Fico VS Faco and I'm still confused.

[Anonymous]

I am enrolled in WF's Identiy theft protection, it gives me all 3 scores every month.

Are the scores provided to me Fako scores?

The fico website says it gives you the fico scores for all 3 CB's, but I thought the Fico score was a number indepenant of the 3 CB's? 

[Anonymous]

I believe the WF scores are FAKOs.

A FICO score is calculated from information supplied by the CBs, but the scoring model itself is not supplied by the CBs.

FAKOs are simply alternative scoring models to FICO, of varying quality and origin.

The purpose of a scoring model is to predict future default risk, and some models do it better than others.

[Anonymous]

So what your saying is Fico is a true calcualtion of your score while other CB's products only estimate that score? 

[Anonymous]

If we want to get technical here, there are an infinite number of ways of mathematically calculating a score based on the information in a report.  FICO itself has multiple scoring models, and additionally there are a variety of FAKOs.

FICO has the reputation of being the standard, so effectively it's the "true" score.

It's also true that various creditors employ their own internal risk models.  Amex is an example.

[ecxpa]

Who knows really......I have credit report monitoring with all the legitimate CRA's as well as score watch.  All scores are different, TU 748' Exp 710, Eq 607, score watch 642.  I called BOA just now for reconsideration and was approved after getting denied earlier this week ...given a 1,000 limit card......the rep there said my fico was 714.    

[thom02099]

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Credit-Scoring-101-START-HERE/m-p/8169

In addition to the 49 or so different models of FICO scores, there's probably 100s of other scores out there of some sort.  The only scores that matter when seeking credit are the FICO scores.  Right or wrong, these scores dominate the credit industry.  Other scores can be useful to monitor trends in your credit journey, but when it comes to seeking credit, pay attention to what matters. 

[takeshi74]

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@Anonymous wrote:

The fico website says it gives you the fico scores for all 3 CB's, but I thought the Fico score was a number indepenant of the 3 CB's? 

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myFICO (site belongs to Fair Isaac/FICO and the FICO scoring model is their product) itself has some useful resources for educating yourself in addition to the forum.  If you look at:

http://www.myfico.com/CreditEducation/Articles/Default.aspx

...it states that FICO scoring is based on info in your credit reports and you have a FICO score for each of the 3 major credit bureaus.

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@ecxpa wrote:

Who knows really......   

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The forums here pretty much cover where one can obtain actual FICO scores and what scores are FAKO's.  However, as pointed out already, there are a number of FICO models in use and countless FAKO's out there which is why scores vary.

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@ecxpa wrote:

All scores are different,   

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Which is expected.  See also this sticky in the Understanding FICO Scoring subforum:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Difference-in-Scores/td-p/2384297

[pizzadude]

Moving to Understanding FICO scoring.....

[kkapdolee]

Here's what I learned about FAKO scores.

Unless they specifically mention the word "FICO", they are all FAKO.

They try to sell you scores saying it's "Your Credit Score". That almost 100% means FAKO. If they sell, FICO, they will proudly advertise.

[Walt_K]

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@Anonymous wrote:

If we want to get technical here, there are an infinite number of ways of mathematically calculating a score based on the information in a report.  FICO itself has multiple scoring models, and additionally there are a variety of FAKOs.

FICO has the reputation of being the standard, so effectively it's the "true" score.

It's also true that various creditors employ their own internal risk models.  Amex is an example.

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+1.  There's no such thing as a true score.  For example, it doesn't really matter if FICO or Vantage is correct about their risk prediction.  If you know that lender A uses FICO, you would want to know your FICO score (ideally including which version they were going to use).  If you know that lender B uses Vantage, you'd want to know that score.  

The fact is that most lenders use FICO.  That's why FICO is valuable separate and apart from whether it really is a good predictor of risk.  Of course, if it was a horrible predictor of risk, you wouldn't expect them to be successful at getting banks to pay for the product.  But we could take as a given that Vantage is 50% more accurate at predicting default and it's irrelevant for our purposes if lenders don't use Vantage.