topic Re: Husband vs. Wife Scores ??? in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Husband vs. Wife Scores ???

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 06:41:35 GMT

Been married 26 years, and thought I would check both of our credit reports and scores. I could not figure out which product seemed to have the most listings, or is the one that most of you get, but decided to pay $40 to Equifax for the "3 Bureau Credit Report & Scores." I would have thought we would have had the same scores, but there is a little difference, and I wonder why. We are also not able to get the satisfaction of either one having won over the other. Is there any way to decide the winner, because they get a free ice cream cone!

Husband: Equifax - 820; Experian-809; TransUnion-817

Wife: Equifax -797; Experian-816; TransUnion-819

Edit:

She says she beat me in 2 out of 3 categories.
I say that adding all 3 and dividing by 3 to get the average, I win with 815.33 vs. 810.67

Re: Husband vs. Wife Scores ???

laz98 — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 06:34:15 GMT

equifax cannot provide you with accurate transunion or experian scores. the equifax score MAY be accurate; there has been some confusion lately as to how to make sure they are not giving you their own version of a FICO score.

you can purchase your transunion score here. experian scores are no longer available to us, unless you happen to belong to some credit union in pennsylvania. but you cannot buy them anywhere.

Re: Husband vs. Wife Scores ???

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 06:45:20 GMT

Is it worth forking another $16 x 2 just to get the report from here? Of course, I like the fact that the more likely valid Equifax score has me ahead though!

Re: Husband vs. Wife Scores ???

laz98 — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 06:48:40 GMT

the reports should be accurate, it's really the scores you are paying for. so it depends on how badly you want to know the real scores!

Re: Husband vs. Wife Scores ???

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 06:52:57 GMT

Well I'm tempted to maybe come back in a year and just check the $16 TU one then? Otherwise these are getting to be expensive ice cream cones?

Re: Husband vs. Wife Scores ???

llecs — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 15:38:27 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

Well I'm tempted to maybe come back in a year and just check the $16 TU one then? Otherwise these are getting to be expensive ice cream cones?

Those 3 scores aren't FICO scores. We call them FAKOs. My FICO vs. FAKO scores have been as much as 120 points off when comparing the same report on the same day.

If you do want to purchase FICO reports from here in the future, be sure to google "myFICO discount codes" or check out myFICO's Twitter page to save a few bucks.

Re: Husband vs. Wife Scores ???

vanillabean — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 20:31:45 GMT

@llecs wrote:
Those 3 scores aren't FICO scores. We call them FAKOs.

EQ Beacon 09 a.k.a. FICO 08 is a FAKO score? I wouldn't call it so.

Re: Husband vs. Wife Scores ???

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 21:27:35 GMT

The obvious answer is you each must buy the other an ice cream cone.

If you look at your comparable reports line-by-line, you should find what item(s) are making a difference in the scores. If one has more inquiries, or a slightly longer overall credit history, or an individual account that's relatively new, that could account for the difference ...

By the way, if you were both individually applying for mortgages, and those scores were all Fico scores (which they're not), the lender would use the middle score - 817 for you and 816 for your wife. Maybe you want to use that as a tiebreaker.

Re: Husband vs. Wife Scores ???

llecs — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 23:30:17 GMT

my-own-fico wrote:

@llecs wrote:

Those 3 scores aren't FICO scores. We call them FAKOs.

EQ Beacon 09 a.k.a. FICO 08 is a FAKO score? I wouldn't call it so.

Beacon 09 is a FICO score. However, the "Equifax Credit Score", as part of EQ's revamped 3-in-1 service, is a new FAKO score developed and offered by EQ for marketing purposes. This score isn't related to FICO or Beacon 09 at all and has a score range of 280-850 vs. FICO's 300-850.

https://help.equifax.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/244/session/L3NpZC94ejFKTjc4aw%3D%3D/search/1

I don't know of anywhere where you can pull a Beacon 09 other than via a lender.

Re: Husband vs. Wife Scores ???

vanillabean — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 00:48:41 GMT

Ok, thanks. EQ had me going there for a little. Their scores for DW and me yesterday showed a very strong correlation to our FICOs.

Re: Husband vs. Wife Scores ???

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 04:46:22 GMT

Good to know, and using a coupon I found on google search, I did use myFICO to pull just my Equifax score today which is 806 vs. their 3 in one 820 number last night. So the true FICO is a little lower, but at least I know I'm in the ballpark. I mainly wanted to check for any credit errors, and did find some. Thanks for feedback

Re: Husband vs. Wife Scores ???

RobertEG — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 05:18:50 GMT

You can get a free copy of your credit report once a year at annualcreditreport.com. Not only is it free, it is also the most complete credit report you can get. Just dont buy the score when you go to this site.