It's important that you understand the difference between scoring models and credit reporting agencies. There are many different credit scoring models. FICO scores are the most commonly used, and the most commonly referred to FICO scoring model is FICO 08. Another commonly referenced scoring model is VantageScore 3.0, which is used by quite a few free monitoring software sites such as Credit Karma, Credit Sesame, etc. These scores while commonly provided are not commonly used by lenders, so VS 3.0 scores are considered far less valuable/important than FICO scores.
There are 3 major credit reporting agencies, or CRAs: Experian (EX), TransUnion (TU) and Equifax (EQ).
ALL scores (FICO 08, VS 3.0, etc) are going to be generated using the data held by one of the CRAs. If you read the fine print on the page where you get your score you'll usually find this information. An EX FICO 08 score may be different than a TU FICO 08 score, or an EQ FICO 08 score since they are using data from 3 different CRAs. If you are getting your scores from Credit Karma, those are TU VS 3.0 and EQ VS 3.0 scores. Where are you getting your FICO score from? Wherever you are seeing that score, scroll down and it should let you know which CRA they are using to generate that score you're seeing.
There are only 3 factors that go into a score: The scoring model used, the CRA data used and that point in time the data was used by that scoring model. Again: Model, CRA, Time. These are the only 3 factors. If you are seeing different scores, at least 1 of these factors must be different. It could be 2, or it could be all 3. I'm fairly certain from your post that at the very least "Model" is different here, as you're comparing VS 3.0 scores to a FICO score. That is the major reason for the 40 point difference. Different scoring models see the data different ways. Some weigh certain factors stronger or weaker than another model, thus a different score results.
Hopefully this helps. If you have any other questions fire away!
