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TxEclectus wrote:
I recently pulled up my FICO scores from the three reporting agencies and found that Experian has me ranked 60 points lower than the other two. The other two are within 4 point of each other. How can the difference be so great? And what do I do to get Experian to adjust or re-evaluate it. I called them and they referred me to this site. The rep here that I spoke with last night (on the phone) referred me back to Experian. I can understand slight variations, but 60 points??????I found one derog medical ($200) on my reports and have been reading here about how to remove. Frustrating thing is it really isn't my bill, it belongs to my ex, but I'm the one that it reflected on. If someone could please explain a little more about the process involved. I need a little hand holding at times to better understand the order in which I should address this problem. I understand that I need to pay the bill directly to the hospital and then once the check clears ... who do I begin writing letters to and in what order?Any help is greatly appreciated.
TxEclectus wrote:
I purchased the full reports from TrueCredit.
Reports from here?
KYgirl wrote:
My reports all have the same information and my Exp is 80 points less than my TU. SAME INFO!Check to make sure Exp doesn't have more inquiries or lates etc than the others. Seems their scores are harsher.
You have stumbled upon the mysterious world of credit scoring.
The first thing to realize is that federal regulations, as codified in the FCRA, govern only what CANNOT be reported to a CRA, and does not in any way regulate what MUST be reported to a CRA. Any creditor can decide not to report at all, to report to only one, or to all three of the CRAs. That is why it is critical to carefully review your three CRA reports to make sure of any differences in their base data.
OK, so each CRA has its own database. Then we come to scoring against their database. There is no such thing as a TU, EX, or EQ credit score. There are no regulations at all on the generation of credit scores, other than that the data they use complies with the FCRA. So all scorers use data from the three CRAs, which are regulated.
There are many vendors of credit scores. FairIsaac vends a credit scoring algorithm to each CRA. But the CRAs have also developed their own scoring algorithms, the most prominent of which is their Vantage score algorithm. So you have to know the source of the algorithm that produced any score that you purchase. Scores vended through TruCredit are not based on the FairIsaac algorithm, and thus cannot be compared in any way with FICO scores. That is not to say that they are fake scores. However, most lendors rely upon the FairIsaac scoring algorithm.
But even FICO scores, coming from algorithms developed from FairIsaac, are not consistent. FairIsaac vends different versions of its basic algorithm to each CRA, So even with totally identical data in the files of each CRA, the FICO scores that they provide can vary by as much as 20 points.
Then it gets really confusing. Aside from the different consumer versions marketed to each CRA, FairIsaac also vends different flavors of its algorithms. Classic FICO, enhanced FICO, auto-enhanced FICO, and the impending FICO 08, just to name a few.
FICO, in its various versions, and non-FICOs, proliferate.
Stick to what the lendors use. FICO.