Which are the real SCORES?

[Anonymous]

Hello All,

I wanted to know if anyone know what is the real credit scores for some of the credit scoring agency. I used TRUCREDIT, IDENTITY GUARD and EQUIFAX. Here were my scores. Only ordered 1 score for EQ. My question is which of the three is the correct score??? And how are you to know what agency the lender may use? Thank You

TRU-CRED          IDENT-GUARD               EQUIFAX

677-TU                   624-TU                            679-EQ

704-EX                   633-EQ

705-EQ                  669-EX

[crivas21]

most lenders use my fico scores and you can buy then here at my fico or transunioncs.com for tu or equifax.com for equifax.as to how to know which lender pulls who.you can always ask that specific lender who they pull before you apply for credit.so in this case your real fico here is from equifax.

[Anonymous]

Thank You for the Information.

[RobertEG]

In actuality, there is no such think as a "real" credit score.

The relevant credit score depends upon which score the prospctive lendors decide to purchase and use in msking their credit decisions.  A vast majortity of lendors use scores purchased under license from Fair Isaac, and thus FICO scores are usually the most important.

The CRAs, and some other vendors, offer scores based on their own scoring algorithms, and these are frequently, and derisively, called "FAKO" scores.  There is not anything fake about them.  They are only, for the most part, less relevant in actual creditor use, and thus decision making.

A score, for example, that is labeled as "TU score" only means that the credit data in your TU credit file was the source of the data used by the scoring algorithm in generation its score.  It could be a FICO or non-FICO score.  So it is not accurate to simply refer to a "TU score."

Ask you lendor in advance what source they use for their credit score pulls.

[smallfry]

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@RobertEG wrote:

In actuality, there is no such think as a "real" credit score.

The relevant credit score depends upon which score the prospctive lendors decide to purchase and use in msking their credit decisions.  A vast majortity of lendors use scores purchased under license from Fair Isaac, and thus FICO scores are usually the most important.

The CRAs, and some other vendors, offer scores based on their own scoring algorithms, and these are frequently, and derisively, called "FAKO" scores.  There is not anything fake about them.  They are only, for the most part, less relevant in actual creditor use, and thus decision making.

A score, for example, that is labeled as "TU score" only means that the credit data in your TU credit file was the source of the data used by the scoring algorithm in generation its score.  It could be a FICO or non-FICO score.  So it is not accurate to simply refer to a "TU score."

Ask you lendor in advance what source they use for their credit score pulls.

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The EQ score we can buy here is the same EQ score a lender would pull for a mortgage isn't it? I know the TU score we get here is old but the EQ score is a current one correct?

[RobertEG]

Maybe, maybe not.  FICO alone vends a large number of flavors ot its scoring algorithms, based on the needs of the credit industry that pulls, and that licenses their algorithms.  They market general algorithms and industry-specific algorithms to specific markets such as auto and mortgage lendors.  Consumers dont have access to these industry-specific scores until they are first requested by the creditor, and then disclosed to you, after the fact.  So you cant tell up front what the speciic score will be.

[haulingthescoreup]

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@smallfry wrote:

The EQ score we can buy here is the same EQ score a lender would pull for a mortgage isn't it? I know the TU score we get here is old but the EQ score is a current one correct?

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Yes, in most cases, a mortgage lender will use Beacon 5.0 for the Equifax score, and what is sold here and on the Equifax site is the Beacon 5.0.

Of course, it's always possible that a lender would pull a different type of score. But FHA, etc., use Beacon 5.0.

[Anonymous]

I really am not sure how accurate myfico.com is.

I am new here so this may have been covered somewhere but I am lost.

I had signed up with freecreditreport.com. Yesterday I paid the extra to see all three scores which was:

TU 588

EX 585

EQ 577

Then saw an ad for freescore.com that includes all 3 bureaus for the same cost. In less than an hours time, I pulled my new ones here. They were:

TU 570

EX 520

EQ 563

I was freaked at the now even lower rates despite working to improve.

So i tried myfico.com got just one score of 570

I was so annoyed by the lack of anything consistant I went to the agencies directly.

I was not able to get into EX yet (password issue) but the other 2 are below.

TU 680

EQ 624

Now, for TU, that is a difference of 100 points!

This is not a difference of 5-10 points but the difference between bad and decent credit.

So, can I assume going directly to the agencies I am getting a valid score?

[haulingthescoreup]

Hi, welcome to the forums!

The problem is that these days, there are many different scores marketed to consumers, but very few are actually used by lenders.

What you got were what we call "FAKO's" --credit scores that look sort of like FICO scores (which are generally used by lenders), but aren't.

FAKO's are created by different formulas and are scored over different score ranges. They don't match each other, and they don't match FICO's.

FICO scores result from score formulas that were commissioned by each credit bureau. The EQ FICO score formula is different from the TU FICO score formula is different from the EX FICO score formula.

When someone buys a FICO score, the proceeds are split between FICO and the credit bureau.

At some point, the credit bureaus seem to have realized that most people don't know the difference between FICO's and FAKO's, and they started creating and selling their own FAKO scores, from which they can keep all the profit. The scores that you buy directly from the credit bureaus are now all FAKO's unfortunately. This has changed over the last several years.

The Equifax score that you buy here is your FICO score, industry name Beacon 5.0.

The TransUnion score that you buy here is your FICO 98 score, because that's all that TU lets myFICO sell. It's a FICO score, but most lenders now use TU04.

Experian stopped letting consumers buy our own scores from anywhere. One way around this is to join PSECU, and they will provide your previous month's EX FICO score on your statement.

At any rate, a long explanation for why none of your scores match.

eta: and sorry, the scores that you bought from the bureaus are FAKO's. Look down at the very bottom of any score that you get, and squint at the teeny tiny pale grey words. They have to tell you what kind of score it is, but they don't make it easy.

[Anonymous]

Thanks...

This is still confusing. Wish there was just one standard score. With this, depending on where that lender pulls, you could be declined or approved for a home loan.

We are talking about a 100 point difference in my case....