topic Re: Large Differences in FICO Scores Between CRAs in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Large Differences in FICO Scores Between CRAs

Anonymous — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:48:30 GMT

Is it normal to see a 40+ point difference between CRAs? Is it possible that the CRA reporting the lower score was used the last time my credit was run for an application? I know that we recently purchased a car and the finance person said they only ran my credit with one of the bureaus, but I'd have to look and see which one.

Just curious if this is something I can fix or if its just the way they CRAs formulate scores differently. I've compared all 3 reports and don't really see any glaring differences, so just wondering why one would be so much lower than the other two. The low score is from TransUnion. The other 2 are ~40 points higher and closer together.

Thanks,
Matt

Re: Large Differences in FICO Scores Between CRAs

Junejer — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:59:42 GMT

Hi Matt. The differences don't have to be glaring to make a difference. They can be very subtle. I would check all of my "current status" sections, if I were you. This is were lost points are known to hang out.

Even though there are differences in algorithms, 40 points is a bit steep, IMO.

Re: Large Differences in FICO Scores Between CRAs

marty56 — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 23:00:19 GMT

My score differences are due to how the CRAs view my major derog.

Re: Large Differences in FICO Scores Between CRAs

Anonymous — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:33:06 GMT

Thanks for the clarification. I will review my reports to see if I can find what would be causing the large difference in scores. Hopefully it is something I can find and resolve with TransUnion.

Re: Large Differences in FICO Scores Between CRAs

Anonymous — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 01:28:14 GMT

I've reviewed each section of all 3 reports and I don't see any differences. I called TransUnion, and the representative basically said that they do not use FICO scores and that any discrepancy would be due to myFICO's calculations. I asked him if there was anything I needed to check in the TransUnion report since myFICO is pulling the data for the FICO score from them (TransUnion).

His basic tone was that a FICO score is not their responsibility, which I understand to a degree. But if myFICO merely pulls the data from the CRAs to calculate the FICO scores, then wouldn't it seem like there is something wrong with the data that said CRA is providing....since my other 2 scores are much higher and similar?

Maybe I'm missing something here, I'm fairly new to these processes.

Re: Large Differences in FICO Scores Between CRAs

Junejer — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 02:22:25 GMT

Each of the three of them have their own algorithm that they (the CRAs) wanted. They have some things weighted heavier than others, which is why if your reports were absolutely identical in every way (highly unlikely BTW), you would still see some difference in scoring amongst the three.

Because you took out the magnifying glass and highlighter and compared them copiously, the only thing that I can tell you is that TU is weighting something very differently than the other two are.

Re: Large Differences in FICO Scores Between CRAs

Anonymous — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 03:49:17 GMT

Thanks for the reply. I've parsed through the reports again but this time I looked at the details.

I didn't explain that when I reviewed them before, I was just glancing at general info.

Sorry for the confusion, my eye is still a bit untrained at this stuff.

For reference, my current scores are:

TU: 737

EX: 768

EQ: 777

The differences I found:

--Personal information is slightly different between the 3 (different spelling of names, missing employer name).

--EQ reports 1 extra account than TU and EX. Other than that, balances and status for all

accounts in each report are the same.

--TU doesn't report my HELOC as a revolving account, Neither does EQ, but EX does. Which

seems strange since my TU score is the lowest - I would think having a high revolving account balance

would lower my score...yet this is the opposite with EX, which has a higher score than TU.

--EX has 5 recent inquiries (for a car purchase last month). The other 2 don't have any recent inquiries.

Perhaps the discrepancy is how TU and EQ view my HELOC as a "Mortgage" account instead of a revolving account like EX does. Still confusing though because my EQ score is the highest of the 3.

Re: Large Differences in FICO Scores Between CRAs

Junejer — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 04:28:46 GMT

Demographic information doesn't factor into scoring at all.

What is this one account that EQ is reporting? Revolving? Balance vs CL?

What is your util on each of the reports (page 2 on TU and EQ), or you can manually calculate it.

What is the bal/CL on the HELOC?

Re: Large Differences in FICO Scores Between CRAs

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 16:20:09 GMT

I have over a 100 point difference between Transunion and Experian. I HATE Transunion.

Re: Large Differences in FICO Scores Between CRAs

Imua — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:34:03 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I have over a 100 point difference between Transunion and Experian. I HATE Transunion.

wow - 100 point difference. i thought mine was high at 79 points difference with TU being the lowest at 704.

i noticed that TU has me at 11% util (while my util is really under 5%)... i think it's because TU doesn't have 3 TL's that are reporting on the other CRA's.

i find it odd that macy's store reports with a CL of $1500, but macy's visa (with a $5000 CL) apparently doesn't report to TU. anyone else have both the store and visa card from macy's - and does only one report to TU?

Re: Large Differences in FICO Scores Between CRAs

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:49:45 GMT

I have a 55 point difference between my hightest and my lowest FICO. EQ which is my lowest has one more account on it than the other two. For some reason my Perkins loan I got in college only reports to EQ.

Re: Large Differences in FICO Scores Between CRAs

Junejer — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 02:39:31 GMT

My biggest spread was 178 points.

Re: Large Differences in FICO Scores Between CRAs

Blackmarble18 — Mon, 27 May 2013 05:42:28 GMT

SO I was really hoping to see this situation play out and get a definitive answer. I have a similar issue. I have my transunion and equifax report from fico there is a 30pts spread between the two but my situation is a lil different from the op. All the accounts are the same looking at general info but when you look at detailed info they vary.

My transunion is a 680 it has 14 accounts and there are 4 account that are showing discrepancy I have 2 sallie mae loans have negative indicators and two are positive they each have some payment history data, they each report as student loans and have separate account numbers.

My equifax is a 650 has 14 accounts 4 accounts that are showing discrepancies. I have 2 sallie mae loans with neg indicators and two are positive. all the balance information matches the transunion account. Here is where the info changes. All the accounts are missing payment data in addition the accounts don't report as student loans they report as installment loans and the industry is reported as miscellaneous instead of "bank" which is how it reports on transunion. the other difference is the transunion accounts current status say "Paid or paying as agreed" for all 4 accounts the equifax current status says "Pays account as agreed"

Ok so I know that there are some big difference on how this reports my question is can I get equifax to report these account the way transunion does so the score match more closely??

Re: Large Differences in FICO Scores Between CRAs

CreditJunkie917 — Mon, 27 May 2013 21:48:30 GMT

My scores in my siggy are current as they can be. I found that I have a defaulted student loan that is on EQ and EX, but not reporting to TU. There is a slight difference between balance reporting on the student loans, but not by much. Everything else is identical, and there is only that small point difference b/w myfico TU and EQ. my EX FAKO is well, a FAKO.

Re: Large Differences in FICO Scores Between CRAs

Anonymous — Mon, 27 May 2013 23:44:50 GMT

Your CRs could be identical across all 3 CRAs and all 3 scores would be different. There are 3 different versions of FICO used across all three plus the way they are scored for each one.

Re: Large Differences in FICO Scores Between CRAs

Blackmarble18 — Tue, 28 May 2013 04:02:35 GMT

right but I actually do have the same info on both report but its reported differently. So is there a way to have equifax report the information correctly the way transunion does?

Re: Large Differences in FICO Scores Between CRAs

Anonymous — Tue, 28 May 2013 05:57:51 GMT

The things that are reporting differently would have no impact on your score, they mean the same thing.

Re: Large Differences in FICO Scores Between CRAs

Blackmarble18 — Thu, 30 May 2013 21:06:00 GMT

Oh ok I thought for sure one bureau showing account data vs the other not showing it would make a difference. Thanks

Re: Large Differences in FICO Scores Between CRAs

Jstic — Fri, 31 May 2013 20:50:37 GMT

You should double check to see if TU is treating the HELOC as revolving or not. I had a very smilar discrepancy with my scores, and the ONLY difference between the 3 CRA's was that TU was treating my HELOC as revolving credit, while EX and EQ treated it as a real estate loan, which is what it is. I have a whole thread about this somewhere on this board. When I paid off the HELOC, my scores were all within 10 points of each other, 775-785.

Re: Large Differences in FICO Scores Between CRAs

Blackmarble18 — Fri, 31 May 2013 23:05:47 GMT

Im sorry is your response to my question? I don't have a HELOC. My post is in reference to the student loans I have, but it sounds like you had a similar issue as me. The student loans are reporting differently, one says installment loan and has no payment data and the other says student loan and has payment data, I thought student loans were calculated differently than normal installment loans and figured that might be part of the problem with the score difference .