TU 30 points lower than EX and EQ...

Anonymous · ‎06-21-2017

I finally got my current EQ FICO 8 from Lenny this morning, 677 (which is a nice 18-point increase from the previous one I had from April). So my most recent FICO's are:

Experian - 678

Equifax - 677

Transunion - 646

(Vantage 3.0 are Experian 684, Equifax 693, Transunion 686, for the record.)

EX and EQ are almost identical, only a 1-point difference, but as of now TU is still 30+ points lower than either of the other two. The same open and closed accounts now show up on all three reports, and the account history is now correct on all three; there was a credit card included in my 2014 bankruptcy that hadn't been assigned a closing date, even though it appeared in the full description as having been included in the BK and closed by the grantor, so it was still appearing as "open - status unknown" or "open - derogatory" on TU with a $0 balance and throwing off the amount of my available revolving credit. I filed a dispute/correction request with TU last month and the mistake has now been repaired. About the only significant difference I see is that there are more hard inquiries on TU than on EX or EQ, since the majority of the lenders I've applied to in the past seven months have pulled TU.

Given the foregoing, the discrepancy between TU and the other two reports is still striking, and I wonder if there's a possibility that it will correct itself over the next few months to get more in line with EX and EQ. I don't expect all three to match exactly, which they rarely do; I'd be satisfied to see them all within 5-10 points of one another.

Anonymous · ‎06-21-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
I finally got my current EQ FICO 8 from Lenny this morning, 677 (which is a nice 18-point increase from the previous one I had from April). So my most recent FICO's are:

Experian - 678
Equifax - 677
Transunion - 646

(Vantage 3.0 are Experian 684, Equifax 693, Transunion 686, for the record.)

EX and EQ are almost identical, only a 1-point difference, but as of now TU is still 30+ points lower than either of the other two. The same open and closed accounts now show up on all three reports, and the account history is now correct on all three; there was a credit card included in my 2014 bankruptcy that hadn't been assigned a closing date, even though it appeared in the full description as having been included in the BK and closed by the grantor, so it was still appearing as "open - status unknown" or "open - derogatory" on TU with a $0 balance and throwing off the amount of my available revolving credit. I filed a dispute/correction request with TU last month and the mistake has now been repaired. About the only significant difference I see is that there are more hard inquiries on TU than on EX or EQ, since the majority of the lenders I've applied to in the past seven months have pulled TU.

Given the foregoing, the discrepancy between TU and the other two reports is still striking, and I wonder if there's a possibility that it will correct itself over the next few months to get more in line with EX and EQ. I don't expect all three to match exactly, which they rarely do; I'd be satisfied to see them all within 5-10 points of one another.

Having only a 5-10 point variance between your top score and bottom score using the same scoring model and same data doesn't happen all too often. Many people (probably 50%) report a variance of maybe 10-20 points between their top and bottom score. There are others that report 20-30 points. I think the biggest variance reported was 36 points where identical profile data was present.

Your 32 point variance is on the high end, but not out of the question with identical profile data. Your data, however, isn't identical by your own admission as you have more inquiries on the bureau with your lowest score, TU.

Focusing on those inquiries for minute, how many do you have on each bureau in the last year? Would you mind listing when they happened during the last year? Keep in mind inquiries are only scoreable for 1 year, so any that you have that are between 1 year old and 2 years old that are still present on your report need not be mentioned as they are no longer impacting your score.

Anonymous · ‎06-21-2017

Looking at the reports, I see:

Equifax- 3 hard inquiries since 12/27/2015, 2 from Cap 1 and one from Discover; the oldest, from Cap 1 on 12/27/2015, can be disregarded, so effectively 2 reports affecting this report (Cap 1 in February 2017, Discover in March 2017).

Experian - 5 hard inquiries since 12/27/2015. The oldest was from Cap 1 on 12/27/2015, so disregard. The next oldest is from USAA in July 2016, so that should become functionally irrelevant next month. This only leaves 3 inquiries, from Cap 1 (2/2017), Penfed (2/2017), and Discover (3/2017) that would actually affect this report.

Transunion - 4 hard inquiries within the past year (Sync/Amazon November 2016, Cap 1 February 2017, Sync/Walmart June 2017, Apple FCU June 2017). Same Cap 1 inquiry on 12/27/15 as the other two, disregard for scoring purposes since it's 18 months old.

I got my Overstock (Comenity) card via soft pull.

That would make the number of scoreable recent HP's EQ 2, EX 4 (to become 3 next month), TU 4.

Let's see. Disregarding the 12/27/15 Cap 1 HP, which is 18 months old and therefore can be disregarded;

Cap 1 unsecured (now QS) 2/17 - TU, EQ, EX

Discover IT 3/17 - EQ, EX

Amazon (Sync) 11/16 - TU

Walmart (Sync) 6/17 - TU

Apple FCU 6/17 - TU

USAA 7/16 (unsuccessful app) - EX; this can be disregarded for scoring purposes after next month

Penfed (car loan) 2/17 - EQ

Overstock (Comenity) 5/17 - no HP

Hope that clarifies. The account that was inaccurately reporting on the TU report, by the way, was a Chase Visa which had a $12,000 CL at the time of its closing and inclusion in BK in 2014. It was reporting as included in BK and closed by the grantor in the detailed entry, but no closing date had been entered which was causing it to inaccurately report in TU summaries as still being open. Now that it's been fixed, the closing date is reported as May 20, 2014.

Anonymous · ‎06-21-2017

I mean that's not a crazy amount of inquiries, but it's possible that having a couple this month on TU and another a few months back as well on TU pushed your score down a bit. It should rebound quickly. Before you took on the new accounts, were your scores more in line with one another, or have you always had a ~30 point variance between your TU and the other 2 scores?

Anonymous · ‎06-21-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
I mean that's not a crazy amount of inquiries, but it's possible that having a couple this month on TU and another a few months back as well on TU pushed your score down a bit. It should rebound quickly. Before you took on the new accounts, were your scores more in line with one another, or have you always had a ~30 point variance between your TU and the other 2 scores?

I've really only been tracking FICO and Vantage scores for the last 4-5 months or so, but I do remember that in early March (just after I'd taken on the Capital 1 unsecured Platinum and Penfed car loan, but before I took on the Discover and other CC's from 3/22 onward) TU was 627 and EX/EQ were in the 650-660's.

Anonymous · ‎06-21-2017

Have you obtained hard copies of your 3 credit reports? If not, I would suggest doing so and spending some time comparing them account by account. There's a strong possibility that something on the TU report differs from the other 2.

Anonymous · ‎06-21-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
Have you obtained hard copies of your 3 credit reports? If not, I would suggest doing so and spending some time comparing them account by account. There's a strong possibility that something on the TU report differs from the other 2.

I did, several months ago, when I got my free annual reports. I suppose I'll need to go to one of the subscription services.

Anonymous · ‎06-21-2017

Keep in mind that what you see from an online service is not always what you'll see from your real hard copy credit report. Many people have reported subtle and even major differences at times. If you call or write to each bureau individually and request a copy of your report you should be able to get them for free.

rmduhon · ‎06-21-2017

It could also be that TU hasn't updated an account (lower utilization for example) and the other 2 had.

Anonymous · ‎10-17-2017

I know this is a slightly old thread, but it is related to a question I have about TU, EQ, and EX score discrepancies. My TU took a hit about four months ago and has been consistently 50+ points below EQ and EX ever since. (Currently 701-EQ 652-TU 704-EX) I have no negatives. The only 2 differences looking at the hard copies side by side is that 1. TU is missing 5 zero balance revolving accounts that I closed from 1999-2008 that were all current, paid as agreed. So my AAoA on TU is 6 years compared to 13 for the other two; and 2. TU shows one inquiry from Nov 2016, and EQ and EX show zero HP inquires--although all three show that resulting new account. My low scores across all three are due to utilization, and all three are slowly and consistently rising as I pay the cards down. But this 50 point difference is stubbornly persisting. Is there anything to do about this? I'm in the garden so this isn't a concern for apps. But I'm mildly concerned about AA from my existing cards due to the TU score. I have gotten "please update income" notices from a number of my card providers, and my income had increased so this was not a problem. Thank you to anyone for answers.