Confused about Credit Scores

[Anonymous]

So before I joined myfico I was a member of CK.  I've been working my tail off to rebuild my credit.  (Got a few credit cards, store cards and the capital one card, paid off my collections and now I'm just sitting waiting for my credit to age...) I have a few questions that I am hoping someone can answer for me.

1.  My CK scores are WAY lower than what myfico.com shows.  Is that normal?  I mean wayyyyyy lower!  Like my CK transunion score is showing 489 and myfico is showing 668. (CK updated on 3/9/2017 and My fico updated on 3/12/2017)  This makes no sense to me!  I haven't gotten any new cards and if anything I've paid the 1 bad account on there that was for $72.  (I've been slowly paying my baddies and that was the last one!!!!)  It just blows my mind that CK can be that far off and that much lower.  

2.  I have a Capital One Platinum card that also shows my credit score.  It says something like Vantage 3.0 score and it is saying 511.  Again, doesn't make sense to me!!!

3.  Lastly, I am eventually looking to get either an American Express or a Discover card.  Trying to weigh the options.  Can anyone give me their feedback or comparison (pros/cons) of these cards?  (This is a long term goal, maybe a year or so before I would apply)

[Anonymous]

CK has Advantage 3 score while MYFICO has FICO scores they are different algorithms and consider each aspect of you credit profile differently. Think of them like a car both Smart Car and Mercedes are automobiles but they are very different due to how each manufacturer considers the importance of each aspect of an automobile such as size, options, comfort, drivability and so on.

[Anonymous]

So they are both accurate?  Which one is most likely used when applying for credit?  

[Anonymous]

90% of lenders use FICO scores.

[Anonymous]

CK is useless only use CK to look at reports weekly other than that don't bother with CK scores. it's all about FICO scores

[Anonymous]

Whew, ok.  I was really feeling discouraged bc I've been working so hard....  Thank you for all your help!

[Anonymous]

Regarding #3, I believe that it ultimately comes down to what you are going to use the card for. How can the perks of the card benefit you? Both AMEX and Discover have great products with outstanding CL growth potential.

[Anonymous]

Hi, thanks for sharing with us. What did you do for that big boost in score from 2/17 to 3/17? Great job. 

[rmduhon]

Unless I missed something, it looks like the score 'boost' was just the difference between CK (Vantage scores) and actual FICO scores.

[Anonymous]

My CK score is just way off from my myfico.com score and that is not the "jump".  My beginning score at the bottom of my posts, in my signature, is what my beginning score was with Myfico.com not CK.  It has always been off but it's just recently that CK is so off that I won't even look at it anymore.  It makes no sense that theirs is almost a 200 point difference.  I believe my score boost was from a combination of things. One of them was getting rid of some collection accounts (I only had a couple of things but it helped to get those things off),  the next was paying down my cards and getting my utilization % down.  This is just my speculation.  I have zero late payments! I really feel like at this point my score should just continue to go up a little at a time because it is "aging".  My issue wasn't necessarily bad credit bc of bad things on my credit (I did have a few small collections accounts mostly medical nothing major and nothing over $100) my issue was for such a long time I had no activity on my credit. I didn't have any credit cards or any revolving credit in my name except for 1 small loan at my local credit union.  I hope this helps.