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Help me understand the huge discrepancy between my FICO scores from different companies?

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alexsmith
New Visitor

Help me understand the huge discrepancy between my FICO scores from different companies?

Hi all, my fiancée and I recently applied for a home loan, and while we were approved, my FICO scores were confusing to me. Equifax had me at 779, TransUnion at 775, and Experian at 650.

A dozen or few dozen point discrepancy wouldn't stand out to me, but well over 100 points??? Especially since I have an account with Experian, and their estimated score for me is 788.

My fiancée did not have this discrepancy, with all her scores coming in within 10 points in the 760s.

Should I be worried about this? Should I be looking for an illegitimate account or something?

Message 1 of 7
6 REPLIES 6
GZG
Senior Contributor

Re: Help me understand the huge discrepancy between my FICO scores from different companies?


@alexsmith wrote:

Hi all, my fiancée and I recently applied for a home loan, and while we were approved, my FICO scores were confusing to me. Equifax had me at 779, TransUnion at 775, and Experian at 650.

A dozen or few dozen point discrepancy wouldn't stand out to me, but well over 100 points??? Especially since I have an account with Experian, and their estimated score for me is 788.

My fiancée did not have this discrepancy, with all her scores coming in within 10 points in the 760s.

Should I be worried about this? Should I be looking for an illegitimate account or something?


feels like a collection on experian, pull your official report here and make an account directly with experian 

Starting FICO 8:
Current FICO 8:



4/6, 4/12, 8/24 new accounts
Message 2 of 7
JoeRockhead
Community Leader
Super Contributor

Re: Help me understand the huge discrepancy between my FICO scores from different companies?

Aside from the obvious that they are three different (older) scoring models. In addition to an old unpaid collection etc... the other adverse information that has the ability to suppress mortgage scores by maintaining a hefty sting the entire time (7 years) they are on your reports, would be late payments (even old ones). The more severe the late, the more the sting.

 

Another factor that can suppress mortgage scores is regardless of low utilization, having too many of your revolving accounts reporting balances (no matter how low) can be scored harshly on mortgage scores.

 

I'd agree to check your reports with Annual Credit Report as suggested above to look for these items, and any other discrepancies. 

Message 3 of 7
SouthJamaica
Mega Contributor

Re: Help me understand the huge discrepancy between my FICO scores from different companies?


@alexsmith wrote:

Hi all, my fiancée and I recently applied for a home loan, and while we were approved, my FICO scores were confusing to me. Equifax had me at 779, TransUnion at 775, and Experian at 650.

A dozen or few dozen point discrepancy wouldn't stand out to me, but well over 100 points??? Especially since I have an account with Experian, and their estimated score for me is 788.

My fiancée did not have this discrepancy, with all her scores coming in within 10 points in the 760s.

Should I be worried about this? Should I be looking for an illegitimate account or something?


Yes. That size discrepancy is not normal, so you should be scouring your Experian report to find out what is in that report that is inaccurate.


Total revolving limits 569520 (505320 reporting) FICO 8: EQ 689 TU 691 EX 682




Message 4 of 7
Thomas_Thumb
Senior Contributor

Re: Help me understand the huge discrepancy between my FICO scores from different companies?


@alexsmith wrote:

Hi all, my fiancée and I recently applied for a home loan, and while we were approved, my FICO scores were confusing to me. Equifax had me at 779, TransUnion at 775, and Experian at 650.

A dozen or few dozen point discrepancy wouldn't stand out to me, but well over 100 points??? Especially since I have an account with Experian, and their estimated score for me is 788.


It looks like Experian has some serious dirt on you that the other 2 credit bureaus don't. A charge off and/collection?

Also Experian uses a older Fico 98 which looks a B/HB on AMEX charge cards. The other 2 CBs use Fico 04 which ignores npsl charge card utilization. So, if you have an AMEX reporting a balance= high balance, it could drop EX score but, likely no more than 30 points.

 

Get credit reports from all 3 CBs and look for presence of or differences in derogatories.

 

P.S. since the.middle "mortgage" score is used for loans, your EX outlier should not be hurting you.

Fico 9: .......EQ 850 TU 850 EX 850
Fico 8: .......EQ 850 TU 850 EX 850
Fico 4 .....:. EQ 809 TU 823 EX 830 EX Fico 98: 842
Fico 8 BC:. EQ 892 TU 900 EX 900
Fico 8 AU:. EQ 887 TU 897 EX 899
Fico 4 BC:. EQ 826 TU 858, EX Fico 98 BC: 870
Fico 4 AU:. EQ 831 TU 872, EX Fico 98 AU: 861
VS 3.0:...... EQ 835 TU 835 EX 835
CBIS: ........EQ LN Auto 940 EQ LN Home 870 TU Auto 902 TU Home 950
Message 5 of 7
FlaDude
Valued Contributor

Re: Help me understand the huge discrepancy between my FICO scores from different companies?


@alexsmith wrote:

Especially since I have an account with Experian, and their estimated score for me is 788.

 


There are many versions of FICO scores, the Experian site is probably showing version 8. Mortgage lenders use older FICO score models which can be somewhat different. It might be worth paying for your scores at least once to see all of your score versions from all three CBs.

Scores: March 21 FICO 8: EX 810, TU 808, EQ 813
AoOA: closed: 40 years, open: 30 years; AAoA: 14 years
Amex Gold, Amex Blue, Amex ED, Amex Delta Blue, Amex Hilton Surpass, BoA Platinum Plus, Chase Freedom Unlimited, Chase Amazon, Chase CSP, Chase United Explorer, Citi AA, Sync Lowes, total CL 203k
Message 6 of 7
FicoMike0
Valued Contributor

Re: Help me understand the huge discrepancy between my FICO scores from different companies?

You can get a 7day free trial at credit.com.

 

Message 7 of 7
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