TransUNion FICO Scores- Are there different versions?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi just wanted to say that On Myfico my scores are equifax:579 TU: 597 when the Lender pulled are reports, which i was very scared about cause these scores are very low.  She pulled them higher I was very surprised.  They use diff. scoring she said.  Everyone told me that my Equifax will not change or be lower by 10-30 points.  Mine went up 25 points and with TU it went up almost 40 points.  Experian went up about 17 points.  Experian is still by far my lowest.

So why did my scores go up so much when it seems like everyone's are going down with the new scoring system? 

Myfico:

equifax: 579

TU:       597

 Lender: equifax: 603

             TU:       640

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What date did you pull your scores from MyFico, and what date did the lender pull their scores? Who is the lender? What is the name of the scoring model listed on the report your lender pulled?

The vast majority of mortgage lenders pull Fico "classic" scores; however, there are some who pull scores based on other scoring models. There are other Fico score versions available to lenders, and there are non-Fico scoring models as well. Also, the information on your credit reports changes continually, and so scores pulled on different days can be different ... 

[MattH]

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@RobertEG wrote:

Also be aware that what YOU get, even if a true FICO score based on your TU credit report, may not even be the same as what a creditor gets.You only get your generic consumer score.

FICO also vends separate scoring algorithms to different creditors, such as auto, and mortgage based algorithms. 

There is no such thing as a single TU credit score, even if bearing the FICO copyright and moniker.

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From what I have read on FICO's web site, I gather they do try very hard to make all their scoring models comparable in terms of overall distributions so that a lender who is accustomed to using a certain cutoff with one version of their scoring model can keep using the same cutoff when switching models.

So if you pulled two different versions of FICO scores on a thousand people on the same day, you would expect to get very very similar percentages of those people falling in particular score ranges. But you might not expect any one person to come out exactly the same: one person might score a little higher with this version of the scoring model while another person might score a little higher with that version of the scoring model. It's sort of like when several different instructors teach sections of the same class at a college, and they don't want students to be penalized just because Professor A happens to be a tougher grader than Lecturer B (I once was one of those instructors, and I can assure you grading is always a pain, no matter how many meetings we had to agree on common standards it was never possible to be entirely consistent, never). The usual method is of course to grade on a curve (X percent get A, Y percent get B, and so forth).  Most of those getting A grades from one instructor would also have been given A grades from the others, but there will inevitably be a few students who come out near the bottom of the A range with one instructor but near the top of the B range for another instructor.  Such issues are inevitable, that's life.

As for whether FICO is selling what lenders use, their stated policy has been that when the majority of mortgage lenders have switched to a newer version then MYFICO will switch what they sell to a newer version. Barry, their official spokesperson who appears on these boards from time to time, has stated that right now a majority of mortgage lenders are using a newer version of the FICO model than what they sell here, so they probably will switch in the near future. I gather it's only recently been the case that most mortgage lenders are using the latest version, and I don't believe there has been any word yet on exactly when they will update what we purchase here. 

Since lenders can and do change their cutoff scores anyway (and recently due to the credit crunch mostly they have been raising cutoff scores), the sensible strategy for us consumers is work to keep our scores as high as possible anyway.  And most, though possibly not all, of the actions suggested for raising FICO scores also happen to be actions that make good sense from a financial planning perspective.  It has never been wise to run up high levels of credit card debt, fail to pay bills, etc.  It has always been wise to have credit available in case of need, manage use of available credit carefully, pay every bill on time, etc.  No matter how FICO tweaks their statistical models these basics will continue being true.

Message Edited by MattH on 10-11-2009 08:28 AM