I've been checking/following my credit reports/scores for many years with the three credit bureaus. I used to sign up for one of their "trial" plans ever year or two, to get my credit reports and verify (or correct) the entries at a cheap price, and then cancelled the trial. Of course, now you can get your credit reports once a year for free...though you have to pay for your scores. Even with all that experience, I was astounded to find a similar situation to that raised by the initial poster in this thread: directly from Equifax I got a score of 820 (I paid to get the score), but when we refinanced the mortgage on our principle residence here, the (local) bank said (in writing) they got a score from Equifax of 770. A 50 point difference! I couldn't believe it...though, fortunately, it made no difference at all to the lender (anything above 740 was fine with them for their best interest rate). I paid for an Equifax plan (just through the refinancing process) so I could get my updated credit scores even on a daily basis. I checked the day before the local bank pulled my credit report/score and the day after...both times Equifax told me 820. And yet the bank got 770.
I corresponded with a newspaper columnist who writes on real estate/mortgage issues, and he suggested the bank got my FICO score and not my Equifax score...and he turned out to be right. I went to Myfico.com and signed up for their 10-day free trial (you'll pay if you go through the Equifax website for your FICO score), and my FICO score is now 778.
I'm at a complete loss to comprehend this: except that it's a huge shell game. There is no point paying Equifax for their score if it bears so little resemblence to the score a "real life" lender gets for me. I guess I need to go to Equifax if I need to correct any entries, but otherwise.... I talked to someone at Equifax, who mumbled something about my Equifax score being my "risk" score...and Myfico being "another" score.
The whole process may "work" in a way, but it is clearly designed to provide as much confusion as possible for us "customers." The "factors" that affect your score can be cited as a "positive" or a "negative" at the same time: too much credit...not enough credit; too many cards...not enough cards/accounts; etc etc. And now, when companies like AT&T, T-Moble, DirecTV etc insist on checking your "credit"...has that been factored in now. It doesn't seem like it.
I know MarineVietVet mentions different versions of credit union formulas, but even knowing which version BofA pulled wouldn't help frustratedconsumer at all...it's all basically a shell game. In my case, my myfico score was lower than my Equifax score (as well as my TransUnion and Experian scores); it was the opposite for frustratedconsumer. Why? Who knows...or who will ever know really?
Starting Score: 675
