Trying to understand...help appreciated!!

[Anonymous]

So I have been using Identity Guard through Costco to monitor my credit for quite some time. I have been working hard to repair credit damage done while I was in college/grad school approx 5-10 years ago. My credit from the 3 reporting agencies is currently 644 - 689. I recently obtained an auto loan and was approved through a credit union which I was very proud of. Currently my BOA account, Discover account and my CU account states my FICO score is 759 or thereabouts. Why the descrepancy? Which ones really matter. Am I "fair" or "very good"? That makes a big difference. I have pulled my credit reports and dont have anything more I can do to fix, I think just time and continuing to make my payments will increase my score but I would like to apply for a mortgage sometime in the near future and I don't know what to say. Does my credit stink or is it pretty darn good? Please help me to understand!!!

[sarge12]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So I have been using Identity Guard through Costco to monitor my credit for quite some time. I have been working hard to repair credit damage done while I was in college/grad school approx 5-10 years ago. My credit from the 3 reporting agencies is currently 644 - 689. I recently obtained an auto loan and was approved through a credit union which I was very proud of. Currently my BOA account, Discover account and my CU account states my FICO score is 759 or thereabouts. Why the descrepancy? Which ones really matter. Am I "fair" or "very good"? That makes a big difference. I have pulled my credit reports and dont have anything more I can do to fix, I think just time and continuing to make my payments will increase my score but I would like to apply for a mortgage sometime in the near future and I don't know what to say. Does my credit stink or is it pretty darn good? Please help me to understand!!!

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You say credit from 3 reporting agencies...what credit score was pulled? Was it even a fico score? There are many, many scoring models, but the discover pull is likely fico 08 from either TU or EX, depending on whether pulled from discover credit card or creditscorecard.com which is the free to everyone score provided by discover. Mortgage scores are going to be fico 02 from EX,  fico 04 from TU, and fico 05 from EQ. Fico 08 is the most used score for CC and installment loans, but fico bankcard 08 might be used as well. Fico Auto score 08 might be used for an auto loan. Like I say, there are many Fico scores, as well as Vantage 3.0, which is pretty much used by no lenders I'm aware of. If you find all this confusing...welcome to the club! A fico 3B pull will show 9-10 different fico scores used for each CRA under view additional fico score versions...28 total shown. 

[pipeguy]

From the Costco site:

Credit Reports and Updates

Complete ID gives you credit report access and updates, and we allow you to track your VantageScore over time.

The BoA, Discover, etc scores are true FICO and personally they match the scores I get on MyFico, Vantage Scores you can get for free using Credit Karma and are worthless as far as true scores. Credit Karma is just fine for checking account activity, but Vantage Scores are NOT used by most lenders (there may be a very few that use it). 

[sarge12]

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@pipeguy wrote:

From the Costco site:

Credit Reports and Updates

Complete ID gives you credit report access and updates, and we allow you to track your VantageScore over time.

The BoA, Discover, etc scores are true FICO and personally they match the scores I get on MyFico, Vantage Scores you can get for free using Credit Karma and are worthless as far as true scores. Credit Karma is just fine for checking account activity, but Vantage Scores are NOT used by most lenders (there may be a very few that use it). 

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It is important for the OP to understand, since his/her post specifically mentioned score concern for future mortgage, that the fico 08 score is not the true FICO that matters for a mortgage. That would be the fico 02, 04, and 05.

[Anonymous]

Good point from Sarge regarding the mortgage models.

I would say the best score that the OP has at the moment is the one through Discover, as that's definitely a FICO score.  As for the other scores they've received that are in the 600's, those may not be worthwhile.