Lender & myFICO giving me 2 drastically different transunion FICO score

[Anonymous]

Around the end of June, I applied to citi financial for a small signature (unsecured) loan. I applied a day after checking my FICO score on myFICO.com. According to myFICO.com, my transunion fico score was 716. I checked my updated score again today (1 month later) and I have a 709 Transunion FICO score. Anyways, according to citi bank (now known as One Main Financial), my transunion score was 660. Who's right?

I talked to the loan officer about the difference in scores and she told me that "all scores generated off the internet are estimates. Even myFICO is an estimate, they're just likely to be the closest" - Is this true? I was hoping I had an argument, thinking the difference in 50+ FICO points would likely reduce my interest rate. No luck though. I even called citi's headquarters and they too said their (citi's) transunion FICO scores are legitimate, it is not an "in-house" scoring model, it's a real Transunion FICO score.

After all this, I checked to see if anything changed within that 10-12 hours on my Transunion Credit Report. Literally, I checked my scores and the next morning I applied. I even contacted transunion to see if anything changed causing a 50+ FICO score drop. Nothing changed within that period, as all but 1 creditor reports within the first 15 days of each month. The other is around the 18-20th.

I'm wondering if myFICO is truly providing real FICO scores or is Citi Financial being dishonest about myFICO giving close estimates? To me, 50+ FICO points is so far off - it's really not a close estimate. I have a form where Citi states my Transunion FICO score (660). I'm more or less wondering who is right and who is being less than honest?

On a side note: my Experian Plus Score matched exactly to what Experian's website stated (750). This also added to my confusion about myFICO.com.

Any and all suggestions and/or help is greatly appreciated!

[llecs]

Welcome to the forums!

Assuming the report info was the same and assuming your lender pulled a FICO, then the difference would have to be caused by different FICO versions. For each of the three CRAs, there are different versions of FICO scores out there. Without going into great detail about each model, there are FICO scores that are Classic scores, as found on here and used by most mortgage lenders. Some use industry-specific models like an installment-enhanced FICO for those looking for a loan (possibility in this case), bankcard-enhanced, mortgage-enhanced, and so on. Then there are non-Classic scores out there too like NextGen FICO scores. Then within each model, as the economy changes and as improvements to FICO are made, there are different model years, for lack of a better term. Some lenders prefer to use models that are 15+ years old. There are some that prefer to use a newer models. It's all up to them based on what works best to mitigate risk.

In your case, assuming the lender pulled a FICO (some don't), they could have pulled a newer TU Classic vs. the older one on here. Maybe they pulled a non-classic score. Maybe they pulled the score geared for installment loans. You'd have to ask them what they pulled.

No, scores generated here and through lenders are not estimates. They are the real deal. I've applied for a mortgage and my EQ FICO matched (As did DW's). I applied for a loan and my TU FICO from here matched. If you look in mortgage loans, you'll see plenty of examples of the same scores being used.

The Experian PLUS score from experian.com is not a FICO score. It is a non-FICO score called a PLUS score. It's the same found in many services like freecreditreport, creditchecktotal, and many others. Ignore this score because lenders don't use it. Unfortunately a couple of years ago, Experian has blocked consumer access to your Experian FICO score and is very difficult to get.

[Booner72]

Your EQ score should match exactly from the MYFICO EQ score but the TU score they used is not a lie.  The TU score here is an outdated modedl (TU98) and almost all mortgage lenders use TU04.  They are drastically different. 

[GregB]

The chances are very good that your loan officer has no clue about this field. If she really said  "all scores generated off the internet are estimates. Even myFICO is an estimate, they're just likely to be the closest" then she is either flat wrong or lying.

llecs explaination is very good.

Most people find out about the numerous different credit scores when applying for a mortgage. They are likely to get some FAKO from a website and then find out it is very different from the FICO scores that the lender pulled. In reality the most common perfect match of lender-pulled and consumer-pulled credit scores is the EQ FICO Beacon 5.0 that is provided here since almost all mortgage lenders use that version for their EQ score. The newer EQ FICO Beacon 9.0 does not seem to be common yet. There are Automotive Enhanced version of both and the 9.0 Automotive Enhanced seems to be used quite a bit. It is supposed to pick out 5-8% more defaults of the bottom 10% of automotive buyers but the really obvious way that you see it is when the large group of people that thought they had 800-810 show a higher score.

TU FICO Classic does not have one single score model that dominatest the mortgage market. The 1998 version used here seems to be less common than the 2004 version at this point. There is a later "Classic" version of a TU FICO as well as 12 more from TU that are Industry Specific. This makes it much less likely for your TU FICO from here to match one from a lender, particularly if it isn't for a mortgage.

The common TU FICO scores are still fairly close and a 50 point difference is extreme. Perhaps you have some substantial negatives that affect that one score. Best guess is that they pulled an Industry Specific TU FICO and that you have something that affects that score more than others.

I don't understand the reference to Experian Plus Score. That is a score offered by Experian from several different sources. I would expect any Experian Plus Score to match any other since they are the same score. Even Experian acknowledges that no lender uses it so I can't figure out what it matches.