topic Re: Thanks All - Scores have re-aligned in myFICO® Product Feedback

myFICO Score Watch vs. Equifax Score Watch

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 16:34:39 GMT

I'm confused... I know credit scores are point in time - so even using the same scoring criteria, two different services may report different scores depending on when the pull is done. But I'm signed up for both Equifax's Score Watch and myFICO Score Watch, and I expected them to show similar scores since they both should be monitoring for changes.

I signed up for both services early last month. Equifax was slightly higher (667 vs 666). When a new account got added on my myFICO score dropped a bit (to 664) which wasn't reflected in the Equifax score.

So yesterday I get an update to my Equifax score to 685 (yeah!). I kind of expected the myFICO score to go up too. Later in the day it did... to 670?

I understand the differences between different CRAs scores... but different scores between Equifax Scorewatch and myFICO scorewatch? Seems odd. Anyone have any idea why this would happen?

I'm planning on keeping only one service after the first 3 months - I initially thought I'd keep the Equifax version since everyone's indicated it updates sooner. But Equifax's score only updated 3x over the last month, and there were only two different scores. MyFICO's updated 6 times during that span, with 3 different scores. But now the two scores are very different... I'm very confused!

Re: myFICO Score Watch vs. Equifax Score Watch

haulingthescoreup — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:12:55 GMT

I think that there is a bit of a delay in the updated credit reports traveling to the FICO site (not sure about this, though.) Have you compared the underlying reports for the non-matching scores to see if anything is different?

If not, this is a good question for an admin, if one cruises through. Barry? Raine?

Re: myFICO Score Watch vs. Equifax Score Watch

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:22:55 GMT

I've been debating getting new reports to compare them... One side of my brain is telling me to pull new reports, the other side is reminding me that we're buying a house in a couple of months, so stop spending money! Usually that second half of my brain isn't working, but this house thing changes everything!

I just thought it was weird that the Equifax score went up only once, and later in the day the myFICO score went up... but not by the same amount. I'm guessing it's possible that the myFICO score was generated from data that preceeded the data Equifax used to calc the higher score. For instance if myFICO's score was based off of information from the day before yesterday, and after that point something else changed. Then Equifax's score could have been based off of yesterday's info.

This is all so confusing!

Re: myFICO Score Watch vs. Equifax Score Watch

haulingthescoreup — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:42:59 GMT

At one point I got so exasperated at FICO ScoreWatch that I was getting ready to cancel it, and then my score bucket changed. I was able to figure this out from the SW alert; otherwise, I think I would have just had a stroke then and there. So I've kept it on, but I regard it with wary humor.

After a while, I got my reports pretty well smoothed out, so the combination of that and knowing what credit report changes are apt to trigger score changes lets me know when it's smart to pull scores. Well, in theory, anyway! I swear, I'm down to once a month. Really! starting tomorrow!

Re: myFICO Score Watch vs. Equifax Score Watch

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 20:47:27 GMT

do you know of a thread that will teach me more about score buckets?

Re: myFICO Score Watch vs. Equifax Score Watch

haulingthescoreup — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 01:27:40 GMT

Here's the one I learned on --go to message 17:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&thread.id=10004&view=by_date_ascending&page=2

Here's where I was figuring out what was what:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&thread.id=10745

Re: myFICO Score Watch vs. Equifax Score Watch

Barry — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 17:31:25 GMT

haulingthescoreup wrote:

I think that there is a bit of a delay in the updated credit reports traveling to the FICO site (not sure about this, though.) Have you compared the underlying reports for the non-matching scores to see if anything is different?

If not, this is a good question for an admin, if one cruises through. Barry? Raine?

While both EFX and myFICO Score Watch run off of the same systems at EFX, it's true that the info is transmitted from EFX to myFICO before it gets to the customer, so a delay is certainly possible -- though it should be the exception more than the rule.

Thanks All - Scores have re-aligned

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 21:44:24 GMT

Just got an update from myFICO - score's up to 684, inline with Equifax.

So it looks like there was a 1 day delay - my guess is that EQ updated to 670 2-3 days ago, and provided that update to myFICO. Then, before EQ SW updated my score there must have been other changes, and when EQ SW updated, they went straight to 684. Meanwhile myFICO SW was 1-2 days behind on the updates, and they reported the 670 and the 684 scores.

Latency issues are pretty normal, especially when information is coming from outside sources. It was really only troubling because it looked like only 1 update happenned, and the update wasn't the same.

Thanks for your help. 680+... Finally where I need to be for the upcoming home purchase!

Message Edited by WAFICOwatcher on 12-12-2007 01:44 PM

Re: Thanks All - Scores have re-aligned

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 23:32:49 GMT

I bet that are they same thing just rebranded Myfico is nothing more than a reseller

Re: Thanks All - Scores have re-aligned

MidnightVoice — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 23:34:28 GMT

rbbyrbsn wrote:
I bet that are they same thing just rebranded Myfico is nothing more than a reseller

Yes and no. MyFICO is a part of Fair Isaac, and they invented Credit Scoring