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Credit Karma vs FICO

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Anonymous
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Credit Karma vs FICO

I want to listen to everyone here and what is the difference between their fako score(CK) and their FICOs?

 

I use CK just for monitoring activity on my credit; such as, any negative remarks or credit pulls I don't recognize.

 

Back when my CK score was 630 my FICO was listing at 720-730 - that is a huge difference,

 

Now, my CK is listing at 710 but I haven't checked my FICO - what is everyone elses experience?

21 REPLIES 21
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Credit Karma vs FICO

The majority of lenders primarily use one of the FICO models. Very few and none that I know of use Vantage scores.

 

They are completely different algorithms hence the varied scores. Don't waste your time comparing them. 

Message 2 of 22
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Credit Karma vs FICO

My VS scores are considerably lower than my FICOs.  They can be off as much as 100 points from the data that I have read and personal experience.

Message 3 of 22
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Credit Karma vs FICO

They are all over the board. 

 

EQ - 714 FAKO/668 FICO8

TU - 701 FAKO/690 FICO8

 

For some reason, my FAKOs are always higher than my FICOs. Noticeably so when it comes to EQ. 

Message 4 of 22
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Credit Karma vs FICO

My CK scores usually run about 30-40 points lower than Fico score that Discover and Amex provide. Which is fine as I only need a ball-park figure. Anything above 750 is fine with me after spending several years at 650 or lower. So i only use it to moniter activity.

Message 5 of 22
DaveInAZ
Senior Contributor

Re: Credit Karma vs FICO


@Anonymous wrote:

They are all over the board. 

 

EQ - 714 FAKO/668 FICO8

TU - 701 FAKO/690 FICO8

 

For some reason, my FAKOs are always higher than my FICOs. Noticeably so when it comes to EQ. 


For years my Fako Vantage scores vs. Fico were like that, when I had a 2010 BK7 with all accounts included in BK with lates prior to filing reporting. Once I hit the 7 year mark and all the IIB accounts were removed my scores reversed - Fico in the low 720s Vantage 660s. Vantage doesn't seem to like the balances I carry on CCs, 13% utilzation overall but 2 accounts in the 40% util. I don't care, the balances are all 0% APR and I have the funds to pay them off before 0% expires, and no lenders cares what someone's Vantage score is.

 

One really annoying thing about CK is the heavy pushing of personal loans - no thanks, I don't want a 15% APR personal loan to pay off a 0% CC.  That and highly recommending I app for a CC, most of which I already have. CK thinks they're quite clever using the info they have on you to promote products they get a commission for if you're approved. But they don't know what APR CC/loan balances are, and while they may see I have a CC from BoA they don't see that it is the Cash Rewards card they're pushing me to app for. 

Message 6 of 22
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Credit Karma vs FICO


@DaveInAZ wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

They are all over the board. 

 

EQ - 714 FAKO/668 FICO8

TU - 701 FAKO/690 FICO8

 

For some reason, my FAKOs are always higher than my FICOs. Noticeably so when it comes to EQ. 


For years my Fako Vantage scores vs. Fico were like that, when I had a 2010 BK7 with all accounts included in BK with lates prior to filing reporting. Once I hit the 7 year mark and all the IIB accounts were removed my scores reversed - Fico in the low 720s Vantage 660s. Vantage doesn't seem to like the balances I carry on CCs, 13% utilzation overall but 2 accounts in the 40% util. I don't care, the balances are all 0% APR and I have the funds to pay them off before 0% expires, and no lenders cares what someone's Vantage score is.

 

One really annoying thing about CK is the heavy pushing of personal loans - no thanks, I don't want a 15% APR personal loan to pay off a 0% CC.  That and highly recommending I app for a CC, most of which I already have. CK thinks they're quite clever using the info they have on you to promote products they get a commission for if you're approved. But they don't know what APR CC/loan balances are, and while they may see I have a CC from BoA they don't see that it is the Cash Rewards card they're pushing me to app for. 


I really don’t know why VS likes me more than FICO. I’ve got a chapter 7, a <$100 med collection, two 60 day lates, and a repo/charge off that’s paid from a reaffirmed car loan during my BK. I should score very poorly on VS from my understanding, especially with all the new credit (9 new accounts in 12 months). 

 

As for the offers, I only ever open CK when I need to see what’s going on with EQ (which is rare) but WalletHub tends to have decent recommendations for me. 

Message 7 of 22
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Credit Karma vs FICO

TU - VS3 810/FICO8 834

 

EQ - VS3 810/FICO8 827

Message 8 of 22
Andypanda
Established Contributor

Re: Credit Karma vs FICO

My vs scores have been higher than my fico scores. Vs and fico weigh diffrent factores differently.

Message 9 of 22
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Credit Karma vs FICO


@Anonymous wrote:

I want to listen to everyone here and what is the difference between their fako score(CK) and their FICOs?

 

I use CK just for monitoring activity on my credit; such as, any negative remarks or credit pulls I don't recognize.


Karma is also really nice for monitoring credit card balances.  It gives you the exact date that your creditor reported any particular account to the bureau (whereas many other credit monitoring services only indicate month/year).

 

Karma also gives you access to your Auto Insurance score.

 

If you think you might have lates that occurred more than two years ago, do not rely on Karma to accurately detect those.  It will often claim that a person with no lates in the last 25 months has a record of "100% on time payments" even when he has a late from 5 years ago.  FICO cares a lot about those older lates.

 

Ignore what Karma says about age-related factors as well.

Message 10 of 22
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