topic Re: Equifax Fico vs. Experian Fico -- Question in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Equifax Fico vs. Experian Fico -- Question

dallasareaguy — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 17:22:32 GMT

So I'm sure lots and lots of people on the forum show concerns about a low score in one place vs. a higher score elsewhere, but I have a question. I have taken my report from both Equifax and Experian and scrubbed them.... put them in a spreadsheet... dollar for dollar... inquiry for inquiry.... comparison.

Both reports have exactly the same number of past PIF debts.

Both have one large 5 year old 2nd mortgage chargeoff and 5 public records (tax leins).

All other accounts are the same, inquiries within 2 of each other and both show the same utilization, etc. Why are the scores 604 vs. 672 as of this morning both using FICO 8 via CCT website? I cannot get my Equifax score to climb even with it being virtualy identical.

So my Trans Union still has 3 items that appear worse that haven't been removed entirely.. so I understand why it's only a 638... but what baffles me is that if its the same scoring system, why would Equifax be far lower than Trans Union ... which is a worse report... and almost 70 points lower than Experian which is identical in every way.

Baffled. Equifax has ALWAYS hates me. Thank GOD that American Express judges me based on Experian.

EDIT: After I wrote this I spent more time scrubbing.. I found ONE thing and one thing only.. but surely it isn't causing it... My Equifax report lists my employers as "None".... Those notes are just a matter of record, not involved in scoring, right? I've been employed with the same company for 2.5 years.

EDIT: Just pulled monthly report and the score is now 620... so 16 points higher than yesterday but still 52 points lower than Experian.

Re: Equifax Fico vs. Experian Fico -- Question

RonM21 — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 16:16:24 GMT

If everything really is equal on both, it is hard to see why the scores wouldn't be closer to each other. I still would think there has to be something, but you would know better than anyone about your reports. If it is the way you say and you are not overlooking anything, that would seem strange.

Re: Equifax Fico vs. Experian Fico -- Question

Revelate — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 16:21:17 GMT

@dallasareaguy wrote:
So I'm sure lots and lots of people on the forum show concerns about a low score in one place vs. a higher score elsewhere, but I have a question. I have taken my report from both Equifax and Experian and scrubbed them.... put them in a spreadsheet... dollar for dollar... inquiry for inquiry.... comparison.

Both reports have exactly the same number of past PIF debts.
Both have one large 5 year old 2nd mortgage chargeoff and 5 public records (tax leins).

All other accounts are the same, inquiries within 2 of each other and both show the same utilization, etc. Why are the scores 604 vs. 672 as of this morning both using FICO 8 via CCT website? I cannot get my Equifax score to climb even with it being virtualy identical.

So my Trans Union still has 3 items that appear worse that haven't been removed entirely.. so I understand why it's only a 638... but what baffles me is that if its the same scoring system, why would Equifax be far lower than Trans Union ... which is a worse report... and almost 70 points lower than Experian which is identical in every way.

Baffled. Equifax has ALWAYS hates me. Thank GOD that American Express judges me based on Experian.

EDIT: After I wrote this I spent more time scrubbing.. I found ONE thing and one thing only.. but surely it isn't causing it... My Equifax report lists my employers as "None".... Those notes are just a matter of record, not involved in scoring, right? I've been employed with the same company for 2.5 years.

I feel your pain bud, EQ hates me too on everything not named FICO 9 and EX/EQ are identical currently (different EQ/EX verbiage in the margin) other than some inquiry differences which over time have been higher or lower between the two bureaus. Incidently I had two tax liens on Experian at one point vs. 1 on EQ and it was still a higher score, across virtually every score.

EQ FICO 9, and EX Risk Model v3 (yawn) are the only two scores which haven't followed this; been that way since I started, maybe it will change when I'm clean in 1.5 years.

Simple answer is that the bureaus weigh things slightly differently and they also have slightly different tweaks to their algorithms. Just talking FICO 8 EQ seems to be much more number of revolvers with balances sensitive than either EX or TU for example, which seems utterly bizarre to me but the calculation of it is running flatly different on more than just my own data.

Anyway in general the design goal was +/- 30 points, 70 points seems like a lot and as RM21 suggests I'd be looking for the devil in the details and making sure it's all up and up. Mine which are the same do vary by roughly the 30 point margin regardless of model chosen other than FICO 9 EQ which is stupidly high for me, still.

Re: Equifax Fico vs. Experian Fico -- Question

dallasareaguy — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 17:23:06 GMT

Thanks for the replies. I dug deeper for two hours this morning and still can't find anything to justify the big swing difference. When I pull up both reports side by side using CCT it shows the total debt, revolving balances, installment debts... lists the utilization the same.. inquiries are within 1 apart. Lates from the old days are the same.. Ugh. I justs don't know what to think. It's frustrating me because I just got in with PenFed and my score of 604 resulted in a 581 with their internal scoring system whereas my score at Experian is 672... I wish they had seen that number... There must be some account or something that has not cleared even though its not in my report any longer.

I dunno.

EDIT: Just pulled full monthly report and Equifax jumped from 604 to 620.. but still 52 points lower than Experian.

Re: Equifax Fico vs. Experian Fico -- Question

CreditDunce — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 19:38:46 GMT

Penfed uses EQ NextGen. It is a FICO, but that is about all it has in common with FICO 08.

Are all of the dates the same for the baddies? Sometimes a baddy appears to be more recent on one CRA than others. Just a shot in the dark.

Re: Equifax Fico vs. Experian Fico -- Question

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Dec 2016 00:34:54 GMT

That is a good quetion, because I am wondering the same thing. My FICO mortgage score from Experian is around a hundred points lower than my equifax and transunion FICO mortgage scores. However, my FICO 8 scores from all three are close to the same number and there is really no difference in what is reported to the bureaus. I just don't understand why the Experian FICO Mortage score is way lower.

Re: Equifax Fico vs. Experian Fico -- Question

Revelate — Tue, 27 Dec 2016 02:07:27 GMT

Look explicitly for negatives, in particular a collection less than $100 on EX alone would produce that disparity. Disputes (on either EX or EQ/TU) might too.

There's always a reason for that large of a difference.