Thanks R. I had dimly remembered that this issue had come up before: ACR report shows completely clean, but FICO 9 reason statement clearly implies presence of serious derog.
To our OP: If a conversation with Navy and PenFed (from the FICO 9 angle) and with Equifax (from the credit report angle) gets you nowhere, here's another option. Sign up for the myFICO Ultimate product ($30/mo version). See what the 3B report says (presumably no derogs) and also what the FICO 9 scores say. If the FICO 9 scores have no reason states implying the existence of derogs, then it must be some weird Navy/PenFed thing. If the scores do imply derogs, contact myFICO customer service. You have good grounds for them continuing to work on this until they can figure it out, since you are a customer ($30/mo) who has purchased a product that gives contradictory information.
Here are the steps I would take if I were you.
(1) Call Equifax. Explain situation and ask if they can shed any light. Remind them that both PenFed and Navy's FICO 9 scores baldly state that you have serious derogs.
(2) Assuming EQ confirms after research that you have zero derogs of any kind, contact Navy and Penfed. They will try to deflect the question to EQ, but you will have already called EQ so you can tell Navy and PF that EQ has confirmed that they are zero derogs. Also relevant is that you have pulled your FICO 8 scores which are extremely high and state that there are no derogs.
(3) Assuming no solution from EQ, Navy, and PF, sign up for the myFICO Ultimate and try that route.
As always, be polite and friendly with all the customer service reps you speak with, from any of those four groups, even if you reach someone who seems uncooperative or who seems to know little about scoring/reports. (You can always repeat the call with the hope if reaching someone better the bext day.) And be sure to call between 10 am and 4 pm Eastern Time on a regular business day (no holidays, no weekends) -- that increases the chance of getting a person who knows what he/she is talking about.
Keep us posted on what you discover!
PS. One final thought. Go into this is a relaxed way. The most important thing is (a) confirming that you have no true derogs of any kind on the report and (b) that your FICO 8 scores imply no derogs of any kind and are quite high. Both seem almost certain at this point. Most lenders are not using FICO 9 yet, and even in 2020 you will still be able to find many lenders using FICO 8 or earlier. And if this is a bug in FICO 9, the folks at FICO may well have fixed it in the next 6-12 months anyway.
