Citi provided score

[Hotcoals91]

I have a Citi provided score of 714 currently but I notice that the range is 250-900 instead of the usual. So i was wondering if anyone knew any more about their scoring system.

[atarvuzdar]

It's your Equifax Bankcard Score 8 FICO score.

[Hotcoals91]

Ok thanks! Why does it have a different range?

[Anonymous]

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@Hotcoals91 wrote:
Ok thanks! Why does it have a different range?

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It's industry-specific.  FICO tailored some of their FICO products to industries and it includes whatever data points those industries rely on for risk performance.

From FICO's site:

"FICO® Auto Scores and FICO® Bankcard Scores have these aspects in common:

• Many lenders may use these scores instead of the base FICO® Score
• It is up to each lender to determine which score they will use and what other financial information they will consider in their credit review process
• The versions range from 250-900 (compared to 300-850 for base FICO® Scores) and higher scores continue to equate to lower risk"

https://www.myfico.com/credit-education/credit-score-versions/

There's no rhyme or reason from a consumer's viewpoint as to why the ranges vary, but the industries likely have certain needs that FICO needed to cover, and they did it by including more range in the risk analysis.

Also note that FICO base scores have a cap of 850 but in reality a person can have a score higher than 850 by a little bit, you just will never know it.  FICO does this to give a buffer to people with extremely awesome credit so that they can stay at 850 even with new accounts or inquiries or whatever.  So a person with an 850 score might secretly have an 862 score but no way to know.

[atarvuzdar]

I got my updated score from Citi today, as well. Was thrilled to see it @ 806. My generic (is that the right term for it?) EQ FICO is 784.

[K-in-Boston]

Thanks for mentioning the update; mine updated today, too.  748 as of 16 days ago which is good for me since mine has been a little lower than vanilla 08 lately.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Hotcoals91 wrote:
Ok thanks! Why does it have a different range?

---

It's industry-specific.  FICO tailored some of their FICO products to industries and it includes whatever data points those industries rely on for risk performance.

From FICO's site:

"FICO® Auto Scores and FICO® Bankcard Scores have these aspects in common:

• Many lenders may use these scores instead of the base FICO® Score
• It is up to each lender to determine which score they will use and what other financial information they will consider in their credit review process
• The versions range from 250-900 (compared to 300-850 for base FICO® Scores) and higher scores continue to equate to lower risk"

https://www.myfico.com/credit-education/credit-score-versions/

There's no rhyme or reason from a consumer's viewpoint as to why the ranges vary, but the industries likely have certain needs that FICO needed to cover, and they did it by including more range in the risk analysis.

Also note that FICO base scores have a cap of 850 but in reality a person can have a score higher than 850 by a little bit, you just will never know it.  FICO does this to give a buffer to people with extremely awesome credit so that they can stay at 850 even with new accounts or inquiries or whatever.  So a person with an 850 score might secretly have an 862 score but no way to know.

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I wasn't sure which model they were using exactly because my FICO score on CITI was over 880 for 3 straight months, and I never thought that was right.  I've recently frozen all my CRAs (in the last two months I've now had 3 unauthorized attempts to seek credit in my name), so I'm curious if they'll be able to provide a new score this month.