What the heck

[Anonymous]

I was just checking my credit scores online with all 3 bureaus. I just got my FICO score from Equifax and it was 742. That put me in the above average category. There were no FICO scores on the report I just got from Experian or TransUnion, but I got credit reports from both of them. My Experian score is 779, which put me in the top like 91 or 92%. My TransUnion score was 766, but apparently since TransUnion's scale goes up to 900 something for some reason (from what I can tell), they put me in the middle of the pack and gave me a "C" grade. The only glaring negative on my credit report was one 30 day late payment. What happened was that my credit card payments were being automatically deducted from my account. Well, they switched creditors to Bank of America, and when they did it got switched in the system so that all accounts being deducted automatically needed to go to a different site. I didn't stay on top of it, long story, and the short of it is that it's my fault. But that was 9 months ago, and I've had no late payments, no collections, or anything. And of course I paid it off and my account is in good standing... though I do need to get the debt down... too many trips to the gas pump with a credit card. But nothing shows that debt is adversely effecting my credit. If I can somehow get it paid down, my rating will go up. But it's at about 27% of my credit limit, which is hardly offensive in most eyes. So the only thing I can see is that TransUnion wants to rate me "average" for a late payment 9 months ago... out of hundreds of payments made. I haven't had any problems really with my credit in terms of getting loans. As a matter of fact, I was recently told by 5th/3rd that my credit rating put me in the preferred category on a auto loan.. which I'm going to my credit union and should get a great rate. But there's still a number of people who use TransUnion, it seems. And really, I don't have to worry about applying for too many loans. But it doesn't seem right, that I'm down that low for a late payment 9 months ago, because they want to use their own scale different from the other two. Sorry for the rant.... it's just.... arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggh! This seems like a great site though... very useful.

[Anonymous]

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CavOh wrote:
I was just checking my credit scores online with all 3 bureaus. I just got my FICO score from Equifax and it was 742. That put me in the above average category. There were no FICO scores on the report I just got from Experian or TransUnion, but I got credit reports from both of them. My Experian score is 779, which put me in the top like 91 or 92%. My TransUnion score was 766, but apparently since TransUnion's scale goes up to 900 something for some reason (from what I can tell), they put me in the middle of the pack and gave me a "C" grade. The only glaring negative on my credit report was one 30 day late payment. What happened was that my credit card payments were being automatically deducted from my account. Well, they switched creditors to Bank of America, and when they did it got switched in the system so that all accounts being deducted automatically needed to go to a different site. I didn't stay on top of it, long story, and the short of it is that it's my fault. But that was 9 months ago, and I've had no late payments, no collections, or anything. And of course I paid it off and my account is in good standing... though I do need to get the debt down... too many trips to the gas pump with a credit card. But nothing shows that debt is adversely effecting my credit. If I can somehow get it paid down, my rating will go up. But it's at about 27% of my credit limit, which is hardly offensive in most eyes. So the only thing I can see is that TransUnion wants to rate me "average" for a late payment 9 months ago... out of hundreds of payments made. I haven't had any problems really with my credit in terms of getting loans. As a matter of fact, I was recently told by 5th/3rd that my credit rating put me in the preferred category on a auto loan.. which I'm going to my credit union and should get a great rate. But there's still a number of people who use TransUnion, it seems. And really, I don't have to worry about applying for too many loans. But it doesn't seem right, that I'm down that low for a late payment 9 months ago, because they want to use their own scale different from the other two. Sorry for the rant.... it's just.... arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggh! This seems like a great site though... very useful.

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Ok you are comparing apples to oranges.  TU scores are not going to be the same as FICO scores. You can get a copy of your TU FICO at this site.

[Anonymous]

Understood, and like I said, I apologize for the rant. I typically don't have an explosive temper at all. I just found this out tonight, did some online research, and came across this, and needed to let off some steam I guess. I understand there's a difference, but is it really comparing apples to oranges? I mean my Equifax FICO score seemed to match the actual credit report score. I did a 30 day free trial, and got a 742 FICO for Equifax, and question marks for Experian and TransUnion. What is the difference? I'm sure I missed something detailing that on the forum or site. I did do some skimming of material here, but admittedly that's all it was. What would a FICO TU score tell me that would be different from the credit report?

[Anonymous]

LOL!!!  You think THAT'S an explosive temper?  Don't get me started...lol!!

Anyway, back to the scoring model.  The scores sold to you by TU and Ex are really not used by lenders.  There are so many varieties of scores that it not funny.  I used to have TUs three in one monitoring system and the difference between those scores and my actual FICO score that a lender is liable to see, was HUGE at times.  Did you know that the PLUS score you get from Experian only reviews the past two years of history? 

As most posters will tell you, FAKOs are good for simply monitoring your progress, up, down or sidways, FICOS are actually used by most lenders and yes there can be a world of difference.

Right now m EX score on their site is 690, needless to say its not quite that high on FICO.

I

[Anonymous]

Lol, I understand. But that almost is an explosive temper for me. Growing up, most people regarded me as shy, and I probably was to an extent. Today, I'm still not the most outgoing guy, but I'm much more likely to talk to you if I see you out in public today than I was years ago. But I'm kind of a manager at work, and I don't really get too mad at our people even when they do something to deserve it. I'm about as low key as it gets most times. Yeah, I do know scores vary wildly. That was somewhat indicated in my 3 credit reports when I got them. I just didn't like seeing that, because even with the one big mistake on my part, I still take pride in having good credit... and hopefully I can keep it there. Of course, I personally have as much respect and regard for credit bureaus as I do most auto insurers, especially Progressive. But that's another story altogether. They're a necessary little evil, it seems.

[Anonymous]

Oh I see we BOTH love Progressive....lol!!

[Anonymous]

BTW its not just the variation across bureaus but the TU score is not using the fico model.  Kinda like comparing hex math to decimal.  They both give you mathmatical results but 2+2 doesn't equal 4 in both cases.

[Anonymous]

Oh yeah, I'm no friend of Progressive, or they're no friend of mine. You'd think 5 years as a customer or however long it's been would gain you some loyalty or the benefit of the doubt on a couple of tickets. But then this is the company that tried to raise my premiums on an accident where I was rear ended because I was "at fault" for being stopped and careful apparently, and expired tags counted as a minor moving violation. I should have dropped them then. I am dropping them now. So TransUnion really does have a different system then. They're using some of the weirdest math I've seen when I get a higher number from them than I do Equifax, but am rated lower on their scale. I think I was a little thrown off and upset by the Indian rep on the other end of the line at TU. I don't want this to come off the wrong way, because I respect and get along with people of all skin colors and nationalities, and I had some college roomies from places like Chile, Sweden, Venezuela, and Kazakhstan. But not only was he unhelpful and uncaring, but I really wonder why these companies hire people who are hard to understand for telemarketing and phone rep jobs. After that, he tried to sell me something or offer me some sort of monitoring thing. At that point I was ready to hang up in mid conversation, but fortunately I was able to stay more composed than that.