How do I know what my actual scores are if they vary between credit sites?

[Anonymous]

I have memberships for Experian and Equifax, but the scores on those sites are different from that of my Wells Fargo 3 Bureau monitoring.  How do I know what they actually are if I plan on getting a new car soon?

[llecs]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have memberships for Experian and Equifax, but the scores on those sites are different from that of my Wells Fargo 3 Bureau monitoring.  How do I know what they actually are if I plan on getting a new car soon?

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The scores from Wells Fargo's Enhanced ID Theft Protection CMS offers non-FICO scores (we call them FAKOs) called CreditXpert scores. The scores from Experian are FAKOs called PLUS scores. And if you subscribed to Debt Wise or Equifax Complete from Equifax.com, then those scores are also FAKOs called "Equifax Credit Score". AFAIK, there are no lenders that use those scores, though the report content is OK.

Equifax.com does offer FICO scores if pulled from ScoreWatch or any of the products found within www.equifax.com/myfico-products.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the response.  I have the premier plan on Equifax, but i'm unsure if that is the FICO score or not.

[llecs]

Unfortunately, no. They are FAKOs called the "Equifax Credit Score". No matter where you pull your FICOs from, they all have the word "FICO" next to the score. Absent FICO's mention, it isn't a FICO. 99% of the services out there offer scores, but none are FICO scores.

[MarineVietVet]

He is too modest to post this but here is an excellent discussion by llecs concerning different "credit scores":

"Virtually everyone sells scores, but they are not all FICO scores. If you got scores from the big 3, then very likely 2 or all 3 of them are not FICO scores. Experian and TransUnion do not sell FICO scores on their website. We call these non-FICO scores, FAKOs, and can easily be as much as a few points to 100+ points off your real FICO when pulled the same day. If it didn't say "FICO" next to the score, then it isn't.

Other companies (e.g. freecreditreport.com, freescore.com, truecredit, creditkarma, Equifax Credit Complete, Quizzle, and dozens of others out there) sell scores, but they are nothing more than gimmicks and lenders don't use them. They do this because they want to avoid paying any fees to FICO and when they say "credit score" people buy it anyway on the assumption that it is a FICO. The scores are off because the formula is different, factors in different things as compared to FICO, and score ranges are different than FICO's (e.g. FICO is 300-850, Vantage is 501-990, PLUS is 330-830, TransRisk is 350-850, and so on)."

[LS2982]

Welcome to the forums!!

It is best to not pay any mind to any other scores than FICO scores. The others are useless and very rarely used in a decision making process.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all of the responses.  I went on here and pulled myFICO for Transunion and Equifax.  The scores are quite different from the other websites, but the info is pretty much the same.  I feel better knowing these are correct. 

[Repo-ed]

Buying them can be humbling.  It was for me. About 100pts worth of humble pie.

[LS2982]

It is a little expensive here, but if you get the EQ scorewatch product its only $14.95 a month and it monitors your EQ score for any changes and alerts you! plus you get 2 free credit reports a year and 30% off each one after you've used your 2 free ones!

[Repo-ed]

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@LS2982 wrote:
It is a little expensive here, but if you get the EQ scorewatch product its only $14.95 a month and it monitors your EQ score for any changes and alerts you! plus you get 2 free credit reports a year and 30% off each one after you've used your 2 free ones!

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SW seems to be iffy?  That one thread around here had some disgruntled subscribers.  Maybe user error?