Powerscore and other credit scoring not pulling correct lien information

[Anonymous]

I have pulled several Powerscore and Credit Reports from the Suzie Orman package and have found that your program is not pulling the information correctly.  I am still warned of an outstanding lien on my accounts.  The information that is being pulled does not show that the lien has been release but is still in place against me.  The scores given also reflect the error this occurs for both Equifax and Transunion reports.  Using that information apparently also impacts my scores used for Scorewatch and the Suzie Orman package.  I have used a competitive product and have found that my scores when the liens are properly handled by their program are 24+ points higher.  It has also led me to incorrectly assume that Equifax was not properly reporting the information and forcing an additional dispute of the information.  I suspect that your program is looking for a $ amount and not taking into account that liens can be cancelled or released.  I see that others have had similar experiences and would like to valdate that it is an issue with your products and give you a chance to fix it.

[Lel]

The credit reports and scores that are obtained from myFICO.com are based on the information provided by Equifax and TransUnion.  myFICO.com and Fair Isaac do not collect and store this information.  If there is erroneous information regarding the released liens, then this needs to be resolved with the credit bureaus directly.  The Suze Orman kit has a tool to help you try to resolve these errors.

When you refer to a "competitive product", which program are you talking about, and which credit bureau's information is used to generate that score?  Keep in mind that the credit scores pulled from any other site (with two exceptions - Equifax.com and transunioncs.com) are not FICO scores, and the credit scores cannot be directly compared.  The non-FICO credit scores use different formulas and sometimes difference scales (up to 990 instead of 850, for example) so it's hard to get a sense of how the two numbers actually relate.

ETA: I just noticed your thread in Rebuilding Your Credit regarding your tax lien information.  It does appear that that the problem lies with the credit bureaus still reporting information that is either inaccurate or invalid.

How does the tax lien information from the competitive product read, that indicates to you that the information at EQ and TU is being interpreted differently than here or on the credit reports that are obtained directly from the credit agencies? 

Message Edited by Lel on 11-09-2009 10:51 AM

[Anonymous]

Sorry Lel but this is an issue with the way MyFico is pulling the information.  I can pull a 3 agency report from TrueCredit and it shows that Experian has no liens listed. Trans Union and Equifax show one lien and it is released.  MyFico shows that the liens are still in effect.  My dispute with Equifax shows that the lien is now listed as released.  So it is not an issue with anything besides MyFico not being able to parse the information and handle it correctly.  I guess I should also say that I have had a mortgage company pull my report and it also shows all liens as released on my report and the scores are more in line with what TrueCredit shows than MyFico.  It really comes down to whose information do I trust for my credit score management and right now MyFico is falling a dead last in the trust department as it is not handling information correctly.  I work with computer systems all the time and I can tell you that this is an issue with the software and programming not with any discretionary methods that MyFico is using.  It is plaing flat fouling up.

[Lel]

This is interesting.  Personally, I don't have any direct experience with how liens are reported on credit reports that come from the credit bureaus vs reports from here.  Perhaps someone else will chime in with their experience.  We moderators aren't FICO employees so we don't have any special insight into the workings of the reports or the scores that are generated.

Maybe it would help if you would post exactly what your myFICO credit reports say, and what your TrueCredit and mortgage lenders reports say.  Most of the information that is transmitted to the credit bureaus is done by numerical code as opposed to narrative statements, so I'm curious as to how a tax lien code would read on an EQ and TU report from here or elsewhere.

[Barry]

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SCHNOWZER wrote:
Sorry Lel but this is an issue with the way MyFico is pulling the information.  I can pull a 3 agency report from TrueCredit and it shows that Experian has no liens listed. Trans Union and Equifax show one lien and it is released.  MyFico shows that the liens are still in effect.  My dispute with Equifax shows that the lien is now listed as released.  So it is not an issue with anything besides MyFico not being able to parse the information and handle it correctly.  I guess I should also say that I have had a mortgage company pull my report and it also shows all liens as released on my report and the scores are more in line with what TrueCredit shows than MyFico.  It really comes down to whose information do I trust for my credit score management and right now MyFico is falling a dead last in the trust department as it is not handling information correctly.  I work with computer systems all the time and I can tell you that this is an issue with the software and programming not with any discretionary methods that MyFico is using.  It is plaing flat fouling up.

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According to your myFICO EQ reports, the status of your lien is "Not Reported." This means that, while EQ has apparently reported the status to other companies, it did not provide this information to myFICO. There's no impact to your score, however, since: 1) the scoring takes place at EQ, independent of any such data formatting issues, and 2) a released lien is treated no differently than an unpaid lien by the FICO scoring formula.