What the heck is Equifax doing?

[MissExcellentCredit]

OK - Somebody PLEASE advise!!!  My lender pulled a score from Equifax that was nothing close to the score MYFICO said I currently have at Equifax!!!!  What's up????  I knew about Experian offering their own scores, but now Equifax????  So is MYFICO good for any accurate scores besides TransUnion anymore?  I applied for a card and thought I'd be approved since MYFICO said my Equifax score was 702. I was denied.  Denied because the lender graciously told me that they used the score from Equifax.  What? (The score from Equifax was 653 by the way)  I didn't know Equifax had their own scoring system now.  I thought it was only Experian.  So where in the heck am I supposed to get my true scores from now?  And which IS the true score?  If lenders are using the scores that Equifax and Experian come up with instead of the widely known FICO, then...what to do?????  Why all this confusion?  I'm having enough challenges just trying to improve my score!

I guess you can tell I'm upset. I'm just frustrated with all these changes.  Seems to me like the CRA's just found a sneaky way to make some extra cash.  Someone please advise on which scores to get.  Do I need to get the monitoring directly from Equifax now?  It would be great if MYFICO started offering all the crazy scores these bureau's are making up.  Because if FICO is the authority, they need to STAY the authority and tell these other guys where to sit down.  Enough confusion already.  I would rather have never applied for a balance transfer card if I had known I would be denied because the lender pulled a score from Equifax's made-up scoring system instead of FICO!

Thanks.

[MissExcellentCredit]

I also want to add that I read somewhere in this forum that lenders don't use the scores Equifax comes up with in their own scoring system to determine credit.  Uhhhh, excuse me?  When I applied for my card, the lender told me they used the score from Equifax's scoring system to determine my loan.  Again, the Equifax score was 653 and the one from MYFICO is 702.  The lender was a credit union. 

I'd really appreciate some input on my post above and this one.  Thanks.

[llecs]

Ask them for specifics on the score (e.g. the exact name or version). Maybe it was a bankcard-enhanced FICO? Some use it. Another possibility is a score change? Scores can change daily. If it were me, I would burn an EQ FICO to be sure.

ETA...yes, EQ has their own FAKO via their website.

[MissExcellentCredit]

What is a bankcard enhanced FICO?

[llecs]

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@MissExcellentCredit wrote:

What is a bankcard enhanced FICO?

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It weighs your past CC and revolving experience over all else, while still including your installment history and baddies to a lesser extent. I'm certainly not saying this is the answer, but always a possibility. If you pulled your EQ FICO the exact same day as your lender and your lender says that the score they pulled was a FICO, then this is a very possible answer. However, of the rare times I talked to my lenders prior to pulling a report, they've always pulled the same as on here.

[vanillabean]

I wandered through this fair the other day, with plenty of booths and other festive stuff. One booth was a credit union, with lines that were really long. Another booth was one of the big banks, but three eager representatives could not bring about even one visitor. I thought that was very funny (or maybe it was the mousepads the CU gave out).

Anyway, I looked up the CU on the web, and a page stated that they use industry variants of EQ FICO that may differ somewhat from the scores available to consumers. So at least they say it, and that's a good thing. Of course it makes me wonder if PSECU uses an industry variant of the EX FICO (I have always assumed it's the consumer version).

[llecs]

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@Anonymous-own-fico wrote:

Of course it makes me wonder if PSECU uses an industry variant of the EX FICO (I have always assumed it's the consumer version).

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I've seen some posts in here where the PSECU score matched a lender's EX FICO. I've also seen some other posts confirming that it was a v2 score which matched the old EX FICO in here, when we had it. Though I know for sure other CUs and banks used a non-classic FICO, like NextGen, as part of their scoring.

[Anonymous]

I've had an account with Digital Credit Union for years.  They always have used the Equifax Fico98 score for lending.  However, the FICO they post each month on my account is a "soft" pull and somehow they look at my activity in their scoring.  So the monthly FICO score DCU provides is NOT a FICO score and they use the Equifax FICO that uses I think its Beacon98.  All I know is my FICO for Equifax is different on my DCU monthly statement, different from a DCU loan I took out last year that was different from the mortgage TriMerge. My broker explained to me that there are several formulas for FICO, yet they are all FICO scores.  Maybe one of the moderators here can explain it. 

[Anonymous]

llecs is correct here, and I would go a step further by saying that I have never encountered an installment loan institution that uses the plain jane FICO.  That's worked to my advantage, truth be told - I have over 8 auto loans paid and never late on my credit report currently.   As a result the score they pull is actually higher than the FICO score, because they were weighing more heavily on auto loan history than everything else.  Mortgage loans, to my knowledge, frequently do the same thing - there isn't as much weight put towards credit card history as installment history and general payment activity.

Credit cards, on the other hand, seem to just use the boilerplate FICO scores, but get butthurt on the smallest of infractions.  Risk obsessive, I call them.  My credit union is the only exception; they look at your credit card history as more important than everything else, which got me a good card with them since I have over 30 credit cards in my history with not one missed payment.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

llecs is correct here, and I would go a step further by saying that I have never encountered an installment loan institution that uses the plain jane FICO.  That's worked to my advantage, truth be told - I have over 8 auto loans paid and never late on my credit report currently.   As a result the score they pull is actually higher than the FICO score, because they were weighing more heavily on auto loan history than everything else.  Mortgage loans, to my knowledge, frequently do the same thing - there isn't as much weight put towards credit card history as installment history and general payment activity.

Credit cards, on the other hand, seem to just use the boilerplate FICO scores, but get butthurt on the smallest of infractions.  Risk obsessive, I call them.  My credit union is the only exception; they look at your credit card history as more important than everything else, which got me a good card with them since I have over 30 credit cards in my history with not one missed payment.

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Which EX FICO does your credit union use?  DCU provides free EX FICO end of each month that is different than the EX FICO that they use for loans which is different than the EX FICO my I asked my mortgage brokerto pull on trimerge - all same day...I've questioned for some time the differing FICO scores that seem to be used and who utilizes which.  .