Credit Sesame

[Anonymous]

This is an Experain credit monitoring site.  It offers a free credit score., They make it clear that it is not FICO but some of the web pages indicate it is a FICO silmuation (what ever that might mean).

Does anyone know if it is a Simulator or whether it is just a repackaging of an existing non FICO (I hate the term FAKO). 

B TW I Wish it wasa real FICO.  I got an 840.   I would be happy with that score fora FICO.

[haulingthescoreup]

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@Anonymous wrote:

THis is an Experain credit monitoring site.  It offers a free credit score., They make it clear that it is not FICo but some of the web pages indicate it isa FICO silmuation (what ever that might mean).

Does anyone know if it isa Simulator or wherthr it is justa repackaging of an existing non FICO (I hate the term FAKO). 

B TW I Wish it wasa real FICO.  I got an 840.   I would be happy with that score fora FICO.

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Unless EX is (illegally) applying the FICO scoring formula in some way, it is a "repackaging of an existing non FICO", as you put it, or who knows, possible a brand spanking new non FICO.

I mean, I could announce that I was a "simulation" of Angelina Jolie, but I doubt that anyone would be convinced. Same species, same gender, but... 

[GregB]

It does state that the info is provided by Experian and the amounts of all balances match my Experian report from earlier today. Score and Score Range seems to be very different from the usual EX Plus nonsense.

It recatagorizes some of my accounts into categories that are different than any reports I have ever seen. Utilization percentage is WAY off. Since they have the balances correct, to come up with their 24% utilization would require my available limits to be increased by $250K+. The only way that adds up is if they were including the equity in my house. Since they do "value" my house, that seems possible.

[Anonymous]

So no one knows I guess.

[RobertEG]

The FICO scoring algorithm is a proprietary trade secret of Fair Isaac, and there is simply no way, outside of one having access to their trade secrets, for anyone to "simulate" a secret.  To suggest so implies some direct correlation between their scoring algorithm and that used by FICO.

To my knowledge, no one has yet reverse-engineered their algorithms, so no one can claim any correlation to a scoring algorithm of which they are not privy.

Unless they can lay such a claim, and thus take on a legal battle that would ensue from obtaining trade-secret information, the discussion is kinda silly.

An apple is a fruit, but few would attempt to sell an apple as a simulation of an orange.

[haulingthescoreup]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So no one knows I guess.

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If it's not a FICO, it's not a FICO.

Nothing necessarily wrong with non-FICO's, other than that they don't tell you how lenders view you, and they often give advice that, if followed, would hurt your FICO's.

And it's perfectly fine to follow non-FICO's. It's just that we have so many people here who post that their blah-blah score was a 733, and their lender pulled a 647, and why, and on and on. It's like deciding to listen to classical music, but someone asks you questions about jazz, and you're lost.

[twahl]

Hi All,

I work for Credit Sesame as the credit and lending information manager so I'm very familiar with the score we offer and how we represent the it.  We do not say that we offer a FICO simulation.  In fact, our FAQ it clearly states that we offer Experian's National Equivalency Score and that it is not a FICO score.  The Experian NES, like other "educational" credit scores, is not a FICO score and does not pretend to estimate your FICO score.

Here's our FAQ:

Credit Questions What is a credit score and where did you get it?

Your credit score is number that indicates your creditworthiness. Credit Scores are based on credit report and your personal credit history recorded by credit bureaus. Banks and credit bureaus examine all of your credit and debt information and give you a score: the higher the number, the better the score.
Credit Sesame uses Experian's National Equivalency Score (not FICO) to give consumers a better idea of their credit standing.

Let me know if you have any quesitons.

[GregB]

twahl,

I do see that now but I think there was some misleading info fairly recently. I'm fairly sure I saw some reference to "FICO" on the site. I do see that the site clearly says "beta" on it so I assume it is still being modified into its final release.

It might be worth chasing the bizzare Credit Usage that I see on my account. Do we know how that amount is calculated?

[Anonymous]

I believe there are references to a "FICO simulatr" (hence the original question)  but not to FICO itslelf.

Now we know what it is.

[twahl]

GregB,

I've been here before we launched and honestly don't remember any confusing references to FICO but I guess it's possible. The site is officially in beta but the site is fully functional.  It just doesn't offer all of the features that we'd like to have built in at this point. 

The issue with the credit usage is definitely a bug that we are aware of but there are so many other priorities that we have not gotten to that one yet.  I know for me it includes the credit limit of my HELOC into the denominator but does not add the balance on the HELOC into the numerator throwing the usage off.  Would that make sense for your issue as well? 

It's probably a good time to devote some resources to fixing the problem because we are working some related features to give user better information regarding score factors.