topic Re: Amex vs. PSECU scores in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Amex vs. PSECU scores

Tonya-E — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 21:47:25 GMT

Has anyone been able to compare an Amex provided score with PSECU score in a similar timeframe? I am interested to know if there is a disparity.

Re: Amex vs. PSECU scores

MattH — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 00:05:42 GMT

The scores from AMEX are what we here call FAKOs, they are not actual FICO scores. There is a huge amount of deceptive marketing in the credit score business; unless the seller of a score specifically says in so many words that it's a FICO score, you should assume it is probably NOT, especially if they offer three scores because EX does not allow sale of their FICO scores to consumers. Here you can buy EQ and TU scores that actually come from FICO. The EQ here us what many mortgage lenders use. The TU here is an older version, many mortgage lenders now use a newer one. Once upon a time EX scores were also available here, but no more. There are other FICO variants, such as one specially designed for auto loans, that consumers cannot buy anywhere (some auto dealers will tell you).

Re: Amex vs. PSECU scores

Revelate — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 00:15:36 GMT

@tonyaether wrote:
Has anyone been able to compare an Amex provided score with PSECU score in a similar timeframe? I am interested to know if there is a disparity.

If you mean the Amex Credit Secure scores, than the above poster is correct, there's no correlation.

If you mean an Amex lender pull, well, there's probably not much relevance there either though better than FAKO. AFAIK Amex does a credit-enhanced pull, whereas the the PSECU score to my knowledge is the standard Classic model from Experian. There's some post to that affect around these forums last time I looked, Transrisk 2 I believe specifically.

Anyway Amex may also be on the FICO '08 model which wouldn't surprise me a bit either. As a result, with the lender pull vs. PSECU's score, YMWV unfortunately.

Re: Amex vs. PSECU scores

pizzadude — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 00:21:30 GMT

My most recent AMEX rejection letter showed my EX FICO score with a range of 300 - 850. No details are given regarding the model used, but it is definitely a FICO score.

Re: Amex vs. PSECU scores

Tonya-E — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 00:52:32 GMT

Thanks everyone for your responses. I am referring to an Amex lender-pull score (often given in approval/denials) not credit secure. Has it been confirmed that the Amex score is enhanced? That was honestly what I was trying to determine as I have seen contradictions on that ...

Re: Amex vs. PSECU scores

Revelate — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 01:12:09 GMT

@tonyaether wrote:
Thanks everyone for your responses. I am referring to an Amex lender-pull score (often given in approval/denials) not credit secure. Has it been confirmed that the Amex score is enhanced? That was honestly what I was trying to determine as I have seen contradictions on that ...

Hard to know, but I see people with similar reports between EQ and EX reporting higher than expected EX FICO's from an Amex pull, and they have good revolving tradeilnes.

I guess I'll see when I apply for my Amex, because if it's higher than my Beacon 5.0 (and EQ looks a metric ton better than my EX) it's a fair bet it's credit-enhanced.

Re: Amex vs. PSECU scores

Tonya-E — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 01:36:58 GMT

I actually think I will get a PSECU account early next year to compare. My hubby is a PA resident so I can get in that way. But I have to wait until he is back from Korea (military). My Amex pulled score was 739 so it's significantly less than my other two scores and I wondered why. But seeing the classic fico will give me insight. I wanted to see if maybe someone else already had both and had seen any difference.