Why are fico 8 scores so much lower?

[SRT4kid93]

My f8 scores are significantly lower than all the others, what would cause this?

even f8 bank card is 50-75 points higher

[FicoMike0]

My fico9s are higher than fico8. Quick look, my

tu fico 8 is 808,

tu fico bank card 9 is 838.

The bank card is on a 250 to 900 scale, might make it a little higher.

Tu vs3 is 779, all my vs3s are lower than fico8s.  Credit karma seems to hit me on credit age, 1 y, 7m, and hps, 7. The age is a ck thing, they only include open accounts and they include 2 years of hps.

So, my fico8s are in the middle, well less than 50 points variance from other scores.

Overall, age metrics probably hurt me most, so maybe fico9 is easier there.

[SRT4kid93]

Interesting,

in my research all I could find is that fico 9 does not count nuisance collections, medical collections, etc. I wasn't able to find anything about fico 9 being easier on age metrics,

although that would make a lot of sense form my profile as well. Since most of accounts are younger, especially my revolvers. 

my vantage scores are 40-50 points higher than fico 8, but more or less on par with every other fico score model. 

kinda sucks that for me fico 8 are by far the lowest scores, but they're still the most used model. If chase and amex pulled my fico 9 instead of 8, who knows what my limits would be. 

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@SRT4kid93 wrote:

My f8 scores are significantly lower than all the others, what would cause this?

even f8 bank card is 50-75 points higher

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One metric that often depresses F8 score relative to F9 and F10 is presence of paid collections. F9/F10 ignores them regardless of amount. F8 counts paid collections against you if $100 or more. Not sure how VS3 treats them.

VS3 always considers AU accounts. F8 and F9 often do not but, perhaps one model looks at AU a little differently. Do you have a well aged AU account that is your oldest account? Does it have a high CL with low utilization?

[SRT4kid93]

Never had an AU account or collection on my report. So I'm thinking it must have to do with age metrics and fico 9 being more lenient against younger profiles? 

[FicoMike0]

Ditto @SRT4kid93 , I have no baddies either.

Myfico gives me exceptional except for credit history, 4 y 3m, very good and new credit, 9 months, good.

Another comparison, ex fico8 800, ex fico9 834. Fico8 just went down -4, New account, fico 9 from last month, well see if it tracks, update due 25th from wells.

[FicoMike0]

Another comparison. Myfico gives my

eq fico8 as 817 on 7/22/25

Penfed gives my

fico9 as 850 on 7/08/25.

I belive the penfed score is equifax, they don't say, anyone know? 

that's a 33 point delta vs 34 on ex, pretty close.

[SRT4kid93]

Well it's at least nice knowing other people are dealing with the same situation. I just can't figure out why we all have fico 8 scores that much lower than 9.

like I said 9 was designed to be more lenient in some areas, but it doesn't sound like any of those areas apply to us. 

not only this, but my fico 8 scores are by far the lowest out of all the models. 10, 10T, etc. they are all much higher than my 8 scores. 

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@SRT4kid93 wrote:

Never had an AU account or collection on my report. So I'm thinking it must have to do with age metrics and fico 9 being more lenient against younger profiles? 

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Do you have any open loans or closed loans on file? Also, what are your AoYRA, AAoA and AoOA and are they the same across all 3 CRAs?

[SRT4kid93]

Closed car loan. 

age metrics are the same on Experian and TU but different on equifax

metrics as follows 

exp and TU- oldest account 8 years, youngest acct 1 month, average age 2 years 3 months. Age of oldest revolver 1 year 10 months. 

equifax- oldest account 1 year 10 months Average age 10 months, youngest account 1 month