Confused! Please help

[TeeandDee]

Hi - I'm new the boards! *waving*  What a wonderful site with such a wealth of information!

This my question.  I have Credit Montioring with Equifax and as of yesterday, my score was 622. Well, after finding out from these forums that the Equifax score is not FICO,  I signed up for the MY FICO "Score Watch" .  Well, my FICO score is 663....but the Equifax score is 622?!  How can there be such a difference?!  I mean, I am happy that the FICO score is higher since it seems that's the most important score...right??  But just trying to figure out why the Equifax score is 41 points lower. 

My next question is... next week I have a new Capital One card that should start reporting....will this lower my score or increase it?  Just don't wanna get my hopes up that I'll gain some points..if this is not the case..lol! 

[cdtotten]

There is no correlation at all between non-FICO and FICO scores. Your FICO score could be a 725 while your FAKO score is a 610 and vice versa. It is not uncommen to see people with more than 100 point difference.

The difference is due to the formulas used to derive the score. Each algorithm is different, and places different weights on different items. Be glad your score is higher!

[llecs]

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@TeeandDee wrote:

Hi - I'm new the boards! *waving*  What a wonderful site with such a wealth of information!

This my question.  I have Credit Montioring with Equifax and as of yesterday, my score was 622. Well, after finding out from these forums that the Equifax score is not FICO,  I signed up for the MY FICO "Score Watch" .  Well, my FICO score is 663....but the Equifax score is 622?!  How can there be such a difference?!  I mean, I am happy that the FICO score is higher since it seems that's the most important score...right??  But just trying to figure out why the Equifax score is 41 points lower. 

My next question is... next week I have a new Capital One card that should start reporting....will this lower my score or increase it?  Just don't wanna get my hopes up that I'll gain some points..if this is not the case..lol! 

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Welcome!

Unfortunately, companies like Experian, Equifax, TransUnion, Freecreditreport, freecreditscore, creditreport.com, PrivacyGuard, and hundreds of other companies sell scores, but they are not FICO scores. They prey on many folks' assumptions that all scores are FICO scores, when that certainly isn't the case. The name we give to these non-FICO scores is "FAKOs". They are fake scores and in fact, many of them will plainly state in their fine print that the scores are for educational purposes only and that lenders don't use them. They try to mimic FICO to cash in on others' need for score info.

Everyday we see posts like this. At least your FICO is higher and at least you weren't relying on the lower score to make decisions about a mortgage, for example. Unfortunately it goes the other way for some in that their FICO is lower and they learn the hard way come application time for a mortgage. Heart-breaking sometimes.

Will a new CC help or hurt or stay the same? The answer is: it depends. Typically adding new credit will drop your FICO scores. I've lost an average of 20. But that can be offset if you are lacking revolving accounts outside of this CapOne. It can also offset if it helps your CC utilization once it reports. When I added my first 3 CCs, I saw increases in score. Cards 4+ resulted in a drop.

[TeeandDee]

Thanks for the information!  I'm wondering if I should even continue the Credit Monitoring that I have with Equifax since it's not a real FICO score.  Beside, I've signed up here at MY FICO for Credit Score, and since they are the real deal...don't know why I really should pay Equifax for theirs?  I should probably save the money! LOL!

But I am happy that the score was higher here.  I was very surprised at that.  I will report back in the next week to let you know how the new Cap. One card affects my score once it hits  the report...Keeping my fingers crossed that it will be good! LOL!

[bichonmom]

You might want to check out USAA's CMS. It's only $12.25 a month and you can see all 3 CR daily. They also monitor all 3 for inquiries, new accts., etc. The scores are FAKO, so I just ignore them.

For scores, I use EQ ScoreWatch, which gives you a true FICO. But you have to keep updating your "target score" to whatever your current score is, in order to get updates when it changes.

For TU FICO, you can get it here or free with a Walmart CC.

[namvet]

You want to monitor your credit for changes that may be positive or negative to your finances.  Unless you are looking for a score that needs to be exact the Fako scores will do just fine.  Now this is just my opinion and based on my experience over a number of years but my Fako scores are always lower than my true Fico scores (all 3 of them).  So if your Fako's are cutting the mustard why be concerned about Fico's opinion?  

[jdogi]

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@namvet wrote:

You want to monitor your credit for changes that may be positive or negative to your finances.  Unless you are looking for a score that needs to be exact the Fako scores will do just fine.  Now this is just my opinion and based on my experience over a number of years but my Fako scores are always lower than my true Fico scores (all 3 of them).  So if your Fako's are cutting the mustard why be concerned about Fico's opinion?  

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I agree.  For day to day maintenance, FAKOs are just fine and much more economical if you want to watch them closely.  But my FAKOs have (for many years) been consistently higher than my FICOs by 50-60 points.  So just don't read too much into them.  If you really need to know where you stand, you'll need to get your FICO.

[namvet]

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@jdogi wrote:

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@namvet wrote:

You want to monitor your credit for changes that may be positive or negative to your finances.  Unless you are looking for a score that needs to be exact the Fako scores will do just fine.  Now this is just my opinion and based on my experience over a number of years but my Fako scores are always lower than my true Fico scores (all 3 of them).  So if your Fako's are cutting the mustard why be concerned about Fico's opinion?  

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I agree.  For day to day maintenance, FAKOs are just fine and much more economical if you want to watch them closely.  But my FAKOs have (for many years) been consistently higher than my FICOs by 50-60 points.  So just don't read too much into them.  If you really need to know where you stand, you'll need to get your FICO.

 
Like they say "guess it depends on where you get your Fakos".   In your case 50-60 points is a bunch!  My case 10-20 points.  I guess the importance of Fico would be more of a factor with someone with lower scores.  If you are already in the 750+ range then it would be less important unless you got a contest going on. 

[TeeandDee]

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@bichonmom wrote:

You might want to check out USAA's CMS. It's only $12.25 a month and you can see all 3 CR daily. They also monitor all 3 for inquiries, new accts., etc. The scores are FAKO, so I just ignore them.

For scores, I use EQ ScoreWatch, which gives you a true FICO. But you have to keep updating your "target score" to whatever your current score is, in order to get updates when it changes.

For TU FICO, you can get it here or free with a Walmart CC.

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Well today was interesting.....I went into my Credit Union to open a new account, and he said that my Credit Score was 675..not sure if it's FICO or not because I didn't receieve an alert, I also checked my Equifax Credit Montoring and they still have my Credit score at 622...smh! LOL!   But as you suggested, I changed my alert to what my current score is so I can get an alert when it changes! LOL!  Thanks for that tip! That was very helpful!

I think I'm going to keep both Credit Montioring I have (MYFICO Score watch & Equifax Monitoring).  I also think I'm gonna increase my credit limit on my Captial One Secured card by another $500 to make it $1000, check my score every other month...and wait until Jan. 2013 to try to get a prime card.  Maybe then I'll finally get approved for one...smh!