Experian score is garbage

[Anonymous]

I recently purchased the Experian FICO score and found it was not even close to accurate. What is the deal here? My Equifax score is dead on but Experian is so off its ridiculious. Let me give you an example. I had my scores pull by a lender and my FICO score for Experian according to MYFICO was 60 points lower than the what appears on this website. This makes no sense. There is no need of having the Experian score if its not in the ballpark. I wasted time and money for nothing. 

[Anonymous]

Hi and welcome to the forums.

myFICO EX is not garbage, it is accurate for the score model it is, which is FICO 08, the newest model.

What mortgage lenders use for all three scores is the FICO 04 model.

Your EQ score from here is the exact same as mortgage lenders use.  It is the only one of the 3 that is.  TU is the older model, 98.

That being said, there are 49 different versions/models of FICO scores.  There are only 3 that can be purchased by a consumer and it is the 3 you can get here.  myFICO does not decide which scores to sell, that is up the each of the CRAs.

You can apply for 3 different types of credit and say they all use EX.  You are still likely to get 3 varying scores due to the model/version they may use. 

[Anonymous]

So what is the point of having the Experian Score if there are sub-models being used especially when one is looking to get a mortagage? For that matter why pay for the credit score if it is useless. By your definition the score is inaccurate. If a new model is being used and no one in the mortgage industry is using it why have it? As I said this score is useless. Apparently no one else is using it as well. Case in point every creditor that has pulled my credit has shown the score lower than what is shown here. However, the EQ score is accurate. Lets face it the EX score is useless. No need to have it on the website if its not being used.

[tony46231]

If mortgage lenders use FICO 04 for all three scores and the EQ score from this website is FICO 04, shouldn't TU and EX that the lender pulls be very very close to what the EQ score is from here?  Assuming that you've reivewed the details of your reports and they are all three reporting the same thing?

[kkapdolee]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So what is the point of having the Experian Score if there are sub-models being used especially when one is looking to get a mortagage? For that matter why pay for the credit score if it is useless. By your definition the score is inaccurate. If a new model is being used and no one in the mortgage industry is using it why have it? As I said this score is useless. Apparently no one else is using it as well. Case in point every creditor that has pulled my credit has shown the score lower than what is shown here. However, the EQ score is accurate. Lets face it the EX score is useless. No need to have it on the website if its not being used.

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EX FICO here is FICO 08 Classic and is the one I've seen most lenders use for credit cards.

If you're looking for mortage, then it's useless. For me, its the most useful ones because I'm only looking for credit cards.

Edit: For clarification, I'm not saying EX FICO 08 classic specifically, is the one most lenders use for cc's. I'm saying the FICO 08 Classic model is the one I've seen lenders use the most but could be any of the three CBs (EX, EQ, TU).

[Anonymous]

Another question, auto dealers use a different version that tends to score higher but you can not see the score (they will NOT share it). Of course if there is a loan it is secured which tends to allow more flexibility in underwriting standards. Also, my home loan scores for all three CBs was pretty close to the myfico scores.

[Anonymous]

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@tony46231 wrote:

If mortgage lenders use FICO 04 for all three scores and the EQ score from this website is FICO 04, shouldn't TU and EX that the lender pulls be very very close to what the EQ score is from here?  Assuming that you've reivewed the details of your reports and they are all three reporting the same thing?

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No, your scores from the different CRAs will always be different.  I have never seen them exactly the same.  One reason is not every creditor will report to all 3 CRAs.  You may have things on one CR not on the others.

Even if all three credit reports are exactly identical, your scores will not be the same.  The reason is that each CRA has a different way of scoring things.

[kkapdolee]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@tony46231 wrote:

If mortgage lenders use FICO 04 for all three scores and the EQ score from this website is FICO 04, shouldn't TU and EX that the lender pulls be very very close to what the EQ score is from here?  Assuming that you've reivewed the details of your reports and they are all three reporting the same thing?

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No, your scores from the different CRAs will always be different.  I have never seen them exactly the same.  One reason is not every creditor will report to all 3 CRAs.  You may have things on one CR not on the others.

Even if all three credit reports are exactly identical, your scores will not be the same.  The reason is that each CRA has a different way of scoring things.

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Based on my short experience though, although they won't be exactly the same, they should be pretty close as long as your CRs are identical.

True, the three CRAs have a different way of scoring things but it probably can't be as different as a different model year of the scoring model. ex) 04 vs 08. The way I look at it is that the model years are like different versions of android while which CRA is using them is like different tweaks each phone companies make to the android in their own devices. (Samgsung's android is a little different from that of LG's even in the same model number but they are much closer to each other than say a Samsung's android 3.1 is to 4.1.

Anyways, the scores that I'm referring to from my personal experience is that my EX 08 classic score was 5 points lower than my TU 08 classic score on the same day or almost the same day (can't remember clearly from my recent app spree). And EX and TU CRs were identical except that EX had a few more inqs in it.

EDIT: For the record, I have not seen my scores exactly the same either but I've seen my 04 score 96 point lower than my 08 score while on the same day another 08 score from a different CRA was only 5 points lower with identical CR but more inqs.

Also to OP, I definitely would not call EX FICO 08 classic garbage. If I had to give up one of the three FICO scores they sell here, it would definitely be the TU 98 Classic as I don't know of anybody still using that. It's such an old model... Everyone surely must have upgraded to a new version by now. That's like still using Windows 98 on company computers...

It is probably easier for me than some other people to make comparisons of my scores from different CRAs because I have a relatively short credit history and all my CCs are reporting to all three CRAs + all CRs look identical except for inqs. But this is just me and YMMV.

[tony46231]

I think that answered my question.  I thought FICO 04 or any other model for that matter was the actual algorithm being used to compute the data on a credit report.  Are you saying that each CRA has their own algorithm that is based off of 1 of the 49 different models?

[Anonymous]

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@tony46231 wrote:

I think that answered my question.  I thought FICO 04 or any other model for that matter was the actual algorithm being used to compute the data on a credit report.  Are you saying that each CRA has their own algorithm that is based off of 1 of the 49 different models?

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Yes, each CRA scores every model differently. 

Enhanced scores are going to be a a bit different anyway because it is based on what it is for.  For an autoloan, any auto TL will be scored heavier than non auto TLs.  If you never had an autoloan that will play a big part in the score.