Big difference in scores

[Rein]

Hello everyone. I just received a denial letter from Walmart. It gave me a TU score of 356. I'm with myfico and my score is currently at 584. I went and purchase a credit monitoring for Experian, it's giving a score of 608. I did a dispute to remove a judgment that don't belong to me. So I think my score will be higher when that gets updated. I'm wondering why is there such a big difference in the 3 scores? 

[Jutz]

Walmart denial = Internal scoring.  Although they pull TU, the use an internal model of scoring to assess risk.

MyFICO = Assuming it's ScoreWatch and not Quarterly Monitoring, this is an Equifax FICO score, and the most relevant of the three

Experian = You cannot purchase an experian FICO score, and thus you're only working with a "FAKO".  This is a model of scoring made to resemble FICO and give you an idea, however they can be wildly inaccurate

[Jutz]

The biggest problem I see, is that you applied for a card with shaky credit, that guarantees to pull TU, but you didn't know your TU score. I think most would suggest being over 600 with TU before you think about apping for Walmart.  You can get your TU score from MyFICO for $20, or with Quarterly Monitoring, for $5 a month you get 1 score per 90 days.

It's important to be mindful of what bureau will be pulled when applying for credit.  EQ for instance is my lowest, so when shopping for Auto loans recently, I've been trying to avoid banks that obviously pull EQ.

[Rein]

Thanks jutZ! very helpful. I will be more careful next time I apply for anything.. 

One more question... How close are experian fako scores to the real score since we are not able to purchase it? 

[Jutz]

could be close, could be 100 points off, use the rest of your profile as a guide.