Why are fico 8 scores so much lower?

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@SRT4kid93 wrote:

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

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Thanks.

If F9 views young files as less risky than F8, then F9 should penalize EQ less than F8. What are your classic F8 and F9 scores by credit bureau?

[SRT4kid93]

In my case it does,

F9 Equifax 778

F8 Equifax-748

F9 TU-742

F8 TU-694

F9 exp-743

F8 exp-700

[Thomas_Thumb]

Well, the data does not support the hypothesis that F9 penalizes less for young files. 

EQ9-TU9 = 36 whereas EQ8-TU8 = 54. if young age were more penalized on F8, I would EQ-TU to be less positive (or more negative) on F8 than F9. Furthermore, EQ9-EX9 = 35 while EQ8-EX8 = 48. This again suggests F8 is penalizing the young EQ file less than F9.

No idea why your EQ scores are so much higher than TU/EX unless the status of your loan is different or the old account not on EQ is reporting high utilization or the old account includes a late.

[Zoostation1]

@SRT4kid93 You said no baddie's but there's another comment last month where you said you have one 30 day late that's 3yrs old.  I think Fico 8 and 9 react fairly similarly to a single late (maybe 9 is a bit more severe but I'm not certain),  and by the time it hits 2yrs the penalty is much lower, but I would think that is still holding scores down 30-45pts on whichever bureau(s) it's reporting and will continue to do so till it's gone after 7.

For me, FICO 9 Bankcard is defnitely my highest at EQ 734 TU 742 EX 735.  10T, 9 , and 10 Bankcard are all well above my FICO 8 also.  I've got 2yrs 3 months till my reports are clean. Early in my rebuild I noticed FICO 8 had more of a higher floor from month to month changes in utilization, but a lower ceiling than FICO 9.  When I let 2/2 accounts report early on in my rebuild (was 1/2 prior) on FICO 8 I lost EQ9 -14, TU8 no change, EX8 -3, while FICO 9 was EQ9 -28, TU9 -35, EX9 -23.  Oddly, when I went back to 1/2 the next month with even lower individual and overall utilization reported, TU9 did not come back in full (only 29 of 35 pts came back and that defies everything I've learned on utilization having no memory - except for 10T and VS4.0).

[SRT4kid93]

Equifax is higher because it doesn't have the late payment. For some reason the credit union I used for my car loan did not report to Equifax, so for me Equifax is younger, but clean. 

the other 2 have a late payment suppressing score. 

I'm also now realizing that you are correct that the young profile has nothing to do with it, so I'm back to square 1. I have not found any data that suggests fico 9 is more lenient on late payments. Only on paid collections and such. 

exp and trans union are the bureaus with the late payment. And in both cases my fico 9 scores for those bureaus are 50-60 ish points higher compared to 8.

i suppose maybe fico 9 is just more lenient on late payments as well? But my late payment is over 3 years old at this point, so at this point I don't think the payment itself would suppress scores 50-60 points, so even if f9 was more lenient, I don't understand how it could be 50-60 points more lenient on such an old late. 

[Thomas_Thumb]

F9 does penalize less for new revolving credit than Fico 8. However, that can only account for half the difference you are seeing.

[Realist]

I'm happy to utilize the FICO 8 score.  FICO 9 almost seems like cheating.   Like grading on a scale.