How to tell FICO from FAKO

[Anonymous]

Hi I am brand new to this board can you please tell me how I determine what is the real Fico and what is the fake
I am signed up with experience for credit monitoring is that considered a real score I also get a score through fingerhut

I have also use credit, my credit, scores are way lower than what I see with Fingerhut and Experian can someone please respond and let me know thank you

[Anonymous]

Sorry there a few typos in my post, so much for talk text. I use experian credit monitoring I have also used credit karma. The scores are drastically different. CK is much lower than what I get from exp and fingerhut.

According to exp my score 628, they refer to it as my fico score 8. They also give fico score 2 which they say is used by cc companies and auto lending.

Any help greatly appreciated!

[UncleB]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Hi I am brand new to this board can you please tell me how I determine what is the real Fico and what is the fake
I am signed up with experience for credit monitoring is that considered a real score I also get a score through fingerhut

I have also use credit, my credit, scores are way lower than what I see with Fingerhut and Experian can someone please respond and let me know thank you

---

Hi @Anonymous, and welcome to myFICO!  

I've moved your post to a new thread to get your questions more exposure. 

--UncleB

myFICO Moderator

[HeavenOhio]

Somewhere on your credit monitoring sites, they should tell you which score or scores they're providing. You might see one of many flavors of FICO. Or you could see VantageScore 3.0. Or you might see an oddball like the Experian National Equivalency Score.

The bottom line is that lenders will use some flavor of FICO, with FICO 8 being the most common. VantageScores and other so-called FAKO scores won't tell you much that's useful. However, sites that offer VantageScores or oddball scores may offer other nice features that are useful, such as credit reports or monitoring.

[Anonymous]

If it is a FICO score it will specifically tell you FICO. Most FICO Scores will also tell you what flavor it is, such as FICO Score 8 or FICO Auto Score 8, etc.

If it doesn't say FICO or just says "credit score" it is a FAKO score and is useless for lending purposes. Consider fako scores as educational or entertainment only.

[RobertEG]

Just as you can tell Coke from other colas, the FICO name is a registered trademark, and cannot be used to identify any score other than one based on the FICO scoring algorithm.

If the score does not provide the FICO (R) trademark, it is not a FICO score.