On your last point...a FICO score is any score created by FICO. A FAKO score is any non-FICO score (e.g. VantageScore (like what you get from TransUnion), PLUS Score, CE Score, CreditXpert, etc.). This is why we call them "FAKOs"...it's a FAKE score (in most of our opinions).

 

The only people who develop and make FICO scores is FICO (formerly called Fair, Isaac Corporation). It's a brand name and of course preferred by most all lenders. It's just like Kool-aid is to sugary drinks, or Xerox is to copiers, or Band-Aid is to bandages. Take Kool-aid as an example. If a kiddo close to you asks for Kool-Aid, they are asking for a sugary drink. If you gave the kid a Capri Sun or a Minute Maid juice box, the kid is happy. The kid doesn't care if the big pitcher guy is running on the front of his/her juice box. Well, take that same mentality with credit scores. You are here with a quest for knowledge of credit and scoring. Most people don't care. Or if they do care they assume that ALL credit scores are FICO scores. The CRAs proceed with that knowledge and the lack of education in consumers and sell scores (FAKOs) on the understanding that consumers don't bother to care or assume that the scores sold are FICOs. It clearly states in the T&C of these services that they aren't selling FICO scores. Even their websites display the score name (Vantage in your example).

 

Why sell FAKOs and not FICOs? It's money. They want to accomplish 2 things...1) increase the number of in-house FAKOs sold so as to increase consumer awareness on their FAKO and to get return customers, and 2) to avoid paying money back to FICO. Each time a lender pulls a FICO, part of that money has to go back to FICO. Each time we buy from these services, they save that money that would have gone to FICO and keep it for themselves. Thus they promote their own FAKO. And at the same time, some of these FAKO promoters hope that their FAKO will gain market share just as the 3 CRAs promote Vantage.

 

IMO, these other services do serve a good purpose. I recommend everyone subscribe to at least one monthly pull service so that you can keep tabs on all 3 reports. You can certainly buy all 3 from FICO but it'll cost $60 to do so, vs. $15-$20+ via some of these other services on a monthly basis. We just ignore the scores and advice and if I want to know my FICO impact, then I come back here and buy it.

 

 


Thank you for clearing this up for me! So If I wanted to know my TRUE score from all 3 credit bureaus, there's no way to do that at a reasonable cost, am I correct? Cause at the moment I pay $10 a month for my TransUnion report and score and can update it every 24 hours if I so choose to. I was going to subscribe to Experian and Equifax for a month just so I can know my score and check out my report to make sure they are accurate, but if it is better to do it somewhere else, then I would rather do that.

 

Thanks again!

Message 4 of 10
AllusiveGold
Member

Re: WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?!?!?!?!


@pizzadude wrote:

Take a look at these sticky threads, they explain the differences:

Credit Scoring 101:
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&thread.id=29793
The Son Of Credit Scoring 101
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/The-Son-Of-Credit-Scoring-101/m-p/718550#U718...

Thank you for this!

Message 5 of 10
dddewdrop
Valued Contributor

Re: WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?!?!?!?!


@AllusiveGold wrote:

@llecs wrote:

@AllusiveGold wrote:

.....But what I'm not getting is how THIS website could provide a TRUE score versus the actual credit bureaus.


Ditto to the prev. post. Great links.

 

On your last point...a FICO score is any score created by FICO. A FAKO score is any non-FICO score (e.g. VantageScore (like what you get from TransUnion), PLUS Score, CE Score, CreditXpert, etc.). This is why we call them "FAKOs"...it's a FAKE score (in most of our opinions).

 

The only people who develop and make FICO scores is FICO (formerly called Fair, Isaac Corporation). It's a brand name and of course preferred by most all lenders. It's just like Kool-aid is to sugary drinks, or Xerox is to copiers, or Band-Aid is to bandages. Take Kool-aid as an example. If a kiddo close to you asks for Kool-Aid, they are asking for a sugary drink. If you gave the kid a Capri Sun or a Minute Maid juice box, the kid is happy. The kid doesn't care if the big pitcher guy is running on the front of his/her juice box. Well, take that same mentality with credit scores. You are here with a quest for knowledge of credit and scoring. Most people don't care. Or if they do care they assume that ALL credit scores are FICO scores. The CRAs proceed with that knowledge and the lack of education in consumers and sell scores (FAKOs) on the understanding that consumers don't bother to care or assume that the scores sold are FICOs. It clearly states in the T&C of these services that they aren't selling FICO scores. Even their websites display the score name (Vantage in your example).

 

Why sell FAKOs and not FICOs? It's money. They want to accomplish 2 things...1) increase the number of in-house FAKOs sold so as to increase consumer awareness on their FAKO and to get return customers, and 2) to avoid paying money back to FICO. Each time a lender pulls a FICO, part of that money has to go back to FICO. Each time we buy from these services, they save that money that would have gone to FICO and keep it for themselves. Thus they promote their own FAKO. And at the same time, some of these FAKO promoters hope that their FAKO will gain market share just as the 3 CRAs promote Vantage.

 

IMO, these other services do serve a good purpose. I recommend everyone subscribe to at least one monthly pull service so that you can keep tabs on all 3 reports. You can certainly buy all 3 from FICO but it'll cost $60 to do so, vs. $15-$20+ via some of these other services on a monthly basis. We just ignore the scores and advice and if I want to know my FICO impact, then I come back here and buy it.

 

 


Thank you for clearing this up for me! So If I wanted to know my TRUE score from all 3 credit bureaus, there's no way to do that at a reasonable cost, am I correct? Cause at the moment I pay $10 a month for my TransUnion report and score and can update it every 24 hours if I so choose to. I was going to subscribe to Experian and Equifax for a month just so I can know my score and check out my report to make sure they are accurate, but if it is better to do it somewhere else, then I would rather do that.

 

Thanks again!


   Many people here find creative ways to get their scores for Eq FICO and TU Fico without paying a monthly fee every month. I for example get a free Equifax score every month because I am a member of DCU credit union and i get a paycheck direct deposited there. I get a free TU FICO score because I have a Walmart charge card. So maybe every 4 months now I might consider paying for an EX score from this site. I haven't recently because I was denied for an amex card 2 months ago and that got me a free EX score in the rejection letter. 

Message 6 of 10
AllusiveGold
Member

Re: WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?!?!?!?!

That's actually really interesting. I'll have to find some creative ways myself! Lol Smiley Happy Thank you!

Message 7 of 10
bluescale
Regular Contributor

Re: WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?!?!?!?!

What I find a little frustrating is that even the scores we purchase here are of limited value.  Sure, they're FICO scores, but they're almost certainly not the calculation used by lenders.  The TU score sold here is outmoded, and the EX score sold is so new almost no one is using it.  I can't speak to the value of the EQ score sold here.  On top of all that, many lenders have their own specific formulations, casting further doubt on the validity of the scores we're paying for.

 

I'm fairly new to all this, so my understanding might be a bit off, but I think the real value comes from seeing exact contents of our CR, and seeing which factors are given the most weight.  Honestly, however, most of the FAKO reports do a pretty good approximation of both those things.

Message 8 of 10
PrettyPeacock
Contributor

Re: WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?!?!?!?!


@bluescale wrote:

What I find a little frustrating is that even the scores we purchase here are of limited value.  Sure, they're FICO scores, but they're almost certainly not the calculation used by lenders.  The TU score sold here is outmoded, and the EX score sold is so new almost no one is using it.  I can't speak to the value of the EQ score sold here.  On top of all that, many lenders have their own specific formulations, casting further doubt on the validity of the scores we're paying for.

 

I'm fairly new to all this, so my understanding might be a bit off, but I think the real value comes from seeing exact contents of our CR, and seeing which factors are given the most weight.  Honestly, however, most of the FAKO reports do a pretty good approximation of both those things.


I couldn't agree more. It is beyond frustrating that they all have their different scoring methods. I had a mortgage lender tell me in Feb that he pulled all 3 reports and they averaged about 680 (they were all right there in the 670-690 range) then I went to clean up some things and just a couple months ago I had applied for a card from amazon and from old navy and they had TU scores of 599 and 584 on the SAME day.  So, go figure.  I feel that I will just work at getting my report cleaned up as much as possible and pay attention to the scores but not obsess over them.  At least that is the plan. 

 

It is like trying to bake a cake without an exact recipe and every cookbook has a different method & recipe of doing it and no matter how many times you bake it, it still doesn't taste good to someone.


4/13 CS from TU 599 11/3/13 Current FICO TU: 672, EQ 680
Negs: BK charged-off Jan '09, KS tax lien PAID, but still trying to figure out how to get it removed and 10 IIB accounts
Happiness: Merrick $750  |  Cap One $300  |  USBank $300  |  Victoria's Secret $500  |  The Buckle $250  |  JCrew $250  |  Express $250  |  Cap One $2000(AU)  |  Fingerhut $850 | Kohls (AU) $3000
Goals are 760 to buy a home & to stay in the Garden til 2/14
Message 9 of 10
bluescale
Regular Contributor

Re: WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?!?!?!?!


@PrettyPeacock wrote:

I feel that I will just work at getting my report cleaned up as much as possible and pay attention to the scores but not obsess over them.  At least that is the plan. 

 


 

Pretty much...take care of the content, and the scores will pretty much follow suit.  I wish I had figured that out before I forked over a bunch of money to MyFico.

Message 10 of 10
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