Difference in Scores

[tg55]

Hi, I am totally confused! I bought my TU score from their website in January "09" and it said it was "700" Today I went to a car dealer and they told me that my score from them was "593" This is a big difference. I'm curious why is there such a difference, what am I missing here! I don't know if I should call TU and find out why or maybe someone can help me to understand this! This has made me angry!!!!!!!!!!! Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TG

[haulingthescoreup]

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tg55 wrote:

Hi, I am totally confused! I bought my TU score from their website in January "09" and it said it was "700" Today I went to a car dealer and they told me that my score from them was "593" This is a big difference. I'm curious why is there such a difference, what am I missing here! I don't know if I should call TU and find out why or maybe someone can help me to understand this! This has made me angry!!!!!!!!!!! Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TG

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Which TU website? Unless it was www.transunioncs.com, you bought a FAKO score.

Do you still have the score? Can you look to see if it says TransRisk, Vantage, etc?

There are two versions of the TU FICO score currently in use (TU98 and TU04), but I wouldn't expect that big of a spread.

[tg55]

Thanks for replying, It was through the annual credit report website, you can get your score as well as your report from the 3 bureaus. I have the report that the car dealer gave me, the saleswoman gave it to me. It was from "OFAC" I don't know what this is! It says Trans Union on it! I paid $5.95 for the score back in January! I'm at a loss here! where do I go from here!

[haulingthescoreup]

The score you got in January was a FAKO, and it's worse than useless. Unfortunately, it misled you as to how strong your credit was.

The score from the auto lender might have been a so-called "auto-enhanced" FICO score, a FICO tweaked to predict risk for a car loan. Have you ever had a car loan in the past? Any lates, repo's, etc.? What negatives showed on the credit reports you pulled in January?

If you're concerned about your FICO scores, you really need to pull EQ and TU (EX is no longer available) from this site. I'd suggest getting the Suze package. You can use two of the three included scores to pull EQ and TU, and you can use the third score later for either one.

Scores through Suze will display for 12 months, which is why I prefer it. There is currently a 30% discount being offered. Check your log-on screen here. When you're going through the order screen, it will prompt you for the discount code, which is myFICOis8 .

When you get your scores (again, from here) post back and tell us what the positives and negatives are on screen 2, and what kind of negatives you have on your reports. You need to know where you are now to help decide where you're going to go.

[tg55]

Hi, ok! I will do Suzy's kit next week but I did the score watch because it had a free 30 day trial. My FICO score from Equifax was "658" I can't imagine that the TU will be that much of a difference. I can't believe that the score from the annual report site was Fake! That really upsets me! I currently have a lease with Chase and have never missed a payment. I have a feeling that the reason I am going through this is because back in 2005 I filed bankruptcy but that was 4 years ago! I guess I have a lot to learn but who can I trust now to tell me what my actual score is????

[Anonymous]

MyFICO is the best place to trust for getting the score almost everyone uses. (IIRC, its something like 90% of major banks use the scores provided here, and although they might get a slightly different number depending on what version of the formula they pull, it should be close to what they get). The one thing you can't get here is an Experian score, but you can't get that anywhere except from your lender now, because Experian stopped selling their credit scores to consumers.

But keep your chin up - scores can vary by large amounts. My Equifax score is 661, my Transunion is 692 - and the gap used to be 30 points bigger.

The bankruptcy probably is the big thing hurting you - while it gets less important with time, it doesn't go completely off your credit for 7-10 years, depending on what type of bankruptcy you filed.

[tg55]

Thanks for the info Jesmont! I am really saddened by the difference in scores! Even though my car loan was included in my bankruptcy I have paid every single payment. My bankruptcy lawyer told me I had to include it in my filing! The credit bureaus won't report this though and that is another reason that I am dissappointed in this whole system!

TG55