Variance between FICO and CRA reported score

[Anonymous]

myFICO tells me my Equifax score is 758, however when I get the score directly from Equifax it says the score is 700.  What's the deal with the difference?  Thanks!

[haulingthescoreup]

That is very odd, because Equifax is the only credit bureau (CRA) that sells you your FICO directly. (Well, there's a way to get the TU score, but it's not the regular TU website.) And so this really is one that you got directly from EQ, not one that was part of all three scores from a monitoring service like TrueCredit or something? (These scores are what we call FAKO's.) Does the EQ version say on there somewhere that it is a FICO score?

Anyway, how much of a gap in time was there between when you pulled your FICO version and when you pulled from EQ? Your best bet is to start by printing out the list of accounts for both and comparing them line by line. Look for changes in balance owed. Be sure to use the printable version option so that everything will expand.


edit: Meant to add, welcome to the forums! and tried to clarify the FAKO vs FICO issue a bit.

Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 03-05-2008 04:14 AM

[Anonymous]

Actually I did get it through TrueCredit and myFICO not direct from Equifax.   I guess I just assumed TrueCredit got it right from Equifax.  I didn't realize that the TrueCredit scores were unreliable and inconsistent(btw I like the FAKO).  So which is correct?  What numbers do the banks see?  I still can't believe there is such a difference! 

Thanks for your help!  I need to get a better understanding of this scoring system!   

[Anonymous]

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bdelfavero wrote:

So which is correct?  What numbers do the banks see?  I still can't believe there is such a difference! 

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90% of lenders use FICO.  0% of them use TrueCredit FAKOs.

[Anonymous]

HI bdelfavero , welcome to the forums.

One of THE most common points of confusion for every new person to the forum, is the difference between the scores that 90% lenders see(which is FICO or a variation of it), and the scores they get from a credit monitoring service, or indeed, the credit reporting agency(CRA) itself(which we call FAKO). With the exception of EQ(Equifax), as they publish true FICO scores.

It was certainly a shock for me! What purpose the FAKO scores serve, is still a mystery to me.

Hope that helps.

[Junejer]

There is such a difference, b/c the algorithms are not based on the same thing. FICO's algorithm is quite different from TC's (if they have one at all). Totally ignore any credit score that does not say that it is a FICO score. You can obtain a true FICO score from myfico.com (all three), directly from EQ (EQ only) and from transunioncs.com (TU only).

[Anonymous]

What purpose does selling FAKO scores serve?   Money in the CRA's pockets.  A waste of money at that.

[Junejer]

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@Anonymous wrote:

What purpose does selling FAKO scores serve?   Money in the CRA's pockets.  A waste of money at that.

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Ding ding ding ding ding ding.  You have just won the $64,000 question.  They know that people are becoming more credit conscious, so they have tapped into the, likely, multi-billion dollar industry to get paid.  That's why there are all of these cute little commercials popping (I'm thinking of a number) up about free credit report dot com, etc. (my favorite is when the kid buys the used Geo Metro).  Anyway, they always say credit score, not FICO score.  They fool millions with that one.

[Anonymous]

They certainly fool a lot of people. I think that each CRA tried to market the new credit score (PLUS, Vantage, etc...) to see if they could lock in certain lenders. Since that does not seem to be going very well, they are now marketing to consumers. That is just my opinion. In any case, I could not care less for FAKOs since they are often off by 30 to 50 points, which could be a difference between a medium to low risk consumer. I honestly just want to see what my lenders are relying on.

[Junejer]

Yep, it's garbage. My nephew and his mentor were bragging to me how mentor has an 881 credit score. I just applauded and congratulated him on breaking a new FICO record, by 38 points in this case. Of course, he was talking about a TU FAKO, which used a scale of 934. To get the avg person to see the difference between FICO and FAKO is like pulling teeth sometimes.