Why would my FAKO score drop without ANY changes in the report???!

[currentlywinning]

I know it doesnt matter much, and there is no real correlation b/t FICO and FAKO...but its still rather upsetting to see...I was almost at 600 and when I checked, the FAKO dropped by 8pts 

[MarineVietVet]

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@currentlywinning wrote:

I know it doesnt matter much, and there is no real correlation b/t FICO and FAKO...but its still rather upsetting to see...I was almost at 600 and when I checked, the FAKO dropped by 8pts 

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Actually it doesn't matter at all. Just keep telling yourself that. A FAKO score going down 8 points or 80 points means nothing in the real world. Your FICO could easily move that 8 or 80 points in the opposite direction.

I always give the same advice- Ignore all FAKO's all the time. You'll sleep much better.

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 3/11 pulled by lender- 835, EQ - 2/11-816, TU - 2/11-782

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

[fused]

I have to agree with MVV. Personally, I don't care what my FAKOs look like.

[BGinVA]

Agree with the rest.  I was subscribing to a FAKO experian score service, as I thought even if the number wasn't good it would help me gauge what things might be doing over all.  So this week I got my updated TU from Walmart, it went up 24 points, bought a new Equifax from myFico, it went up 12 points, and my Ex FAKO went down 25 points.  I decided to cancel that service today as it was not helping me monitor anything at all. 

[pizzadude]

+1 to all the advice to Ignore FAKO scores and their corresponding advice ~ it is usually of no value, and sometimes following it will actually harm your FICO score.

[RobertEG]

I would agree that so-called FAKO scores are not used by many lendors, and also that they have no direct correlelation to FICO scores.

However, I would not go so far as to say that they are meaningless or should be ignored.

They are a scoring algorithm, just as FICO, that takes into account the entire credit file.  There is nothing to conclude that a FAKO score is any better or worse than a FICO score.  Their view of risk analysis could, in fact, be more "accurate."  The bottom line is they are not the industry standard, and for that reason have no use in determining what a creditor who relies on FICO scores will see.

If a FAKO score changes, there must have been a legitimate reason.  It is most probably not because it is a crummy algoirthm.

If a FAKO dropped, that is, at least in my opinion, indication that something in the credit file changed or aged.  It is an alert.

Maybe something or things changed, the net result in FICO being zero, but the net result in FAKO being greater or less than zero.

I would submit that absolute scores may not be useful, but that relative scores are far from meaningless.

[MarineVietVet]

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@RobertEG wrote:

I would agree that so-called FAKO scores are not used by many lendors, and also that they have no direct correlelation to FICO scores.

However, I would not go so far as to say that they are meaningless or should be ignored.

They are a scoring algorithm, just as FICO, that takes into account the entire credit file.  There is nothing to conclude that a FAKO score is any better or worse than a FICO score.  Their view of risk analysis could, in fact, be more "accurate."  The bottom line is they are not the industry standard, and for that reason have no use in determining what a creditor who relies on FICO scores will see.

If a FAKO score changes, there must have been a legitimate reason.  It is most probably not because it is a crummy algoirthm.

If a FAKO dropped, that is, at least in my opinion, indication that something in the credit file changed or aged.  It is an alert.

Maybe something or things changed, the net result in FICO being zero, but the net result in FAKO being greater or less than zero.

I would submit that absolute scores may not be useful, but that relative scores are far from meaningless.

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Robert I would agree with this if there was a constant and identical movement for a FICO score when a FAKO score moves either up or down. But there is no way to know or ensure that. A change upward in a FAKO could mean a downward movement in a FICO or just the opposite might happen.

If you can never be sure if both scores have experienced the same change (either up or down) then I still say that FAKO scores are worthless and should be ignored all the time and every time.

But that's just my view and of course doesn't invalidate your opinion.

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 3/11 pulled by lender- 835, EQ - 2/11-816, TU - 2/11-782

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

[currentlywinning]

Thank you all for the added assurance. I know that I had a medical bill fall off of Experian, but Im not sure why that would affect the Equifax score seeming as how this account wasnt reported to them to begin with. The real kicker is I went to go see how the Experian score looked and that wasnt reported AT ALL! Im guessing that this is because the particular FAKO doesnt update but once every 30 days, leaving me with Feb 3rd the day to go back and check..???

I am slowly becoming OBSESSED with all things credit-LOL

[vanillabean]

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@MarineVietVet wrote:

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@RobertEG wrote:

I would agree that so-called FAKO scores are not used by many lendors, and also that they have no direct correlelation to FICO scores.

However, I would not go so far as to say that they are meaningless or should be ignored. ...

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Robert I would agree with this if there was a constant and identical movement for a FICO score when a FAKO score moves either up or down. But there is no way to know or ensure that. A change upward in a FAKO could mean a downward movement in a FICO or just the opposite might happen.

If you can never be sure if both scores have experienced the same change (either up or down) then I still say that FAKO scores are worthless and should be ignored all the time and every time. ...

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While it's tempting to go for the bandwagon effect of wanting to be on the side of the winner, in this case FICO widely recognized as the industry standard, I should probably first inquire if there is a way to know or ensure that there is a constant and identical movement for a TU FICO score when an EQ FICO score moves either up or down? Never having encountered otherwise of course isn't quite such a way.

[cashnocredit]

No, there isn't any such gaurantee that if an EQ FICO goes up a TU FICO goes up. They are independently constructed from EQ and TU's databases and optimized for their respective databases. Consistency across CRAs is one of the "features" VantageScore markets since the scoring algorithms were developed using merged data from all three CRAs. It may seem odd, but consistency comes with a price. That price is that the information in each of the CRA's databases is uneven due to regional usage patterns and practices. Scores generated from an individual CRA database are more predictive. This can be seen in that using a scoring algorithm based on EQ's data will likely be more inaccurate if applied to EX's data. While more predictive overall, it can and does produce more variation amongst CRAs from small changes.