When I thought I was beginning to understand how FICO works....

[Anonymous]

I had responded to another poster about a BMW Cards raising their interest rate... so

I got the same from BMW Cards and they stated that my Experian score used in the decision making

process was "718" for the month of December/13... 

Last week  I applied for a BestBuy storecard and I was approved for it.

Today I received a letter congratulating on the approval but also regretting that I could not qualify

for their BestBuy Mastercard. Among other reasons they said that they used Experian and

the score used for the month of December/13 was "675" !!

Any logic to this madness??

[Anonymous]

1.  There are multiple FICO scoring models.

2.  Two scores calculated at different times may not be comparable.  For example, the TU score listed on my Discover statement is calculated around a week before the statement date.

3.  Whether a lender approves you is based on more than just a score.  They have various other criteria, and may actually use their own internal scoring system.

[Anonymous]

user, I am aware that there are many factors to define one's creditworthness, I was just really surprised

to see two completely different scores obtained from the same bureau reporting for same time period!

[Swapmeet]

One or neither can be Fico scores. As was stated, information from experian is used to plug into their own algorithms--hence, different scores with the same CRA pulled.

[FinStar]

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@Swapmeet wrote:

One or neither can be Fico scores. As was stated, information from experian is used to plug into their own algorithms--hence, different scores with the same CRA pulled.

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+1

[Anonymous]

A score reflects your report at an instant in time.

Suppose that the same scoring algorithm is used, and one calculation is done December 20, and the other December 30.

The scores will not necessarily match, and there may be wide variation, depending on what's happened to the report in those 10 days.

[Anonymous]

Additionally, one of those might be a card-enhanced score while the other night be a regular one. I wouldn't sweat it too much.