Where does the Transunion score fall of the three?

[USSVOYAGER]

For the past year and a half I have done quarterly monotering with Transunion only and this site has helped me to be more aware and watch my FICO score grow. My question is where in the mix of the three reporting agencies does Trans Union fall? Is it safe to assume that the TU score is an average of the three or does it fall at the low end/high end of the spectrum?

Thanks again to MYFICO.com!!!

[MarineVietVet]

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@USSVOYAGER wrote:

For the past year and a half I have done quarterly monotering with Transunion only and this site has helped me to be more aware and watch my FICO score grow. My question is where in the mix of the three reporting agencies does Trans Union fall? Is it safe to assume that the TU score is an average of the three or does it fall at the low end/high end of the spectrum?

Thanks again to MYFICO.com!!!

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I'm not sure if you are aware that the "scores" you get from Transunion are not FICO scores although the reports are accurate.

No one has been able to buy their own Experian FICO score since February of 2009. Creditors can pull Experian and also there is a CU in Pennsylvania that supplies that information to it's members only. You can only buy true FICO scores at a few places. One place is here at myFICO. I suggest you do an internet search for "myfico discount codes" to save a little money. You can also purchase your Transunion score at www.transunioncs.com. At www.equifax.com EQ will still sell you a FICO score but they make it very hard to find.

There is no averaging of any of the FICO scores. Each CRA has a separate formula and resultant score.

Did I answer what you were asking?

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 9/09 pulled by lender 802
EQ - 7/06-663, 3/10-800
TU - 8/10-772
You can do the same thing with hard work

[MattH]

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@MarineVietVet wrote:

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@USSVOYAGER wrote:

For the past year and a half I have done quarterly monotering with Transunion only and this site has helped me to be more aware and watch my FICO score grow. My question is where in the mix of the three reporting agencies does Trans Union fall? Is it safe to assume that the TU score is an average of the three or does it fall at the low end/high end of the spectrum?

Thanks again to MYFICO.com!!!

---

I'm not sure if you are aware that the "scores" you get from Transunion are not FICO scores although the reports are accurate.

No one has been able to buy their own Experian FICO score since February of 2009. Creditors can pull Experian and also there is a CU in Pennsylvania that supplies that information to it's members only. You can only buy true FICO scores at a few places. One place is here at myFICO. I suggest you do an internet search for "myfico discount codes" to save a little money. You can also purchase your Transunion score at www.transunioncs.com. At www.equifax.com EQ will still sell you a FICO score but they make it very hard to find.

There is no averaging of any of the FICO scores. Each CRA has a separate formula and resultant score.

Did I answer what you were asking?

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 9/09 pulled by lender 802
EQ - 7/06-663, 3/10-800
TU - 8/10-772
You can do the same thing with hard work

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All quite correct.  There are various "flavors" of FICO scores none of which is consistently the highest or the lowest for everybody, they weight factors differently and therefore for you one might be the highest and for me another might be the highest.  Not only do all three credit reporting agencies have their own customized algorithms, but also from time to time FICO rolls out a new version and lenders may switch to newer versions or stick with older ones.  In addition there are some market-specific FICO scores that we cannot buy here (what we buy here is basically what mortgage lenders use).  For instance there is a auto-specific variant of FICO scores pulled by most car dealers and auto finance companies; the only way consumers can learn these scores is by persuading some auto dealer to reveal them.  Presumably the car-dealer-specific FICO scores give more weight to any auto loans in a person's credit history.  Posters here who have learned their scores from auto dealers say if your past auto loan history is clean they'll probably be very close to what we pull here.

As for the FICO scores pulled here, when I was able to pull all three my observation was that in the revolving credit area: TU gives somewhat higher weight to the total dollar balance on revolving credit, EQ gives somewhat higher weight to the number of revolving accounts carrying balances, and EX gives somewhat higher weight to the percentage of revolving credit utilized.  My wife and I both have good jobs, rarely use cash, have high limits on our credit cards, and pay all our accounts in full at the end of each month.  This means all of our cards report balances every month, so my EQ score is usually a bit less than 800 with "number of accounts carrying balances" as the only ding.  The total revolving balance fluctuates from month to month, so my TU score ranges from about 775 to over 800 depending what the balances happen to be each month. My EX score, when consumers could purchase EX scores, was always above 800 because the high limits meant percent utilization was always low.

Lenders vary in which score or scores they use; many pull one score, which one varies.  For a mortgage, usually they pull all three FICO scores and go by the middle score, so if you pull both EQ and TU here there are basically three possibilities for your EX score: your EX could be your lowest, in which case the score determining your mortgage terms will be the lower of EQ and TU, or your EX could be your highest, in which case the higher of the other two will be the one that counts, or your EX could fall in between the other two.  Unfortunately, the FAKO scores you can buy from EX are not gonna tell you which of these three possibilities is the case for you; the only way most of us can learn our EX FICO score is by applying for a mortgage.  In my case, when I could pull EX it was always my highest, so I can assume whichever of my EQ or TU is higher would be my middle score.

If and when I plan on applying for credit, I'll tweak my TU and EQ scores by paying off my credit cards early for a couple months in advance of applying: most credit cards report the balance as of the date of the monthly statement, so by making carefully calculated payments just before statement dates I could make two of my cards report very small balances and make the others report zero balances.  This should maximize all three of my FICO scores.

[USSVOYAGER]

OK, for now I'll continue with my quarterly monotering, that should keep me on the straight and narrow, but for next year the 1st quarter I hope to buy my 1st home, I'll check back to see how well I am doing with the two CRAs that are available.

Thanks for the help guys.

[haulingthescoreup]

If you're talking about the score that you get with your TU quarterly monitoring service, that's your TU FICO score, albeit an older version called TU98.

You have three FICO scores: one from Equifax, one from TU, and one from Experian. Each score results from a slightly different formula. Even if the info is identical on all three credit reports, the three FICO scores generally slightly differ from one another. And of course, most of us have slightly different info on each of our reports, so there's even more of a variation.

You can get your EQ and TU FICO scores from this site. You can no longer buy your EX FICO score anywhere, as of last February (2009.) You can find it out if you apply for a mortgage or if you belong to a credit union in Pennsylvania called PSECU, which provides its members with their previous month's EX FICO.

A TU FICO score can be the highest, the middle, or the lowest of an individual's three FICO scores. It's the highest for me, because for some reason, TU simply stopped reporting all my lates that are 4 years old or older, leaving me with a clean TU report. I don't understand it, but it's been this way for 8 months or so, and I'm happy.

[MarineVietVet]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:

If you're talking about the score that you get with your TU quarterly monitoring service, that's your TU FICO score, albeit an older version called TU98.

You have three FICO scores: one from Equifax, one from TU, and one from Experian. Each score results from a slightly different formula. Even if the info is identical on all three credit reports, the three FICO scores generally slightly differ from one another. And of course, most of us have slightly different info on each of our reports, so there's even more of a variation.

You can get your EQ and TU FICO scores from this site. You can no longer buy your EX FICO score anywhere, as of last February (2009.) You can find it out if you apply for a mortgage or if you belong to a credit union in Pennsylvania called PSECU, which provides its members with their previous month's EX FICO.

A TU FICO score can be the highest, the middle, or the lowest of an individual's three FICO scores. It's the highest for me, because for some reason, TU simply stopped reporting all my lates that are 4 years old or older, leaving me with a clean TU report. I don't understand it, but it's been this way for 8 months or so, and I'm happy.

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Of course you are correct. I had forgotten about that.

I should have kept completely quiet on this thread. 

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 9/09 pulled by lender 802
EQ - 7/06-663, 3/10-800
TU - 8/10-772
You can do the same thing with hard work

[haulingthescoreup]

Oh, heck no, what you wrote was very useful. I just wasn't sure that we'd realized what OP was hung up on.

Three kids and nearly three decades of marriage have helped me learn to untangle what's actually being asked.

[MattH]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:

Oh, heck no, what you wrote was very useful. I just wasn't sure that we'd realized what OP was hung up on.

Three kids and nearly three decades of marriage have helped me learn to untangle what's actually being asked.

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Did you learn untangling skills primarily from spouse, kids, or both?

[haulingthescoreup]

All four, I'm afraid, plus some seriously raddled employers. The cat's the only one that makes sense consistently. Let me in, let me out, is this the best you can do for food, here's some nice grass I ate for you urrrrrrp.