Credit Unions and non-reporting to a CRA, effect on score(s), & alternative CRA pulls

[nma851]

This sort of goes along my thread about paying off my 2 installments (thread:  http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Installment-PAYOFFS-but-TransUnion-does-N... since it has to do with TU, however I've found another issue that may/may not have something to do with why TU's FICO is ALWAYS so low (compared to the other 2 CRAs)

Found out my credit union has NEVER reported to TU & given most of the creditors I have now pull TU (HP/SP) primarily, it's no wonder why AAoA and everything else is so "askew".  These are all closed and will not drop until 2021 but the fact remains, TU doesn't have it so TU cannot score it. 

Questions/Train-of-Thoughts are:

1)  Do MOST credit unions not report to TU?  This isn't a "community" CU either - they used to be small, then expanded since I was in my late teens/early 20's, and now a decade + later, they are a fairly large CU.  In fact, this is my oldest account when I turned 18 and every TL from them (about 13 over my lifetime not including mortgages) only appears on EX/EQ.  They didn't even start reporting to EQ until about 2005 either. 

2)  If a TL or creditor does NOT report to a CRA, is there a way to request the TL's be "inserted" somehow?

3)  If no to #2, then how can one "request" a specific bureau or "alternative" bureau given the lack of 13 TL's that would otherwise qualify a person for FAR better rates (assuming the TU score is lower to the point it impacts this)?  

4)  After I paid my 2 installments off in the linked post, the score tanked with TU since these were my 2 oldest OPEN TLs - however, they are NOT my "oldest" overall (this is where the CU comes into the picture).  I believe, based on the dates and so forth, that these 2 installments "made up" for the missing CU TLs to the point my score aligned a bit better with the other 2 CRAs.  I'm guessing at that, but given the ONLY changes since this score-drop was the 2 installments being paid off, TU dropped so much I just went fine-tooth-combing over EVERY single TL - manually - not with a 3-CRA report either LOLOL.  Come to find out, all those CU TLs which would compensate are not there to compensate.  Kinda sucks!!!

Reason that question #3 is even on here is the whole Barclay issue.  Since they only pull TU, but they're softing me all the time on EX/EQ, I am 99.9% sure that this is EXACTLY why my CL with them is where it is.  If they're SP'ing me on the others, then common sense would dictate that Barclay is, at some point, getting the "missing" data from the other CRAs.  Yet, Barclay just flat-out refuses to use the data in the CRs that are NOT from TU!!!!  WTH???  So when it comes to having a CR that reflects my credit lifespan that much better, i.e. via EX/EQ, why would a creditor blatantly refuse to use the CR that DOES depict a person's creditworthiness more accurately?  

This basically has me dealing with 2 different issues at one time - now that I've figured out why...  I cannot believe I didn't see this - but then again, those 3-bureau ones are likely why I missed it all this time!!!

Moving on, I cannot 'force' the CU to report to TU - they have no subscriber account so that is out of the question.  The CU is actually going well above & beyond to find a solution, even writing an official "Letter of Credit", but that letter cannot be 'scored' by good ol' FICO.  Mortgage wise this isn't too big of a problem since UW will use it and get the data in there to work the numbers however with Barclay, they are pretty much at a loss of words.  Nonetheless, even if the CU doesn't have the ability to report directly, one would think that a Lender/Creditor would be willing to yank a different CR for the benefit of the customer. 

Knowing the days are counting down for the Mortgage, getting THIS hit was something that really is not sitting well especially with my current creditor(s) such as Barclay, GE, & Chase.  They ALL pull TU here and as stated above, TU is the ONLY CRA that is my lowest (now a 724 from 760).  As another poster said, I do understand 724 as a low isn't that bad at all but it's the "unintended" consequences/issues that have now resulted from this.  Until something else is updated or changes, I have no idea what direction TU will keep heading (lower/higher) given AAoA is pretty much gone!  Still makes no sense to me how EX/EQ are RIGHT on the money with AAoA (19 years oldest, 12 years average with EX/EQ & good ol TU says that I'm sitting on 12 years oldest, 2 years average.  While FICO will round, is FICO rounding up to 3 years or 2 years (2.9 as it's 2 years 11 months)?  I guess I'll find out come next month but right now, Lender is NOT happy seeing the score plummet as they did & UW is wanting reasons.  Well - here's your reasons & if YOU cannot figure that out, why are you having me sift through my CRs one-by-one?  UGH!!  I think I am VER much over-stressed on this!!!

RECAP:  Trying to figure out how to get all of my CU TLs over onto TU and/or trying to figure out HOW to get Barclay to use another CRA due to the issues above as well as what to do about the Mortgage since this is a DRASTIC score drop that has the lender "upset".  Why she chose to use the word "upset" in this email she wrote about it is beyond me but I cannot see this making/breaking the deal.  Then again, as stated 20 times, this IS a drastic change not only in the score itself, but with my entire profile with TU.  Dropping from 9 to 3 years for AAoA cannot sit well with ANY lender I would imagine.  

Any/all help here is really appreciated again everyone and I apologize if there isn't enough info.  Again, I really do apologize for being all over the board here but my entire plan has been derailed over this TU nonsense.  Heck I'll pay the CU to report all this to TU if need be - we're talking 9 years AAoA difference!  Thank you all very much again & hope you're all doing as well as you can be!!

[Anonymous]

Where are you getting your scores from?

The TU found on this site is TU 98, which is very old.

I'm not clear if you're aiming for a mortgage, but if so, I'd try to get access to 04 scores like the EQ 04 Score Power FICO product found on the Equifax site.

If a bunch of stuff isn't reporting on TU, and cannot be made to report, then I'd try to do a technical appraisal of how much this is helping or hurting your scores.

[nma851]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Where are you getting your scores from?

The TU found on this site is TU 98, which is very old.      

I'm not clear if you're aiming for a mortgage, but if so, I'd try to get access to 04 scores like the EQ 04 Score Power FICO product fround on the Equifax site.

If a bunch of stuff isn't reporting on TU, and cannot be made to report, then I'd try to do a technical appraisal of how much this is helping or hurting your scores.

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I apologize to you (and everyone) for how poorly written that was.  The "final" edit ended up being the incorrect one - and I posted a bunch of racing thoughts versus a coherent post.  I'll revise & I again apologize for this.  As FYI if you already haven't figured it out, I replied & clarified what I failed to do!  I'm a BAD OP!!!

As for the TU 98/Fico 0??, and I am likely wrong on this, but could've sworn I had seen several things about this & heard about it, but also see (equally) that back in 2013, myfico switched to FICO 08??? Sketych on the version but I do remember reading alot about the transition - which was stemmed at more accuracy for us, the ones paying for that accuracy.  Regardless, there is no version out there that is going to magically get the CU to report for me unfortunately (to TU that is).

The summary of it is both aiming for the mortgage any day now & more importantly, how to "improve" TU in the absence of the oldest & longest TLs I have.  My gut tells me it isn't happening, too bad so sad, and if you really want a good depiction of this guy's credit, nab up either EX or EQ as we (TU) do not have his oldest & longest-opened TLs.  Would be nice if they had a "Disclaimer" like that LOLOL.  I'm frustrated since I'm at a dead-end here and I'm paying the price, if you ask me, based on this recent point-loss and seeing the major AAoA differences.  Now that I know why, the "cure" is not viable.  AAoA, in TU's eyes, will always be 4 years less due to the missing TLs and is scoring accordingly.  

It's REALLY unforunate that they are my oldest & longest-time-opened TLs too.  After learning that the liklihood of getting the TLs into TU's database is nil, my next best "light bulb going off" was how to convince, for lack of better words, my current creditors to use EX/EQ since TU has all the missing & score is impacted - to quite the extent - as a result.  The reason for this is I believe that due to the missing pieces, my CLs are lower, I could be impacted for the mortgage moreso than I have, the list could get long. 

I guess this boils down to a simple question of "How do I get a lender to alternatively pull a CR based on missing TLs in TU's report?"  Example is starting CL w/Barclay and Freedom and likely now know why:  They both pulled from TU that has the missing major histories on me.  Had it not been for the payoffs of the 2 installment loans, I would have never taken THIS much time to go through & figure out the reports one by one by one.  I feel quite stupid, truth be told, for not catching this much sooner however even currently, who is to say that I have lower credit lines as of today because of the TU report?  No one really knows these wonderful formulas and having pretty large differences in one CRA versus the other 2 CRAs stands out.  It got the mortgage gal's attention 3 weeks in.  I'm confident the mortgage, given the manual reviewing of just about everything, they can easily compensate and see it's due to the TLs not being part of TU but as for CCs using TU to figure me out, they're missing ALOT of the good stuff!!!  

I just cannot believe they "do not have the ability" to pull from the other two given the circumstances.  If the CU cannot report it, I believe that is ample justification to have a lender pull a different CR so they DO truly know their customer (and from a risk analysis aspect).

Thank you, again, for your time on this again!

[Anonymous]

The scores found here are EX 08, EQ 08, and TU 98.

The TU version is very old, and none of these scoring models are used in the mortgage business.

For general access to TU 08, there is Barclays, Discover, and Walmart.

For general access to EQ 04 (mortgage), there is DCU and the Equifax Score Power FICO product.

I'd suggest trying to get your EQ 04 and TU 08 scores somehow, to get a handle on where you're really at.

It's hard to say whether the missing information on TU is helping or hurting you, or is basically neutral.

I was approved for a CC last October that is still not showing on EX, and as a result, my AAoA is higher than it otherwise would be.

[nma851]

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@Anonymous wrote:

The scores found here are EX 08, EQ 08, and TU 98.

The TU version is very old, and none of these scoring models are used in the mortgage business.

For general access to TU 08, there is Barclays, Discover, and Walmart.

For general access to EQ 04 (mortgage), there is DCU and the Equifax Score Power FICO product.

I'd suggest trying to get your EQ 04 and TU 08 scores somehow, to get a handle on where you're really at.

It's hard to say whether the missing information on TU is helping or hurting you, or is basically neutral.

I was approved for a CC last October that is still not showing on EX, and as a result, my AAoA is higher than it otherwise would be.

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Thank you, once again, for all your help & advice on this.  I heeded such, got the FICO ( or is this a FAKO?) from EQ as suggested and it's relatively higher than on here!  Just as you outlined, it pretty much is indicative the model on myfico is outdated.  EX seems a bit "odd" as well (I just did EX & TU for "why not?" purposes).  The simulator is REALLY different for EX but nonetheless, thank you for the great advice to find out where I'm truly sitting (or at least close enough). 

Surprisingly, the score that EQ's site spit out was 748...  This aligns fairly well - and is obviously much better than what we get on here with TU98.  EQ actually has a REALLY nice interface - and unlike myfico, it updates daily or we can "refresh" it daily.  Just gotta ensure I cancel it BEFORE 7 days LOLOL!

I really appreciate this again & for your time.  Still have NO idea how to persuade these folks into viewing the other CRs for the reasons known but I've sent written correspondence to them all, requesting them to use one of the SP's from the other CRAs, and why I'm asking to do this.  Hopefully, this WILL result in something good or at minimum, put the Mortgage 'crisis' to rest!!! 

[Anonymous]

Equifax sells multiple scoring products, and you want to make sure you get the right one.

The EQ 04 FICO one is the $19.95 "Score Power" product.