topic Re: How Can the Scores Be SO Off... in Understanding FICO® Scoring

How Can the Scores Be SO Off...

Andy77 — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 04:38:27 GMT

So, my Myfico says my score is 653.

Transunion says my scores are as follows:

TransUnion Experian Equifax 638 630 636

I just joined Credit Check Total about and they say my scores are:

TU: 685

EQ: 692

EX: 667

Who do I believe and does anyone have any experience with Credit Check Total...is it reliable?

Thank you,

Re: How Can the Scores Be SO Off...

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 04:44:13 GMT

The meFICO is the only one that matters-

The rest are FAKO's -

RTC101T

Andy77 wrote:

So, my Myfico says my score is 653.

Transunion says my scores are as follows:

TransUnion Experian Equifax 638 630 636

I just joined Credit Check Total about and they say my scores are:

TU: 685

EQ: 692

EX: 667

Who do I believe and does anyone have any experience with Credit Check Total...is it reliable?

Thank you,

Re: How Can the Scores Be SO Off...

Andy77 — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 04:48:10 GMT

well through credit check total my Fico score is 692, but through MYFICO its 653...how can it vary so much?

I believe credit check total is owned by Experian since the format of the screen looks identical to what I see when i log into creditexpert.com, a subsidiary of Experian.

Do you think the Myfico site is more reliable and if so, where do you think credit check total pulls those scores from?

Re: How Can the Scores Be SO Off...

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 05:33:56 GMT

they use a different scoring system. The only true fico scores are here on the myfico sight. Other sites will be different. Just type in fako in the search box and you will find all kinds of info on it.

Re: How Can the Scores Be SO Off...

haulingthescoreup — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:02:55 GMT

@Andy77 wrote:

well through credit check total my Fico score is 692, but through MYFICO its 653...how can it vary so much?

I believe credit check total is owned by Experian since the format of the screen looks identical to what I see when i log into creditexpert.com, a subsidiary of Experian.

Do you think the Myfico site is more reliable and if so, where do you think credit check total pulls those scores from?

Your score through Credit Check Total is NOT a FICO. They like to call it a credit score, and I guess it is, but it's not a FICO, and if you read far enough down the disclosure, you'll probably find something about how there are many score systems out there, yada yada.

Any real FICO score has a cheesy gold seal on it. Take a look at your score that you pulled through myFICO, and you'll see the seal at the top left. If you don't see that seal on a score, it's not a FICO. You get your FICO's here at this site. You can also get your EQ FICO from their site and your TU FICO from transunioncs.com (note the "cs" at the end.)

edit: just found out that when you pull your EQ FICO from Equifax, it does not have the seal, and I'm guessing that's the same for the TU FICO from transunioncs.com. It does state in the copy that it's a FICO. Sorry for any confusion! --thanks, Dawn!

Your EX FICO score is generated from your Experian credit report, just as your EQ FICO comes from the info on your Equifax report, and your TU FICO comes from the info on your TransUnion report. A report is not the same thing as a score. A report is just the collection of data that all the different scoring formulas use to create scores. Since all the formulas are different, the scores that they spit out are also different.

As to why the umpty-billion FAKO scores are out there, your guess is as good as mine. Perhaps they think that they're providing a service to consumers. Or perhaps they've realized that they can get lots of people to pay 5 bucks for a score that means nothing. I'll let you decide!

Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 02-25-2008 07:02 AM

Re: How Can the Scores Be SO Off...

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:12:22 GMT

hauling is right on.

The bureaus determined that they could make a "consumer scoring model" that attempts to emulate what FICO does and charge people to find out what their score is.

Many of the companies online that offer a report with score or score monitoring services, are owned by the bureaus.

myFICO is the one to go with. It is directly related to the FICO scoring models that are used for preaty much all lending purposes.

haulingthescoreup wrote:

As to why the umpty-billion FAKO scores are out there, your guess is as good as mine. Perhaps they think that they're providing a service to consumers. Or perhaps they've realized that they can get lots of people to pay 5 bucks for a score that means nothing. I'll let you decide!

Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 02-25-2008 07:02 AM

Re: How Can the Scores Be SO Off...

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:39:30 GMT

I assume that this FICO vs. FAKO discussion is a permanent thread somewhere.....I don't see it though. We get these kind of questions so often, it should be its own thread and not buried in with the rest of Credit Scoring 101.....

There are still millions of people that think that the CRA's control everthing and their scores are therefore the ones lenders use.

Obviously they keep this charade going as it makes them lots and lots of money. But they should be barred from marketing their FAKO's if they are also going to market Vantage Score. Pick one and that is it!

Re: How Can the Scores Be SO Off...

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 22:21:14 GMT

Don't you love how on the bureau sites you can order a reprot w/o scores, report with scores, report w/Vantage score!

You order either report with score or with Vantage Score and the numbers will not be the same. I have explained this to consumers for 7 years and there are millions more that don't know.

I still have mortgage broker customers that call asking this same questions and they deal with credit daily. It is amazing the blinding smoke that the bureaus pump out!

Love those guys.

Boscoe wrote:
I assume that this FICO vs. FAKO discussion is a permanent thread somewhere.....I don't see it though. We get these kind of questions so often, it should be its own thread and not buried in with the rest of Credit Scoring 101.....

There are still millions of people that think that the CRA's control everthing and their scores are therefore the ones lenders use.

Obviously they keep this charade going as it makes them lots and lots of money. But they should be barred from marketing their FAKO's if they are also going to market Vantage Score. Pick one and that is it!

Message Edited by soalsrfr on 02-25-2008 02:21 PM

Re: How Can the Scores Be SO Off...

haulingthescoreup — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 22:26:17 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

I assume that this FICO vs. FAKO discussion is a permanent thread somewhere.....I don't see it though. We get these kind of questions so often, it should be its own thread and not buried in with the rest of Credit Scoring 101.....

Working on it...