No credit card required
Browse credit cards from a variety of issuers to see if there's a better card for you.
S'up, MyFico'ers.
Since I always check my scores via the free sites (Experian's main site and Credit Check Total) when something changes, I've noticed my inquiry pattern has been 100% consistent the last half dozen or so times I've gained or lost one. So at least for my profile, Experian values each inquiry at 5 points and Equifax values each inquiry at 1 point.
EQ and EX's DP's are nearly identical: Same AAoA, AofYA, AoOA, same baddie (one 30-day late that's a little over 5 years old), all the same accounts reporting all the same balances/utl percentages. BUT, with Experian I have 5 total inquires with 3 impacting the score and with Equifax I have 3 total inquiries with 2 impacting the score.
I've always wondered why my FICO 8 EQ was 12 points higher than my EX. Now I'm thinking it's the value of those inquiries -- EX simply weights them more.
Now, I know how it goes in Credit World -- there are no absolutes and different profiles may see different point gains/losses. But, I thought I'd share and see if anyone else was seeing the same values.
@Asilomar wrote:
...So at least for my profile, Experian values each inquiry at 5 points and Equifax values each inquiry at 1 point.
...
Now, I know how it goes in Credit World -- there are no absolutes and different profiles may see different point gains/losses. But, I thought I'd share and see if anyone else was seeing the same values.
Here on myFICO forums, where the majority have profiles with decent aging, that '5 points' or 'a few points' seems pretty common.
But for me, with only 1 account total on my file for a year ( credit builder loan ), my first inquiries at EX and EQ cost 19 and 20 points respectively. (Citi pulled both to approve me for a $6500 Visa Signature card, one of my first 2 cards ever.)
Over on reddit.com, where the demographic skews more toward late teens early 20's, they commonly reference inquiries costing 'between 10-20 points'. So here it's a big surprise, but there it's just a commonly known thing.
@Asilomar wrote:S'up, MyFico'ers.
Since I always check my scores via the free sites (Experian's main site and Credit Check Total) when something changes, I've noticed my inquiry pattern has been 100% consistent the last half dozen or so times I've gained or lost one. So at least for my profile, Experian values each inquiry at 5 points and Equifax values each inquiry at 1 point.
EQ and EX's DP's are nearly identical: Same AAoA, AofYA, AoOA, same baddie (one 30-day late that's a little over 5 years old), all the same accounts reporting all the same balances/utl percentages. BUT, with Experian I have 5 total inquires with 3 impacting the score and with Equifax I have 3 total inquiries with 2 impacting the score.
I've always wondered why my FICO 8 EQ was 12 points higher than my EX. Now I'm thinking it's the value of those inquiries -- EX simply weights them more.
Now, I know how it goes in Credit World -- there are no absolutes and different profiles may see different point gains/losses. But, I thought I'd share and see if anyone else was seeing the same values.
OK....Here is the issue I have with this....A) Inqueries do not have a set value, so the points an inquiry has is largely profile dependant, and often changes as the data in the report changes. B) The Fico 08 is alogorithm that is applied to the data in a persons credit report, and if the data entered is in fact identical, the fico 08 scores are suppose to be identical as well, so if in fact your score drops 5 points due to an inquiry at Experian, and the same exact data is entered from Equifax, the score drop should be 5 points there as well. It is like entering a math problem into calculators made by different manufacturers, 25/5 entered into both a panasonic calculator and one made by Texas Instruments will both return 5 as the answer. C) In nearly every case, the data at each CRA will be slightly different. Some Creditors do not report to all 3, and most inqueries do not pull from all 3 either, even though some do...talking to you Capital One...so coming to a conclusion about the actual realised point drop due to an inquiry based on an observation is not a reliable assumption. D) It is my understanding that even the employees at the CRA's do not know the actual code of the alogorithm as it is a closely guarded secret of FICO. Just as most of us have no idea how a calculator works, even though most of us do know how to use one. If however we accidentally enter 25/4 in one of them, it will result in a different answer, and likewise if the CRA enters some data wrong, the fico 08 score might differ.
The only difference on my CR is number of inq
TU has 3 scorable (755) , EX 2 (753) and EQ 0 (769)
🤷
CassieCard, thanks for sharing your DPs. I assumed different profiles would garner different point losses but I had no idea young/thin profiles like yours would see just a precipitous drop. 19/20 points is brutal. It's funny, I spend my time on the fasting/intermittent fasting subs on Reddit, it never occured to me to check out the credit boards.
Sarge, thanks for the schooling. For some reason I thought each individual CB weighted factors differently, as in their own proprietary algorithm. I have no idea why I thought that but after reading your primer I feel like a dope.
Also, when I said my EX and EQ were nearly identical I realized that was wrong on that, too. On closer inspection they differ just enough to (obviously) weight the same event (a new inquiry) differently. And, technically, Equifax is the stronger report of the two.
So again, thanks for taking the time to sort me out.
@NRB525 wrote:
OP what is the age of each of those INQ? In which month/year did each occur?
@Anonymous wrote:
Yes each CRA has certain tweaks they can make to the algorithm such as when you get dinged for number of accounts reporting and various other things there are small tweaks that can be made and have been made to the algorithm between bureaus. That’s the whole reason we do all the testing on each algorithm and on each bureau because there are differences.
So are you saying Sarge is incorrect? That EX and EQ do indeed weight inquires differently? Or you do think the 1 point / 5 point differential is due to the slight differences in the two reports?