@Anonymous wrote:Hello everyone,
I'm needing to finance a new vehicle this weekend. I submitted a dispute on an item last night and received a notification overnight from my Equifax service that my score dropped 20 pts. Nothing has changed on my Equifax report at all except two (2) notifications day before yesterday that two (2) account balances had decreased.
My Equifax (always the lowest for some reason) in June was 661, I had (1) hard pull and it dropped to 650 in August, nothing new except the dispute submission and it drops 20 points overnight. This is freaking me out. Why on earth would this happen? Would the dispute have anything to do with it? This is a new dispute on the same account I disputed back in late May. I submitted new information for the dispute.
I submitted the same disputes on TransUnion and my score went from 713 yesterday to 715 ....overnight.
I am very confused. I can't go vehicle shopping with a 631 on Equifax.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Disputes do all sorts of wierd things to scores including partially or fully discounting tradelines from scoring. Let the disputes work through, then go shopping.
TBH though, depending where you live (or even not if you arrange financing beforehand) one bureau's being way lower doesn't really hamper your ability to get an auto loan.
@Anonymous wrote:Hi Revelate,
Thanks so much for posting. Live in the State of GA. I was thinking that an auto loan would most likely go with the lowest score or that even the stealership would most likely "only" use Equifax. I am planning on ordering my Fico scores but have been waiting until auto shopping begins. Pulling my Ficos myself doesn't impact my score correct?
I am just so shocked about my Equifax dropping like this overnight. I compared my report of today versus my reports from a week ago and there is absolutley no change except for balances decreasing.
The issue why i am freaking out is, my needing a new vehicle is for my work. So my hands are almost tied in waiting until a dispute goes through.
Dealers and auto lenders don't work like mortgages: they will only pull one report (possible exception of Capital One Auto Finance).
Pulling your own FICO's doesn't hurt your scores, and shopping with a number of autolenders doesn't either.
I would strongly recommend checking over in the Auto Loans forum and see about lenders who pull exclusively EX or TU and arrange financing through one of them beforehand; SDFCU I believe is one such who pulls EX only. Many of the usual auto loan suspects pull EQ (DCU / Penfed), but there will certainly be those which pull EX only. TU is a little harder. Also you could try a service like Lending Tree and let a number of lenders play, but either way if you're worried about financing arrange something before you walk into the dealership, and then you can always let the dealership try to beat it after you've negotiated the price of the car.
TBH, just focus on maintaining a pretty report and don't sweat the scores so much: a pretty report will result in a pretty score. With your TU / EX scores you can accomplish what you need... it'd help score-wise if you have the ability to pay down some of your credit card debt (or at least their reported balances) as it would be a boost to all of your scores. I still think something else is probably different, which explicit scores are you getting from where? Is the Equifax product Scorewatch or something else?
I know the algorithms don't make a lot of sense from a consumer perspective, but it's what we have to work with and it's miles better than what we had ~10 years ago where nobody had any real and convenient access to the report data or the scores.
Yes, I retieved it from EQ ScoreWatch paid membership. I just retrieved my FICO's from this site a few hours ago.
EQ Fico 8 656
EQ Auto 650
TU Fico 8 680
TU Auto Fico 679
EX Fico 8 668
EX Auto Fico 697
Tried my 1st online pre-approval and they approved for $59K they also used my EX Auto Score 
I sincerely agree that the scoring models are better than 10 years ago, that is for sure.
thank you, you have been great!
@Anonymous wrote:Yes, I retieved it from EQ ScoreWatch paid membership. I just retrieved my FICO's from this site a few hours ago.
EQ Fico 8 656
EQ Auto 650
TU Fico 8 680
TU Auto Fico 679
EX Fico 8 668
EX Auto Fico 697
Tried my 1st online pre-approval and they approved for $59K they also used my EX Auto Score
I sincerely agree that the scoring models are better than 10 years ago, that is for sure.
thank you, you have been great!
Hah winner! What rate did they offer you?