No credit card required
Browse credit cards from a variety of issuers to see if there's a better card for you.
I have 2 recent FICO reports, one from Experian dated 3/4/14 with FICO 718 and one from Equifax four days later on 3/8/14 with FICO 733, both obtained through MyFico.
The two differ in the extent of accounts- Experian shows 27 total accounts, and Equifax 22 . Calculating values separately for each report, I get similar results for:
Oldest account: over 26 years old
Average age of accounts (aaoa): over 9 years
However, there is big difference between the two reports in the “understanding your score” section.
Experian says in what’s hurting your score :
You have a short credit history.
Your FICO® Score measures the age of your oldest account and the average age of your accounts. In your case, either your oldest account was opened recently or the average age of your accounts is relatively low….
Experian does not show the results of Oldest and aaoa in the summary
Equifax says in what’s helping your score:
You have an established credit history.
Your FICO® Score measures the age of your oldest account and the average age of your
accounts. Your FICO® Score was helped because you have a relatively long credit history and
you haven't recently opened many new accounts.
Equifax correctly notes that my oldest account is 26 years and 8 months old and the average age of accounts is 9 years.
Experian must have calculated something wrong. Does this calculation factor into my actual score? Should this be challenged?
Thanks
Sometimes the list of reasons provided with scores is less than helpful. I have found that there are always items listed that are hurting my score, no matter how high that score is.
I would analyze your actual report data with a critical eye, and not worry about the stated reasons.
Two big places to start are derogatories and utilization, and then look at age factors such as AAoA, along with the cost of inquiries and new accounts.
Thanks user5387
I searched through the Experian report one more time, and, except for their errant up front statement regarding AAOA, found nothing else wrong.
I will leave the statement alone with the hope that potential creditors either won't see the same statement, or will have the wisdom to ignore it.
Here is a link to help understand the FICO score reasons.
http://www.scoreinfo.org/FICO-Scores/Pages/Score-Factors.aspx
Some of the differences in the score reasons my be caused by the accounts that reported to Experian and not Equifax.
Hope this helps
Thanks AndySCal,
Interesting and helpful link indeed.
Still befuddled by XPN notes. The additional accounts shown by XPN are all older closed accounts without any derogatory or late indictors. So its hard to see how they would affect the AAoA in any negative way.
I’ve long since stopped trying to reconcile score diferences between the bureaus. But here , the difference 718 XPN, 733 EQ is probably due to Equifax dismissing some bad stuff that is almost 7 years old, and XPN not dismissing it, probably for a few more months until it is actually 7 years old to the month . TU still has me at 673. I don’t care about TU because everybody claims to be looking at the mid score, which is XPN.
I have lots of derogatory stuff in the last few years after a divorce.. Any bad stuff is now a year old and all paid as agreed. Not much I can do about those except keep paying and I am happy to be in the average range again. This more trivial problem only nags me because I know its not right.
I put out challenges whenever it is reasonable. But here I am only confused by the mischievous inattention to logic that goes behind the XPN summary comments.
So, my report here shows my Transunion score as close to 700 and I just got turned down for a personal loan for a score of 614 from Transunion. If I order my free report from them (based on the turn down), will it show other things that the one here doesn't? I also found the reasons given to be hinky, so I won't worry about them but am going to get the free one and see.
Has anyone else had this disparity?
@tavalon wrote:So, my report here shows my Transunion score as close to 700 and I just got turned down for a personal loan for a score of 614 from Transunion. If I order my free report from them (based on the turn down), will it show other things that the one here doesn't? I also found the reasons given to be hinky, so I won't worry about them but am going to get the free one and see.
Has anyone else had this disparity?
There are at least three prominent TU scoring models -- TU 98 (this site), TU 04, and TU 08.
It's also possible that the lender is using some internal variant of TU.
Different formulas applied to the same report data will yield different results.