topic Big Difference: myFico vs Experian in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Big Difference: myFico vs Experian

Raiders1 — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 16:40:47 GMT

For the last six months I've been monotoring my credit on the Experian website. It originally gave me a score of 544 six months ago, but I was able to bring it up to 592. It now shows 7 accounts in collections, 2 past due installment accounts, and 2 current revolving accounts. (I know it's pretty bad but I'm working on it). So in my research I discovred this forum and been reading for a little while. I decided to get my score here today (Equifax) and my myFico score is 661, my report only shows 2 accounts in collections, 0 installment, and my 2 current revolving accounts.

Why is there such a big difference? Which one should I go by, as I'm trying to improve my score to get a mortgage?

Re: Big Difference: myFico vs Experian

DaveSignal — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 16:46:27 GMT

There are 3 different credit reporting agencies that are used mainly in the United States: Equifax, Experian, and Transunion.

The data on any one of these reports should be the same, regardless of what website you pull it from. The scoring systems from different companies (experian vs myfico) weigh different parts of the reports differently, so they are not the same.

Re: Big Difference: myFico vs Experian

Anonymous — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 17:08:44 GMT

That Experian score is what is known as a FAKO.

The Equifax you got here is your true Equifax FICO score, so go on that.

And although the reports are all supposed to have the same data, it does happen sometimes where they don't... namely with inquiries and negative accounts.

Re: Big Difference: myFico vs Experian

Lel — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 17:14:10 GMT

@Raiders1 wrote:
For the last six months I've been monotoring my credit on the Experian website. It originally gave me a score of 544 six months ago, but I was able to bring it up to 592. It now shows 7 accounts in collections, 2 past due installment accounts, and 2 current revolving accounts. (I know it's pretty bad but I'm working on it). So in my research I discovred this forum and been reading for a little while. I decided to get my score here today (Equifax) and my myFico score is 661, my report only shows 2 accounts in collections, 0 installment, and my 2 current revolving accounts.
Why is there such a big difference? Which one should I go by, as I'm trying to improve my score to get a mortgage?

Hello, and welcome to the FICO Forums.

There's a number of issues at play here that explains the differences in your score and the content of your credit reports.

1) As mentioned, there are 3 different credit bureaus to which your creditors may report information. However, not all creditors report to all 3. Most of the large companies (e.g. Chase, Bank of America) do report to all 3, but small companies (like local credit unions) may only report to one credit bureau. So, it's common to see differences in the content of your credit report if you compare Equifax to Transunion to Experian. For me, none of my credit reports are exactly alike.

2) Each of these credit bureaus have their own FICO scoring formula. Though their formulas are all based on the same broad criteria, there are numerous small differences that lead to different scores. So, even if the contents of the credit reports at Experian and Equifax are exactly the same, you will likely still get two different FICO scores.

3) There are lots of different credit score formulas out there. Here, you get FICO scores, which are the scores used by the majority of US creditors. However, each of the individual credit bureaus have generated their own proprietary scoring formulas. Though these use the same general criteria for scoring, they usually generate different scores from the FICO scores. Sometimes the difference can be quite great. To complicate things further, some credit score models - like the Vantage Score - uses a scale that is different from FICO scores. FICO scores go to a theoretical maximum of 850, whereas a Vantage Score goes to 990. Generally speaking, these non-FICO scores can help you understand how good or bad your credit history is, but you should not use this as a surrogate for your actual FICO scores. There is no way to accurately convert an Experian Plus score or a Vantage Score to an accurate FICO score.

If you want to monitor a score that would be useful for mortgage planning, I'd recommend the Equifax FICO score from this site. I do not recommend the Transunion score, because it is an older version that is not used as widely anymore. There is no straightforward way to monitor your Experian score.