topic Re: Equifax Scoring in General Credit Topics

Equifax Scoring

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 15:03:07 GMT

I subscribe to MYFICO score/monitoring and Equifax Personal Services score/monitoring and have been tracking my scores for the last year.

My question is as follows: What is the difference between Equifax scoring model that consumer receive and lenders received?

I recently applied and was approved for a Navy FCU Flagship rewards card. When I received the approval letter it stated my Equifax Credit Services score was 673. My Equifax monitoring score which I pulled the day prior was 692.The MYFICO score which I pulled a day prior was 701. I understand the difference between FICO & Equifax scoring models, but why am I paying for unlimited Equifax scores if I can't get real/accurate information?

Has anyone experienced this?

Re: Equifax Scoring

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 18:05:14 GMT

There a gazillion different FICO scores. (may be slight exaggeration) myFICO sells you FICO 08 scores, at this time. They are real FICO scores, and are commonly used by CC companies, but not always.

Re: Equifax Scoring

CH-7-Mission-Accomplished — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 18:25:38 GMT

EQ Services is FICO 04. MyFICO is FICO 08.

Re: Equifax Scoring

takeshi74 — Thu, 16 Oct 2014 15:46:43 GMT

Scores a very common topic so don't overlook prior threads and the Understanding FICO Scoring subforum as well.

A difference in scoring models will lead to a difference in scores. You can't use one scoring model to determine the score generated by a different scoring model whether you're comparing FAKO to FICO or even FICO to FICO. In you're case you're attempting to compare 3 different models.

@Anonymous wrote:
I understand the difference between FICO & Equifax scoring models, but why am I paying for unlimited Equifax scores if I can't get real/accurate information?

Real doesn't mean anything in this context. The scores you received from NFCU and myFICO are both FICO's but as you can see the scores are different because the models are different. Creditors use different scoring models. Some use the 08 model that myFICO provides. Some do not.

All the scores are accurate but only for their own models. Again, the problem is that you're trying to compare scores from different models. As with any comparison you need to ensure that you're comparing apples to apples or that you at least understand the differences in the two things that you're comparing.

We can't tell you why you're paying for the Equifax scores. That's something that you have to determine. All of the above is what I don't recommend fixating on the numbers and instead recommend focusing on the data in your reports. Good reports will lead to good scores since scores are based on report data. if you want to determine what a creditor will pull for you then you need to determine what model they use. However, you won't be able to obtain some scores generated by some models.

Re: Equifax Scoring

sam818 — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 20:46:19 GMT

I think you may be mistaken.
Copied below from the Equifax consumer site, it appears that Equifax uses a proprietary FAKO because as you will see, they differential it from FICO:
QUOTE:
Both the Equifax Credit Score and the FICO Score are general-purpose score models used to predict credit risk.
The Equifax Credit Score is a proprietary model created by Equifax.
The FICO Score is a proprietary model created by Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) .
All Equifax consumer services and tools make use of the Equifax Credit Score unless otherwise indicated.

Re: Equifax Scoring

iv — Thu, 27 Nov 2014 02:08:31 GMT

@sam818 wrote:
I think you may be mistaken.
Copied below from the Equifax consumer site, it appears that Equifax uses a proprietary FAKO because as you will see, they differential it from FICO:
QUOTE:
Both the Equifax Credit Score and the FICO Score are general-purpose score models used to predict credit risk.
The Equifax Credit Score is a proprietary model created by Equifax.
The FICO Score is a proprietary model created by Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) .
All Equifax consumer services and tools make use of the Equifax Credit Score unless otherwise indicated.

"unless otherwise indicated".... for instance, when you choose to purchase Equifax's FICO score product. (Which is, in fact, a valid FICO04, and quite useful when preparing to deal with mortgage loans... more useful than any (FICO 8) score from myFICO, actually.)

You do need to be careful on the Equifax site to select the FICO product, and not the Equifax Credit Score products. (And their "3-in-1" product is NOT a FICO, unfortunately.)

Re: Equifax Scoring

sam818 — Thu, 27 Nov 2014 02:17:54 GMT

Agreed: After reading through the posts I went back to the Equifax site and after a lot of digging around I discovered the Equifax Only FICO @ $19.95....after having earlier signed up for the 3-bureau FAKO.
It wasn't easy to find and in fact their site is among the most confusing.

Once again the credit bureaux themselves are guilty of being less than forthcoming about their offerings to the public.

PS: My Fico 04 with Equifax was higher than the FAKO they provide on the same site.