Trans Union vs. FICO

[Anonymous]

I've checked my credit scores and reports recently and my Trans Union score seems way out of the ordinary.

Through this site, my FICO score was 769 (Excellent)

My Experian PLUS (FACO) score was 747 (Excellent)

However, my Trans Union score measured as 900 the top was 781 (Average 49%).

How can two scores be Excellent and one be Average?

I've checked the Trans Union credit report and although there are some minor discrepencies, there is no additional AVERSE information.

How can this be?

Suggestions.

[Anonymous]

Where'd you get your TransUnion score from?

[Anonymous]

I started at AnnualCreditReport, which transferred me directly to the Trans Union site.

The Score is 781.   Grade C  Average 49th%.     Their scores range from 500-990

[llecs]

Ignore those other scores. We call then FAKO scores, or fake scores. Lenders won't even touch them. Your FAKOs can go down and FICOs up for the same event. There's no correlation and the formulas are totally different.

To confuse things, on the same day, I pulled my TU FICO through here and my FICO was about 670 or so. I then pulled my TransRisk score (another TU FAKO) and that score was 485. I once had a CA drop off EX. My EX FICO score jumped 58 points. My EX FAKO (PLUS score) dropped 8 points.

Good, Bad, Average, Excellent are all relative terms. It is all in relation to "what". Focus on your FICOs and it'll make more sense.

[Anonymous]

You're trying to compare apples to oranges basically. They aren't using the same formula or the same scale, so you won't get similar results. You'd have to pull your TU score from here to compare apples to apples.

[Anonymous]

I plan on buying a house in the next year and I don't want to be caught by surprise having one score AVERAGE and the others EXCELLENT.  It's my understanding that lending institutions often look at all three scores and if my Trans Union score is just AVERAGE, I'm concerned that I won't get the best rates.

If my FICO score as published on myfico.com is 769, is there anything to worry about?

[Anonymous]

Experts would have to chime in, but I believe anything over 720 and you're going to get the best rate possible. *jealous*

[llecs]

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Zinovy wrote:

If my FICO score as published on myfico.com is 769, is there anything to worry about?

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Other than having a great score, you'd want to find out where your EQ score is at. Unfortunately, EX doesn't allow consumers to access their FICO score. You would get it though if you applied with your lender. Lenders will look at your middle score.

[haulingthescoreup]

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Zinovy wrote:

I plan on buying a house in the next year and I don't want to be caught by surprise having one score AVERAGE and the others EXCELLENT.  It's my understanding that lending institutions often look at all three scores and if my Trans Union score is just AVERAGE, I'm concerned that I won't get the best rates.

If my FICO score as published on myfico.com is 769, is there anything to worry about?

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That TU "score" (the one that says average) is not your FICO TU score. Lenders will never see it.

You do need to find out what your TU score is. There's a discount going on now (see the log-in page), so you can save some bucks.

When the time comes, you can know your EQ FICO and your TU FICO, but your EX FICO will be a mystery, due to their refusal to let myFICO sell them any more. If your EX report is very close to the other two, your score should be somewhere around those. The more baddies you have, and the more differences between the reports, the harder it is to guess.

If you haven't already, please read Understanding Your FICO ® Score and Credit Scoring 101 (at least the first post.)

These will give you the background knowledge you need to understand what you read here on the forums.