@Bluerain wrote:
@terren2000 wrote:Experian alwasy the highest.
Transunion always the lowest.
The exact opposite with me..go figure.
Same with me too. TU the highest and Experian lowest.
Starting Score: EQ=665,TU=618 on Oct 9,2010
@haulingthescoreup wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:I believe it all depends on what's being reported on each CRA. If you have a mortgage or personal loan it may only be reported to one of the CRA's and the score could be less due to DTI
Scoring doesn't consider DTI (debt-to-income), because your score reports don't include your income. (Thank goodness.)
A big factor in FICO scoring is your revolving utilization (util; reported balances divided by reported credit limits), which is different from DTI but frequently confused, but this doesn't include installment and mortgage balances. It's only revolving credit, generally meaning credit cards, lines of credit, and home equity lines of credit (not home equity loans.)
Installment util IS scored, meaning your loans and mortgage, but it's a relatively small factor in scoring.
However, it's very true that your scores will vary even more than usual if some accounts are on one report but not on the others. It can affect your length of history, your credit mix, presence or absence of negatives, util, all those goodies. This is true for any kind of account.
That's why it's so important to at some point pull all three reports, print them out, and go through them with a highlighter, comparing what is and is not on each report.
I agree with you 100%...the DTI really applies to Credit Issuers with the new CC laws basing only personal income not HHI for DTI 
To provide an example I tried to get a CLI on my discover card and spoke with an OPR who asked me a million questions to determine my DTI
That's very true. Scores ought to be just one factor in deciding whether to extend credit. Getting lazy and going strictly on scores got a lot of lenders in trouble over the last few years. 