topic Re: Is this a fako? in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Is this a fako?

mamahearts — Sun, 30 Jul 2017 22:12:57 GMT

I bought my credit report from Experian. It shows EX 645, Eq 641, TU 637 and FICO AUTO 8 score was 670. All my accounts and balances match my Credit Karma report. So it looks accurate. But wondering how reliable the 670 FICO AUTO 8 score is. I want buy a car soon. But I don't want to get my hopes up if this is a fako.
My payment history is solid, no recent collections although one report showed 1 collection acct and the other two showed 2 accts. So they are on my reports but not sure if that will hurt my chances since my scores look fair. I have 3 credit cards, 2 have high balances but I'm going to bring the utilization down. DTI is low. I have steady employment. I have a trade in and funds for a small down pyt.

Re: Is this a fako?

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Jul 2017 22:42:01 GMT

"FAKO" is a slang term that simply means "credit score made by a company other than FICO."

So by definition a FICO 8 AUTO score is not a FAKO, since it is made by FICO.

Re: Is this a fako?

mamahearts — Sun, 30 Jul 2017 22:58:31 GMT

So this would be my legitimate score?

Re: Is this a fako?

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Jul 2017 23:40:02 GMT

Depends on what you mean by legitimate. Do you mean "the score that whatever auto lender I end up going with will use?" It that's what you mean, there's no way to know what score any particiular lender will use (without asking them). Here are some of the models that the lenders might use: It could be FICO 9, FICO 8, FICO 04, FICO 98. Those are the four famiies. Within each family it could be either the Classic or Auto flavor. And the data could be drawn on EQ, EX, or TU.

That's 4 families x 2 flavors x 3 bureaus for 24 different scores.

Some of those are more likely than others. But still it's a whole lot of different possibilities.

Re: Is this a fako?

mamahearts — Mon, 31 Jul 2017 04:53:55 GMT

I'm just gonna have to take a leap of faith then. I had no idea there were so many possibilities! I am going to pay down my balances in August and apply ASAP.

Re: Is this a fako?

Anonymous — Mon, 31 Jul 2017 15:16:15 GMT

We can help you with the practical issue of optimizing your score before the loan application. Let us know if you want that.