FICO and Plus Scoring is such a weird art form.

[FicoScore626]

I pulled all three of the credit reports this morning and was both very pleasantly surprised by what I saw, a little disappointed, and just friggin confused..

October 26 was the last time I pulled my scores and they were:

Experian = 651 

Equifax  = 633

TransUnion = 622 

I was originally going to wait until this coming Friday to pull them again but I got really impatient this morning and went ahead and pulled them and got:

Experian =651

Equifax = 637

TransUnion = 643

What I found strange was that there were NO account changes in the Equifax and TransUnion reports but yet I received score bumps. The TransUnion score bump damm near floored me because I expected it to continue trailing Equifax, but unlike the minor 4 point score increase I got from Equifax, I received an impressive 21 point increase from TransUnion, and when it comes to account balances, both reports read the same.

My Equifax report does have 10 inquiries on it though while my TransUnion only has a total of 4.

Overall, my TransUnion report does paint a better credit picture than both my Experian and Equifax reports because it has a longer credit history for me, longer average age of accounts, and less negatives on it compared to the other two.

What I found confusing and a little disappointing was that my Experian Plus Score remained the same despite there being a few new changes since the last report. They reported the significant dent I made in paying back my student loan and they also reported that my Bloomindale's balance went from $50 to $0, but yet no score change at all? What the heck? My Revolving Credit Available went from 72% to 78% since the previous report and my Installment Debt went from $2,841.00 to $2,360.00.. In the previous report I had a total of 7 inquiries and I have a total of 8 in the current report. I can only wonder if that one single inquiry had anything to do with there being no score increase. Oh well, I should probably count my blessings that the score remained the same instead of dropping, lol..

Message Edited by FicoScore626 on 11-04-2009 08:08 AM

Message Edited by FicoScore626 on 11-04-2009 08:09 AM

Message Edited by FicoScore626 on 11-04-2009 08:11 AM

[llecs]

To clarify...the scores posted above are your PLUS scores, right? Was it from CCT?

I pull DW's CCT reports and scores about 6x/week. I've noticed they don't update the scores daily. Also noticed that PLUS' scoring formula is vastly different than FICO scoring, so much so, it appears they factor collections into your history or AAoA, collections factor into installment utilization, and inquiries are scored for the full 2 years. Thank goodness lenders don't use them.

[FicoScore626]

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@llecs wrote:

To clarify...the scores posted above are your PLUS scores, right? Was it from CCT?

I pull DW's CCT reports and scores about 6x/week. I've noticed they don't update the scores daily. Also noticed that PLUS' scoring formula is vastly different than FICO scoring, so much so, it appears they factor collections into your history or AAoA, collections factor into installment utilization, and inquiries are scored for the full 2 years. Thank goodness lenders don't use them.

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The only Plus Score was the Experian score. I got that from Freecreditreports dot com. I have an account with them. The Equifax and TransUnion scores I purchased from MyFico.com.. My Equifax and Experian reports have always been very similar, it's just weird that there were no account balance changes in the Equifax report and I got a score increase and yet there were a couple account balance changes in the Experian report and there was no score change. So far the only thing that stands out a little in the TransUnion and Equifax reports was that my last missed payments turned one year old. I don't know if that could have helped.

[haulingthescoreup]

Having the lates turn a year old should definitely have helped. Having 12 months of clean history is good for your scores, with 24 months being even better.

When it comes to PLUS scores, none of us have a clue how they work and how exactly they differ from FICO scoring formulas, so I don't have much to offer there, I'm afraid.

[Gibran]

Does anyone know the +/- range between Experian PLUS scores and an actual Experian score. My PLUS score on 10/17 was 605, I pulled another report today and it's up 649, so I'm just curious as to how close the PLUS and actual scores are. Thanks

10/17/09 - FICO - TU:660 EQ:603  10/17/09 - PLUS - EX:605
11/3/09 - FICO - TU:667 EQ:610 11/5/09 - PLUS - EX:649

[haulingthescoreup]

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Gibran wrote:

Does anyone know the +/- range between Experian PLUS scores and an actual Experian score. My PLUS score on 10/17 was 605, I pulled another report today and it's up 649, so I'm just curious as to how close the PLUS and actual scores are. Thanks

10/17/09 - FICO - TU:660 EQ:603  10/17/09 - PLUS - EX:605
11/3/09 - FICO - TU:667 EQ:610 11/5/09 - PLUS - EX:649

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It varies. Widely. By member. Within each member's history.

In other words, there ain't no telling.

[Anonymous]

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@Gibran wrote:

Does anyone know the +/- range between Experian PLUS scores and an actual Experian score. My PLUS score on 10/17 was 605, I pulled another report today and it's up 649, so I'm just curious as to how close the PLUS and actual scores are. Thanks

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Sorry Gibran, you're just gonna have to give it up. 

We pulled Experian PLUS scores right before our mortgage. 

DH's EXP PLUS was his high PLUS score at 762, his real EXP FICO score was by far his lowest at 690.  (That's a 72 point difference - and went from the EXP PLUS being his highest to the EXP FICO being the lowest - and a shocker!).

My EXP PLUS was my lowest PLUS score at 679, my real EXP FICO score was my middle at 720.  (That's a 41 point difference - and went from the EXP PLUS being the lowest to the EXP FICO being the middle).

You'll note that my FICO score is much nicer than my PLUS score.  Conversely, DH's PLUS score is much much nicer than his FICO score.  In both instances, they put us in quite different categories as far as lenders are concerned.

No patterns.  Nothing correlates.  It ain't in there.  When I pull CCT, and see PLUS score changes, there will be no FICO score changes; and vice versa.  It's like when I ask my daughter what my husband bought me for Christmas.  Her answer and reality are not even in the same universe.

[llecs]

And to add.....there was a time here that we could pull our EX FICO scores. At the same time I also had access to PLUS scores via CCT. I found that if FICO went up my PLUS would go down and vice-versa. There never was a pattern to it. Sometimes the points would match as close as 20 points and as far as 100 points when compared on the same day. My favorite example was, at the time, the removal of my last CA. My EX FICO naturally shot up 58 points. My EX PLUS dropped 8. Go figure.

[Gibran]

It sure would be nice if everything could be on the same page...and then you bring the vantage scoring into the picture...geesh!