Experian's Website vs. MyFico's? Real scores or not real scores?

[kjm79]

Okay, because I've been working like crazy in improving my scores I just went and purchased all three of my CR's from the Evil Exeperian site.  My Scores from there are as follows:

EX Plus = 690

EQ Plus = 692

TU Plus = 689

Scores from MyFico 

EX = 639 (2-13-09)

EQ = 676

TU = 700

Now these scores are much more close in range than the ones from MyFico site.  I'm ecstatic about the EX score - nearly 50 points higher (but is this a true fico score?  Or how much could it really by off?)  My EQ score is higher as well, almost 20 points, and then TU which was 700 (my highest) on MyFico is the lowest of all on Experians site.  Their reports are awful to read, I can't find a code or legend that deciphers all their symbols.  I signed up for the free 7day TripleAdvantage Trial.  But if they aren't true FICO's I'm gonna cancel it before I'm charged.  Anyone know how the scores compare?

[MattH]

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@kjm79 wrote:

Okay, because I've been working like crazy in improving my scores I just went and purchased all three of my CR's from the Evil Exeperian site.  My Scores from there are as follows:

EX Plus = 690

EQ Plus = 692

TU Plus = 689

Scores from MyFico 

EX = 639 (2-13-09)

EQ = 676

TU = 700

Now these scores are much more close in range than the ones from MyFico site.  I'm ecstatic about the EX score - nearly 50 points higher (but is this a true fico score?  Or how much could it really by off?)  My EQ score is higher as well, almost 20 points, and then TU which was 700 (my highest) on MyFico is the lowest of all on Experians site.  Their reports are awful to read, I can't find a code or legend that deciphers all their symbols.  I signed up for the free 7day TripleAdvantage Trial.  But if they aren't true FICO's I'm gonna cancel it before I'm charged.  Anyone know how the scores compare?

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What you buy from EX is a FAKO score, you can no longer get genuine EX FICO scores any more.  Only lenders can get EX FICO scores now.  When you pull a triple report from EX, all they do is purchase the DATA from the other two CRAs and run those data files through their FAKO algorithm so if the data are similar across CRAs then of course the scores will be similar. Any differences in scores from the EX triple report will be due to differences in the actual data.

But the real FICO scores are not the same algorithm for all three CRAs, because each has its own customized version of the algorithm, so there are two sources of variation among genuine FICO scores, both data and formulas.  The EX version of the FICO algorithm puts more emphasis on percentage of available revolving credit utilized, the TU version puts more emphasis on number of cards reporting a balance, and the EQ version puts more emphasis on total dollars owed on revolving credit.  Unfortuntately, it is no longer possible for most consumers to get their actual EX FICO scores anywhere for any price (due to a contract dispute between Fair Isaac and Experian); this site remains the unique place for most consumers to get their actual EQ and TU FICO scores.  There are yet more variations on the FICO algorithm which consumers cannot obtain, the scores pulled from myfico are what the majority of mortgage lenders and many other lenders use, but for instance auto dealers pull special "auto enhanced" FICO scores that put higher weight on any automotive loans in a person's history.  Some dealers will let customers see their auto scores when asked, and some posters on these boards have thus compared their auto-enhanced scores to what they pulled here and say if you've never had any problems with auto loans then your auto-enhanced scores will be pretty similar to what you pull here but of course if you've had a repo then your auto-enhanced scores will be lower.

In my own case, my wife and both have good jobs, carry very little cash, put almost everything on our cards, and pay in full each month.  In most months we spend much less than we earn so when a need for a major purchase arises we are in a position to do it right away and pay the bill when it comes out of savings.  As a result all my cards report balances every month, but the amounts of those balances bounce around quite a lot.  My credit limits are quite high, so even when I've made a major purchase my percentage utilization nearly always stays below 10%.  Result of this credit pattern in FICO terms: my EX was always my highest score and showed very little fluctuation, my TU is always my lowest score, and my EQ bounces around in the range between my TU and my EX score.  Since the FAKO scores from the EX triple report product are all computed by the same formula, those scores are useless for following such differences in FICO scores.

Message Edited by MattH on 02-22-2009 08:04 AM

[Junejer]

There is absolutely ZERO correlation between FICO and the PlusScore, Vantage Score or any other FAKO. The algorithms are completely different, therefore, you can't say that there is a 10 point spread or something on average. Far and away, the majority of lenders use FICOs. That's what you should concentrate on as well.

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kjm79 wrote:

Okay, because I've been working like crazy in improving my scores I just went and purchased all three of my CR's from the Evil Exeperian site.  My Scores from there are as follows:

EX Plus = 690

EQ Plus = 692

TU Plus = 689

Scores from MyFico 

EX = 639 (2-13-09)

EQ = 676

TU = 700

Now these scores are much more close in range than the ones from MyFico site.  I'm ecstatic about the EX score - nearly 50 points higher (but is this a true fico score?  Or how much could it really by off?)  My EQ score is higher as well, almost 20 points, and then TU which was 700 (my highest) on MyFico is the lowest of all on Experians site.  Their reports are awful to read, I can't find a code or legend that deciphers all their symbols.  I signed up for the free 7day TripleAdvantage Trial.  But if they aren't true FICO's I'm gonna cancel it before I'm charged.  Anyone know how the scores compare?

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[kjm79]

Thanks ByrdMan.  I've been using MyFico's site for a while now and have been able to raise my score with all the help on these forums (I'm addicted to it now).  I've been working really hard on bringing them up even more.  When experian decided to not share anymore I was a little worried about how to tell if my efforts were paying off on the Experian report (which just happens to be the lowest). So really, Iguess the only thing I can do is watch my report and make sure that everything is reporting correctly and not stress so much about the score from their site.  Thanks for the letting me know those are FAKO's, I of some but wasn't sure since this was from Experians site.  I'll cancel the free trial before they charge me.  Thanks again!