TransUnion Score Drop 15 points With No Changes!

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

Ok, so I had 16 inquires to come off of my credit report last week score went to 600. Logged in and updated today and my score has dropped 15 points overnight  with No changes. I have scanned through my credit report checking each account to see if anything reported within the last 3 days and nothing. No collections and no public records. There was not 1 update and since I have the TransUnion Plus I received no alerts about a change neither. Anyone would happen to know what may have occured or has this occured to anyone else? Just weird.

[Anonymous]

Something must have changed since your score change.  The inquiries should be a non-factor.  While they are on your report for 2 years, they only impact score for 1 year so you should not get any score gain at all when they come off your report (as they stopped impacting your score a year prior).

What is the source you are using to track your score?

[Anonymous]

Actually I got a 12 point change that resulted in my score going up when the inquiries were removed. I have Transunion Plus.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Actually I got a 12 point change that resulted in my score going up when the inquiries were removed. I have Transunion Plus.

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It's unclear to me what scoring model is used by TU Plus (probably the PLUS model, originally developed by Experian) but the scores are not FICO scores or even Vantage scores.  From the TU Plus FAQ:

"All Scores are not to be used to determine or grant credit in any manner. They are for educational purposes only."

https://www.transunionplus.com/learn-more/frequently-asked-questions.htm

Therefore it is conceivable that the TU Plus model does count all inquiries on a person's report, regardless of age, as FICO does not.

Kaykay would be best served by using a credit monitoring approach that uses a much more widely used model.  There are zero cost or ultralow cost approaches to this, which BBS and I will be happy to suggest.

[MugenCivicSi83]

Get rid of TU. Not a fan of them. Use myFICO or Experian website as they have the best FICO 8 results IMO. YMMV though.

[Anonymous]

I am absolutely open to new information.. i actually have Experian and Equifax as well. Are you suggesting using Experian for all 3 instead of paying $9 for each?

[Anonymous]

I have Experian as well.

[Revelate]

Transunion is explicitly not a FICO score.

The major providers I'm aware of (other than the free scores) would be:

MyFICO

CCT

Experian

Equifax

For actually getting FICO scores.  Different price points and features ot each, just depends what you want out of the monitoring service.  Transunion though, bleh.  

[MugenCivicSi83]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I am absolutely open to new information.. i actually have Experian and Equifax as well. Are you suggesting using Experian for all 3 instead of paying $9 for each?

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myFICO is great, albeit a little more pricey, but you get more peace of mind with myFICO. I also use Credit Check Total for their $1 trials and cancel every 5 days so i don't get auto-billed for the monthly fee. You can do unlimited $1 trials as long as you cancel before the 7 day trial is up. I had TU, but cancelled it completely...not a fan AT ALL.

[Anonymous]

Hello KayKay.  We can best advise you if we know what it is that you are looking for.

There's basically three things to consider:

    * Cost

    * Convenience

    * Comprehensiveness

Depending on what's most important to you we can suggest an approach.

If cost is the biggest concern, we can hook you up with a bunch of free tools that will get you monthly credit reports (all three bureaus), a free monthly FICO 8 score drawn on Experian data, weekly Vantage scores, and then perhaps adding $2 a year for signing up with CCT twice a year for their $1 trial.  Over time you will eventually get free FICO scores with your credit cards.

If convenience is more important (with cost a possible 2nd), a lot of people like CCT (Credit Check Total).  You can get a $15/month membership there, which will give you a monthly 3-bureau credit report, monthly FICO 8 scores (all three bureaus), and daily Experian FICO 8 scores.  The "convenience" aspect is that it will just be one website, a kind of One Stop Shop for you.

If comprehensiveness is most important, I don't know of a better choice than myFICO.  It will give you almost every shade of FICO score out there, including your Auto-Enhanced scores, Bankcard-Enhanced scores, and Mortgage Scores.  But my advice before you immediately jump to that is to to think through WHY you want all those scores.  If you are just trying to generally improve your scores over time (e.g. you don't need to know your exact mortgage scores) then my personal take is that MF costs more than you'd need.  The zero-cost or convenience approaches would be better in that event.