FICO vs. FAKO - Truecredit

[Anonymous]

On another unrelated post I was told that True Credit gives only FAKO (fake FICO scores).  I really don't want to believe that because you'll see the difference between the FICO that MyFico reports and the FICO that TrueCredit reports.

I have been told that MyFico is the official score and TrueCredit is an estimate.  A couple questions then.

1.  What FICO do lenders see?

2.  Truecredit is owned by TransUnion.  Why would my TU score be so drastically different?  It doesn't make sense.

I know this may not be a PC inquiry to make on this board considering where it's housed, but it was brought up in another conversation and appears to be worthy of discussing.

[marty56]

Most lenders use FICO scores or some version varient of it.  TU and EX would love people to use their versions of credit scores but for the most part that hasnt happend as of yet.

There really isnt any way to compare your FICO with a FAKO and you cant even conclude the more modest conculsion that a change in a FAKO score would imply and change in your FICO score.

[Anonymous]

Maybe they should change their name to FalseCredit?

[Anonymous]

Both EX and TU should not be allowed to call these "credit scores" since they are making millions on consumer ignorance.   Since they use roughly the same score range scale as the real FICO scores (i.e. 300-850), the average consumer assumes their scores are the same as FICO's.

As much as us a bit more experienced users submit posts saying "the only real scores are FICO's and you can only get those from myFICO.com", these "trucredit" and "freecreditreport.com" ads fill the airwaves and sucker in so many consumers to thinking that these scores are real.

What needs to happen is that either they need to use a different scoring range, i.e. the range they use for VantageScores (501-990), or they need to clearly state that these are their own proprietary scores that "may not be the scores used by lenders".  Because, clearly, no lender uses these.

[haulingthescoreup]

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@Anonymous wrote:

On another unrelated post I was told that True Credit gives only FAKO (fake FICO scores).  I really don't want to believe that because you'll see the difference between the FICO that MyFico reports and the FICO that TrueCredit reports.

I have been told that MyFico is the official score and TrueCredit is an estimate.  A couple questions then.

1.  What FICO do lenders see?

2.  Truecredit is owned by TransUnion.  Why would my TU score be so drastically different?  It doesn't make sense.

I know this may not be a PC inquiry to make on this board considering where it's housed, but it was brought up in another conversation and appears to be worthy of discussing.

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I can't access my reports right now, but go look at your TrueCredit score page, and slide down to the very, very bottom. Squint at the teensy print in very pale grey, and you will see where they admit that the TransUnion Trans Something scores are NOT FICO scores.

And they aren't. They're not estimates, either. TU cooked up its own scoring formula and runs all three of your credit reports through it to generate these scores.

That's why we call them FAKO's.

[Anonymous]

There's actually nothing wrong with what the other companies are doing. Fair Isaac has no exclusive right to offer credit scores. Competition is what keeps the quality of products improving. Now they have no right to state or imply that their scores are FICO scores, because that term is trademarked by Fair Isaac. In that same vein, I can start a restaurant selling hamburgers and french fries, no problem. But if I put some golden arches in front of it, call it McBenjamins, and have Big Macs on the menu, I'm going to be hearing from Mickey Dee's legal team, and that right quickly.

For now, Fair Isaac is the industry standard. The other scores may in fact be valid predictors of risk, but since they are not used by most lenders, their value to the consumer is very limited, and consumers should only use them as "canaries in the coal mine" to watch for significant changes to their credit reports.

[haulingthescoreup]

That's very true. I have no problem with non-FICO scores, as long as people realize that they're not going to really help them know if they qualify for a given CC, or loan, or mortgage.

And their scoring logic is different enough from FICO's that it can get tricky doing predictions. They react differently to various actions, and when I read some of the advice they give, it concerns me, because it appears that they sometimes reward behavior that hurts FICO's, and they punish behavior that helps FICO's.

I guess what really gets to me the most about these is that almost everyone who tracks their non-FICO credit scores eventually posts a anguished thread about their NF scores, and why don't they match their FICO's. And then we go through it all again.

. . . . . . . . .

Found the TrueCredit caveat that I mentioned above:

TrueLink is not connected in any way with Fair, Isaac and Company; the credit score provided here is not a so-called FICO score. The credit scores of TransUnion may not be identical in every respect to any consumer credit scores produced by any other company.

[Anonymous]

I actually cover this topic on my Web site linked to below.

[Anonymous]

But Hauling, that is the problem.  So many consumers are lead to believe (intentionally of course) by EX and TU that the scores they are buying from them are ones that lenders use.   While I know no one explicitly says this, that is the inference.

VERY misleading.  How many stories have we all heard where someone pulls a FAKO from EX, gets excited, goes to buy a car or apply for a cc and gets denied because their FICO is 50-70 points lower?

That, my friends, is misleading advertising.

[Anonymous]

And on top of that, the TU FAKO tends to artificially inflate its own value, and makes your EX & EQ FAKO look worse. I guess it's self promotion? Who knows, either way it's a big waste of money.