topic Re: TransUnion Score Drop 15 points With No Changes! in Understanding FICO® Scoring

TransUnion Score Drop 15 points With No Changes!

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Nov 2016 06:07:38 GMT

Hi all,

Ok, so I had 16 inquires to come off of my credit report last week score went to 600. Logged in and updated today and my score has dropped 15 points overnight with No changes. I have scanned through my credit report checking each account to see if anything reported within the last 3 days and nothing. No collections and no public records. There was not 1 update and since I have the TransUnion Plus I received no alerts about a change neither. Anyone would happen to know what may have occured or has this occured to anyone else? Just weird.

Re: TransUnion Score Drop 15 points With No Changes!

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Nov 2016 13:15:39 GMT

Something must have changed since your score change. The inquiries should be a non-factor. While they are on your report for 2 years, they only impact score for 1 year so you should not get any score gain at all when they come off your report (as they stopped impacting your score a year prior).

What is the source you are using to track your score?

Re: TransUnion Score Drop 15 points With No Changes!

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Nov 2016 15:21:35 GMT

Actually I got a 12 point change that resulted in my score going up when the inquiries were removed. I have Transunion Plus.

Re: TransUnion Score Drop 15 points With No Changes!

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Nov 2016 16:23:00 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Actually I got a 12 point change that resulted in my score going up when the inquiries were removed. I have Transunion Plus.

It's unclear to me what scoring model is used by TU Plus (probably the PLUS model, originally developed by Experian) but the scores are not FICO scores or even Vantage scores. From the TU Plus FAQ:

"All Scores are not to be used to determine or grant credit in any manner. They are for educational purposes only."

https://www.transunionplus.com/learn-more/frequently-asked-questions.htm

Therefore it is conceivable that the TU Plus model does count all inquiries on a person's report, regardless of age, as FICO does not.

Kaykay would be best served by using a credit monitoring approach that uses a much more widely used model. There are zero cost or ultralow cost approaches to this, which BBS and I will be happy to suggest.

Re: TransUnion Score Drop 15 points With No Changes!

MugenCivicSi83 — Sat, 12 Nov 2016 16:58:43 GMT

Get rid of TU. Not a fan of them. Use myFICO or Experian website as they have the best FICO 8 results IMO. YMMV though.

Re: TransUnion Score Drop 15 points With No Changes!

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Nov 2016 17:14:44 GMT

I am absolutely open to new information.. i actually have Experian and Equifax as well. Are you suggesting using Experian for all 3 instead of paying $9 for each?

Re: TransUnion Score Drop 15 points With No Changes!

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Nov 2016 17:15:15 GMT

I have Experian as well.

Re: TransUnion Score Drop 15 points With No Changes!

Revelate — Sat, 12 Nov 2016 17:34:41 GMT

Transunion is explicitly not a FICO score.

The major providers I'm aware of (other than the free scores) would be:

MyFICO

CCT

Experian

Equifax

For actually getting FICO scores. Different price points and features ot each, just depends what you want out of the monitoring service. Transunion though, bleh.

Re: TransUnion Score Drop 15 points With No Changes!

MugenCivicSi83 — Sat, 12 Nov 2016 17:43:29 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I am absolutely open to new information.. i actually have Experian and Equifax as well. Are you suggesting using Experian for all 3 instead of paying $9 for each?

myFICO is great, albeit a little more pricey, but you get more peace of mind with myFICO. I also use Credit Check Total for their $1 trials and cancel every 5 days so i don't get auto-billed for the monthly fee. You can do unlimited $1 trials as long as you cancel before the 7 day trial is up. I had TU, but cancelled it completely...not a fan AT ALL.

Re: TransUnion Score Drop 15 points With No Changes!

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Nov 2016 18:23:36 GMT

Hello KayKay. We can best advise you if we know what it is that you are looking for.

There's basically three things to consider:

* Cost

* Convenience

* Comprehensiveness

Depending on what's most important to you we can suggest an approach.

If cost is the biggest concern, we can hook you up with a bunch of free tools that will get you monthly credit reports (all three bureaus), a free monthly FICO 8 score drawn on Experian data, weekly Vantage scores, and then perhaps adding $2 a year for signing up with CCT twice a year for their $1 trial. Over time you will eventually get free FICO scores with your credit cards.

If convenience is more important (with cost a possible 2nd), a lot of people like CCT (Credit Check Total). You can get a $15/month membership there, which will give you a monthly 3-bureau credit report, monthly FICO 8 scores (all three bureaus), and daily Experian FICO 8 scores. The "convenience" aspect is that it will just be one website, a kind of One Stop Shop for you.

If comprehensiveness is most important, I don't know of a better choice than myFICO. It will give you almost every shade of FICO score out there, including your Auto-Enhanced scores, Bankcard-Enhanced scores, and Mortgage Scores. But my advice before you immediately jump to that is to to think through WHY you want all those scores. If you are just trying to generally improve your scores over time (e.g. you don't need to know your exact mortgage scores) then my personal take is that MF costs more than you'd need. The zero-cost or convenience approaches would be better in that event.

Re: TransUnion Score Drop 15 points With No Changes!

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Nov 2016 18:34:15 GMT

I actually do get my experian fico score with my walmart cc... i just really want to be able to update daily or weekly.. right now I am just working to really increase my scores. Trans- 585, Exp- 600, Eq-526.. i dont understand why Equifax is so low.. i had 2 collections removed and no increase again from what i have been reading I really think my utilization is why the removals have not paid off.

Re: TransUnion Score Drop 15 points With No Changes!

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Nov 2016 19:28:55 GMT

Okayyyyyyyyyyy.. Guess what I pull CCT and sure enough credit score for Fico Trans -625, Exp-600, and Eq-602.. How can this be when I pull my scores from the actual credit buearu??? My scores are showing increases of way more than expected and my Experian is on point just like my pull of early this morning 600..Thank you all so much I may need to look into paying just for all 3 on CCT even though I can only get my scores once a month from Trans and Eq.. They seem so much closer to each other than when I pull from each 1 seperate. This explains why when I requested a cli increase via Walmart it was denied because of high utilization, but showed a score of 625 when they sent me the letter and again with EQ the same thing my comenity card letter stated 555 when pulled a month ago.. why is the website for the actual credit company not reflecting the correct score when indeed they are the ones that update them?

Re: TransUnion Score Drop 15 points With No Changes!

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Nov 2016 20:02:45 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
... I pull CCT and sure enough credit score for Fico Trans -625, Exp-600, and Eq-602.. How can this be when I pull my scores from the actual credit buearu???... why is the website for the actual credit company not reflecting the correct score when indeed they are the ones that update them?

The key thing to understand is the difference between a credit bureau and a scoring model. It's basically the difference between a report and a score.

There are three credit bureaus, right? Equifax, TransUnion, Experian. You can think of them as warehouses where information (data) about you and your credit accounts (credit cards, loans, etc.) is kept. You see a list of all the data when you get a credit report from one of those three credit bureaus.

The problem is that a big long report is hard to go through. Potential lenders and creditors need something that will boil all that information down into a single number, which they can then use to help them make a decision about whether to grant you credit. That number is a credit score and the computer program that converts the data in the report to that single number is called a scoring model or a scoring algorithm.

Different groups have created these scoring models. FICO has created the most of them (and the ones that are most widely used). An alternative to FICO is a scoring system called Vantage. But there are still other models that other groups have made.

Now the big idea is to keep those two things separate in your mind. TU, EX, and EQ are warehouses where the data are stored. Scoring algorithms take the data and turn it into a score.

The confusing thing is that the three credit bureaus, in addition to storing data about you, have also purchased the rights to use various scoring algorithms. Thus you can get your report from TU (a list of all the data) but you can also get a TU Plus score from TU (which uses the PLUS model). TU also sold a score (and maybe still does) that used a model called TransRisk. TU might also sell you a score that uses the FICO 8 classic model. Etc.

My feeling is that Credit Check Total would be a good fit for you. It will be cheaper than what you pay now, it will give you daily score and report updates on your Experian data, it will give you monthly reports and scores on EQ and TU, and it will use the widely used FICO 8 Classic model for all of its scores.

Re: TransUnion Score Drop 15 points With No Changes!

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Nov 2016 20:11:09 GMT

Thank you so Much.. I'm stoked right now, because I am doing a little better than I expected I was!!!! I am so glad I decided to reach out today with questions, I just finished school earning 2 degrees and look forward to becoming a great Crime Scene Tech, so I want to make sure if scores are checked during my application process I am on point.
Thank you Jesus and Thank you My Fico Friends!!!

Re: TransUnion Score Drop 15 points With No Changes!

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Nov 2016 20:28:52 GMT

You are very welcome, KayKay. Congrats on school and your future.

Do you have an open installment loan on your reports right now? (That would be a student loan, car loan, personal lon, mortgage, etc.) If you do not, we can suggest a way to get another 30 points or so.

If you want to make sure your score is at the very highest it could be, make sure that you keep most of your cards reporting at $0 with one card reporting with a small balance. (E.g. $5-$15) You do not need to do that all the time -- just in the couple months before when you need your score to be perfect, like applying for a job say.

Re: TransUnion Score Drop 15 points With No Changes!

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Nov 2016 20:31:19 GMT

Yes, I have student loans that I just set up my repayment plans on as well as I do have 1 installment loan reporting on my Trans.