Why are myfico.com scores so different than individual fico scores from the bureaus?

[Anonymous]

Something wasnt adding up to me when myfico.com was showing my bureau scores to range between 690-705.  So I went and paid to independently see scores and reports from each of the bureaus independently. I did this today, 10/16/2015. And my scores ranged from a low of 733 to high of 765 across the 3 bureaus. Pretty huge difference. Specifically, myfico has my scores as 690,695, 705.  The individual bureau fico scores are 733, 754, 765.

Why so different?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Something wasnt adding up to me when myfico.com was showing my bureau scores to range between 690-705.  So I went and paid to independently see scores and reports from each of the bureaus independently. I did this today, 10/16/2015. And my scores ranged from a low of 733 to high of 765 across the 3 bureaus. Pretty huge difference. Specifically, myfico has my scores as 690,695, 705.  The individual bureau fico scores are 733, 754, 765.

Why so different?

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Welcome to MyFico

The scores you receive from MyFico are Fico 08 scores which are used by many credit card companies and other lenders.  If you received your other scores from Equifax.com, Tranunion.com and Experian.com, the only one that provides you a Fico 08 score is Exoerian.  The other two are their own proprietary scores (though you can purchase a Fico 04 score from Equifax) and are used for educational purposes only.  The Experian score from their site should match or be very close to what you get on MyFico.  If it isn't close we would need more info to try to find out why. Their are a lot of varying scores you can receive from different sites.  Many of them are the same types of scores and are often referred to as FAKOs.  It's important that you do research and determine what sites you can rely on for providing accurate and meaningful scores. Keep in mind that even in the Fico scores world there are many different versions of Fico that are used by different entities such as mortgage lenders, auto loans and credit cards.  Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

I really appreciate your response. But I still don't really understand. 

I realize that there are lots of scores out there, fico, vantage, enhanced, etc.

But the bottom line is that I am not sure how useful this site is if you represent an equifax score of 696 to me and the score directly from equifax is 100 points higher. Which should I believe? If I'm going to do a HELOC loan, are they going to look at your equifax score or equifax' equifax score?

very confused.

how can they be "fako" when it's their score, their brand etc.? 

Seriously though I'm just trying to understand

thanks,

[Anonymous]

And by the way to address your specific question, my experian score shows dramatically higher than the myfico experian score

[Anonymous]

The same has happened to me as well.  My actual scores from the bureaus are higher than what they are showing here.  I just go by the ones here to to go by so then I know my scores with bureaus are higher.  I have questioned this and have not got an accurate answer with myfico and the company that pulled the score. 

[Anonymous]

Even the credit bureaus often show FAKO scores, which can vary widely from FICO scores that many lenders actually use. Experian is FICO 8 pretty much across the board. However, Equifax and TransUnion scores are often something else, and not FICOs. A true FICO score will most often be indicated as such; otherwise, assume it's a FAKO.

Regardless, a base FICO 8 score while useful for gauging one's overall credit situation, may not be specific enough for a mortgage. For that you'd want to purchase a EQ FICO 4 (aka Beacon 5) score from Equifax, or better yet, purchase a report(s) here that feature several industry specific FICO variants, such as for auto loan, mortgage, etc.

See the following MyFICO help page regarding FICO variants: http://www.myfico.com/CreditEducation/FICO-Score-Versions.aspx

[StartingOver10]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I really appreciate your response. But I still don't really understand. 

I realize that there are lots of scores out there, fico, vantage, enhanced, etc.

But the bottom line is that I am not sure how useful this site is if you represent an equifax score of 696 to me and the score directly from equifax is 100 points higher. Which should I believe? If I'm going to do a HELOC loan, are they going to look at your equifax score or equifax' equifax score? Neither one. They will pull a trimerge report and chose the mortgage mid-score on the tri-merge report for a HELOC. 

very confused.

how can they be "fako" when it's their score, their brand etc.? 

Seriously though I'm just trying to understand

thanks,

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Best thing for you to do is to pull your 3 B report here and take a look at all the versions of scores. Notice which scores are used for mortgage purposes and use that as your base line to judge if you should app now for your HELOC or do some rebuilding first.

The reason I suggest pulling the 3 B report is because it is a soft pull and gives you the same mortgage scores that lenders see. Even FICO 8 scores are not used for mortgages. 

As to why EQ and the others sell other scores - its revenue to them. Do some research and you will see providing a score is highly competitive and the CRA's bank on consumers not being well informed about the different scoring formulas. If you look at each of the sites you may see a disclaimer that the score is for educational purposes. That is a dead giveaway that the score is not used by lenders for credit grantiing purposes. It is confusing by design. After all, who would buy the scores if they knew they weren't the same scores that lenders use as a factor to grant credit. 

[takeshi74]

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@Anonymous wrote:

IBut the bottom line is that I am not sure how useful this site is if you represent an equifax score of 696 to me and the score directly from equifax is 100 points higher. Which should I believe? If I'm going to do a HELOC loan, are they going to look at your equifax score or equifax' equifax score? 

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You can't just believe one score.  You're operating on a mistaken assumption that you have just one "correct" score with each CRA.  That's not the case.

One of the points that was being made above is that there isn't just one scoring model used by creditors.  If you want to know what score a creditor will pull for you then you need to know the specific scoring model and the CRA used by that creditor/product and then see if you can pull that specific score.  Don't assume you can just look at one score and that it will apply for all creditors.  It's not the just the CRA that matters but the scoring model as well.  Always make sure you're considering the scoring model when referring to scores and do not attempt to use a score generated by one model to determine a score generated by another model.  Even FICO itself has many models used by creditors.

This site is useful as long as you consider the above.  See also the Understanding FICO Scoring subforum and its stickies for info on the various FICO models used by creditors.

Additionally, we are not FICO.  We don't "represent" any scores to you.  We are just consumers like you.

As for Equifax, the score you get from them depends on the product that you purchase.

http://www.equifax.com/all-products/

The "Equifax Credit Report and Score" is an Equifax Score which is not used by any creditor.

The products in the bottom section provide FICO's but they are FICO 04 scores which are not the same as the FICO 8's.  There are creditors/products that use FICO 04 and creditors that use FICO 8.  There are also creditors that use neither of those two models and a different FICO instead.  So, again, you can't just "believe" one score.

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@Anonymous wrote:

how can they be "fako" when it's their score, their brand etc.?  

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FAKO means "not FICO".  While FICO's aren't the only scores used by creditors they are used by a significant majority and they are the industry standard.  It doesn't matter if a score is a CRA's own brand.  FICO's are products of the Fair Isaac Corportation -- not the CRA's (TransUnion, Equifax & Experian).  myFICO.com is a Faair Isaac website.

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@Anonymous wrote:

And my scores ranged from a low of 733 to high of 765 across the 3 bureaus. Pretty huge difference.

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Additionally, you cannot just assume that your scores should be the same for all 3 CRA's.  For one thing, any score is generated based on the data in a report and it's not uncommon for CRA's to have differing data.  Additionally, from what I understand the older FICO models were a bit tailored for each CRA and even with identical data could generate different numbers.  Newer models such as FICO 8 are more consistent.

[Anonymous]

blake1125 ~  The scores for myFICO mortgage scores were exactly the scores the bank pulled when I applied for a HELOC two days ago.  And, I had paid the extra to get a new 3B report the night before, so I wouldn't be surprised.  Only I had thought a LOC would be a bankcard score...      oopsie.  Anyway, they did match what the bank pulled.

[ddemari]

If you are going off of the equifax score from their premiere membership, that is an educational score.
The score/s from myfico are the ones lenders will use, more than likely. If u purchase an equifax powerscore, that is the EQ FICO 05 / then mortgage score u receive from my FICO along with your FICO 08 scores. My equifax educational score is 50 points lower than my equifax FICO score.