topic Large Difference between Experian vs. Equifax and TransUnion Credit Scores in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Large Difference between Experian vs. Equifax and TransUnion Credit Scores

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 19:15:54 GMT

Hi All:

1st time inquiry. I started repairing my credit scores 3 months ago. The 3 credit scores were clustered between 617 to 630.

I'm now fully paid everything I owed on 3 credit cards and 4 charged-off credit cards. I opened credit monitoring accounts at all 3 credit reporting agencies and disputed the numerous inaccuracies on all 3 credit reports.

Now, TransUnion and Equifax are reporting 756 and 753, but Experian is still at 633. (I previously had great credit close to 800 for a long time until 2018 or so.)

I called Experian membership customer service, but got nowhere. Any ideas why such a large difference in the scores? Is Experian just lagging the others? Anything I can do?

Thank you for all help!

Re: Large Difference between Experian vs. Equifax and TransUnion Credit Scores

dragontears — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 21:25:49 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hi All:
1st time inquiry. I started repairing my credit scores 3 months ago. The 3 credit scores were clustered between 617 to 630.
I'm now fully paid everything I owed on 3 credit cards and 4 charged-off credit cards. I opened credit monitoring accounts at all 3 credit reporting agencies and disputed the numerous inaccuracies on all 3 credit reports.
Now, TransUnion and Equifax are reporting 756 and 753, but Experian is still at 633. (I previously had great credit close to 800 for a long time until 2018 or so.)
I called Experian membership customer service, but got nowhere. Any ideas why such a large difference in the scores? Is Experian just lagging the others? Anything I can do?
Thank you for all help!

Where are you getting your Equifax and Transunion scores? Credit Karma? If so you are comparing Vantage scores to FICO scores and they are completely different models

Re: Large Difference between Experian vs. Equifax and TransUnion Credit Scores

Phana24 — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 21:55:56 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hi All:
1st time inquiry. I started repairing my credit scores 3 months ago. The 3 credit scores were clustered between 617 to 630.
I'm now fully paid everything I owed on 3 credit cards and 4 charged-off credit cards. I opened credit monitoring accounts at all 3 credit reporting agencies and disputed the numerous inaccuracies on all 3 credit reports.
Now, TransUnion and Equifax are reporting 756 and 753, but Experian is still at 633. (I previously had great credit close to 800 for a long time until 2018 or so.)
I called Experian membership customer service, but got nowhere. Any ideas why such a large difference in the scores? Is Experian just lagging the others? Anything I can do?
Thank you for all help!

First, kudos on what appears to be one hell of a rebuild. Let me echo what @dragontears mentioned about the FICO v. Vantage, but there's another possible explanation for some of the difference. First, be sure you are dealing with the same FICO score. If you're relying upon credit card company scoring, check the fine print and see if they are giving you FICO 8 or FICO 9. During my rebuild, I've had scores vary by almost 50 points from 8 to 9. I believe 9 relies more heavily on trends, so if you hit a rough month on a couple of cards, it may penalize you. Then if you add different reports at different times of the month, you can get some serious variations. Normally, within a couple of months they began to synch again. However, I have never experienced 120 point variation in FICO scores. Maybe your success blew up EX's algorithm.

Re: Large Difference between Experian vs. Equifax and TransUnion Credit Scores

FireMedic1 — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 11:39:10 GMT

Congrats on getting debt free. Give it time. All 3 CRA's update at different intervals. Not much you can do till then.

Re: Large Difference between Experian vs. Equifax and TransUnion Credit Scores

Anonymous — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 00:26:10 GMT

First, thank you for replying.

You're right:

TransUnion and Equifax scores are Vantage 3.0

Experian is FICO 8

All 3 were close in September in the 617 to 630 range. Now, TransUnion and Equifax are 753 to 756. Experian is 633. I'll keep at it to see if Experian goes up over time.

Re: Large Difference between Experian vs. Equifax and TransUnion Credit Scores

Anonymous — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 00:02:21 GMT

Thank you for replying. As you and DragonTears said, it appears that the higher scores are Vantage 3.0 and the lagging score is FICO 8. I'll give it more time and hopefully they'll sync up again. I'll keep at it!

Re: Large Difference between Experian vs. Equifax and TransUnion Credit Scores

Anonymous — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 00:24:38 GMT

Thank you for replying. I'm happy with the results, especially if Experian goes up.

The credit card debt was costing me over $450 per month interest. I know it was the "right" move, but I have mixed feelings about the cash gone.

About half what I paid had already been charged off and no interest being charged. I had set up payment plans to pay them off over 4 years. I got impatient and just paid them off when I could. Wondering if I should have just paid off the open credit card accounts, and stuck with the payment plan for the charge-offs.

As you said, I'll wait and see whether the Experian score goes up.

Re: Large Difference between Experian vs. Equifax and TransUnion Credit Scores

Phana24 — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 00:25:35 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Thank you for replying. As you and DragonTears said, it appears that the higher scores are Vantage 3.0 and the lagging score is FICO 8. I'll give it more time and hopefully they'll sync up again. I'll keep at it!

As I rebuilt both my credit as well as the wifes, Vantage scores were generally 30-50 points ahead of FICOs. As long as the trends of the scores are all in the right direction, you'll be fine with all your FICOs. They'll just take a while longer.

Re: Large Difference between Experian vs. Equifax and TransUnion Credit Scores

Anonymous — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 00:38:28 GMT

Thanks! That's good information that the Vantage 3 moves faster than the FICO. If so, Experian should go up in the future.

No joke I'm going to keep the trend heading up. I don't know about you, but I feel like its been a war since about 2008.

Re: Large Difference between Experian vs. Equifax and TransUnion Credit Scores

Phana24 — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 21:53:42 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks! That's good information that the Vantage 3 moves faster than the FICO. If so, Experian should go up in the future.
No joke I'm going to keep the trend heading up. I don't know about you, but I feel like its been a war since about 2008.

You will definitely trend higher provided you stay clean. How quickly depends upon what hammered you score. Utilization rates will recover quickly, derogatories(collections/chargeoffs) and late payments(esp 60 or 90 days) will take longer to recover. Most of us had to learn the hard way. Patience was probably the most difficult part of my journey, but it's worth it. It's kind of fun now that I'm helping my wife rebuild. It's very easy to be patient with other people's credit scores. But it's also cool to watch her get SUB solicitations once she broke the 700-720 barrier. Best of luck.