Fico score range so large between two reporting credit agency

[FicoNoobiski]

Hi,

I'm new to this site and trying rebuild my credit.  I sign up for the quaterly watch and score watch and it suprised me quite frankly.

My Transunion score is a pathetic 525 and my Equifax is less pathetic 615.  Why such a big difference in the two?

[kjm79]

Compare the data in the two reports and see what's different between them, then come back and update your post.  TU seems to be pickier when it comes to utilization than EQ is one example of how they can be different. 

[FicoNoobiski]

The only difference big difference I see is that Transunion list me has having two in collections and one more credit inquiry than Equifax.  While Equifax has me at one collection and two credit inquiries.

Equifax however, shows more accounts with balance (these are all negative accounts).  And I have two public records with Transunion, while having three with Equifax, which really should just be two.

Which negative item factors more into the scoring?

[FicoNoobiski]

And if it help any, I got Vantage scores from Transunion and Experian and they were pretty much the same at 575.  I know they aren't the same as Fico.

[Revelate]

The penalties and bucketing portions of the algorithm aren't linear.  Going from 2->3 inquiries (it may be 3->4) is one possible breakpoint, as is 0, 1, or more than one collection... this second one AFAIK we're all less sure on but it stands to reason there's some variation there.  When you reach one of those magic numbers, your score can shift pretty substantially.... there's not incremental changes for every single inquiry, and don't appear to be for every single collection either in one's report.

Finally the EQ and TU FICO's here are different versions of the model; while I think the majority of disparity is simply that your TU report simply isn't as good, they do weight things somewhat differently.

[Anonymous]

uhm............. i got my 2 scores the same. 722 on both

[FicoNoobiski]

So fast foward 7 months.  Just recently I had about 5 baddies drop and the score change is just as ridiculous.  Transunion reports 130 points jump and Equifax reported a jump of 35 points.  But throughout the 7 months, my Equifax score had a more gradual increase while Transunion stayed pretty much the same.  Now, the two scores are just different from each other from 4 points.

Seems that Transunion was weighing my old baddies as recently missed late payments and docking me lots of points for that.  After the drop, it show no more late payments and good recent payment.  I only have one low limit secured credit card and utilization on that is has been pretty much zero.

Definitely the two reporting agencies are weighing the items very differently.

[GregB]

It probably has little to do with the two CRAs looking at the scoring differently. The TU FICO here is based on FICO 98 and the EQ FICO is based on the next generation, FICO 04.

[FicoNoobiski]

Oh no.  Just when I thought things were started to look like it worked itself out, even more confusion.

Would you happen to know which scoring system is used more frequently by lenders?  And which one is giving the better/worse score?

[llecs]

OP, I don't think it's a score issue as opposed to a report issue. What is different between the two report following the baddie drops?