Yes, this question again....

[BigOuch]

Hi All,

Long story short: I've been rebuilding my credit from a rather dismal place due to neglected student loans in my 20's.  Now in my thirties, I'm back in the 600 range. I was using Privacy Assist for a while, but read recently that it has an estimated score.  I decided to check out other services today and was floored at the range.  I understand that there are various scoring models, but can anyone tell me the actual factors that one model might be looking at to score lower? I suppose it doesn't matter too much, as the FICO is the most important, but it scares me that there's such a huge gap, where in one I'm getting better, but on others I"ve gotten no where in the last 5 years.  For example:

My Fico   Ex: 660 / EQ: 659 / TU: 667

Privacy Assist (as of Jan update)   EX: 650 / EQ: 642 / TU: 675

Credit Karma   TU: 610

Experian (their website)   EX: 597

That's a 78 point difference in the wide end, which scares me as 650+ means I've been improving. 600- means I'm actually just as bad as I was when I started trying to rebuild.  Any advice? 

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

In mathematical terms there are an INFINITE number of algorithms to map information on a credit report into a number (score).

Since doing this right is quite hard, it's fair to assume that most scoring models are rubbish.

I'd suggest picking some variant of FICO that's convenient for you, and sticking with it.  I get two FICO scores a month via CUs and CCs, and this is one way of doing it.

[Revelate]

Welcome to the forums!

In addition to what user5387 suggests (which incidently is what I do personally), in my opinion the most valid scores out of that list in order are:

myFICO EQ (mortgage)

myFICO EX (credit card)

...

myFICO TU (not commonly used anymore)

...

Everything else (worthless as far as scores go, possible exception of the Credit Karma Vantage Score which isn't the one they provide in the mobile app nor by default in the homepage).  For credit monitoring some of those are decent to excellent, but scores, not so much.

As a result, your scores are around 660 which isn't terrible in today's market.  Keep up the good work!

[BigOuch]

Thanks for the input guys.  I think I'm going to get rid of Privacy Assist and concentrate on a MyFICO as my main score.  I was just curious if there was a technical explaination regarding the point difference, but I suppose it must have too many factors to really explain in a general sense.  

[Revelate]

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@BigOuch wrote:

Thanks for the input guys.  I think I'm going to get rid of Privacy Assist and concentrate on a MyFICO as my main score.  I was just curious if there was a technical explaination regarding the point difference, but I suppose it must have too many factors to really explain in a general sense.  

---

They all weight the information on a credit report definitely: in some cases that difference is substantial.  

I personally ignore any score which lenders don't use period, but even some FICO scores aren't used by many lenders (like the Transunion score here, I don't know that anyone still uses it, last holdout was 2ish years ago that I was aware of). 

Scores from here, or from one of the actual FICO scores now offered by various credit cards or banks/credit unions for being a member, are the best measurements that we have for tracking progress as consumer.

[AndySoCal]

I believe Priviacy Assist uses the Credit Xpert score.  I also use Privacy Assist as well for credit monitoring. The main reason I have credit monitoring is for alerts in changes to my credit data.  Seocndly, I also want to make sure the data has been reported correctly. The will be whatever it is depending on the scoring model used. I use the Privacy Assist scores as a ballpark estimate. Mine like your there is a few points difference. Depending on what you are using the credit monitoring service for will determine your course of action.

[BigOuch]

I greatly appreciate everyone's input, but the more I learn, the more confused I get about how this works.

I've been without incident for the past 2.5 years (no late payments, defaults, or collections). Prior to that, Sallie Mae had wacked me pretty hard due to full blown default/collections on all installments of my student loan. To this day, that still shows up as 12 or so negative line items on my credit report, depite having the past 2.5 years of steady payments on all debts, including Sallie. So while I do understand why my credit started off bad, I can't figure out why I'm stuck in this 650ish limbo for the past 2.5 years. Also, I tried the MyFICO simulator to test out some scenarios. It said that if I pay off my credit cards (currently a 28% utilization on a sub $5k limit), I'll gain something crazy like 38 points. That can't be right, can it?

[Anonymous]

Payment history and utilization are around 2/3 of your score.

I expect you would see some improvement if you lower your utilization, but the derogatories on student loans are presumably the big thing.

You might do some research about how derogatories impact your score as they age.

[AndySoCal]

What is the status of the student loans that are showing as derogatory or are the derogatory items just late payments?

[BigOuch]

I'm not entirely sure I know the difference between late and derrogatory in an official sense.  All I know is that I haven't had any late payments on those student loans since 2011.  The crazy part is that each installment will be noted differently from each of the three credit agencies.  For instance, one installment will read as follows:

EX: Account transfered or sold

EP: Dept being paid through insurance

TU: Pays account as agreed

The account was never transfered or sold, nor has it been paid through insurance.  I pay it every month now and see a "sallie Mae" line item on my bank account statement every month. I've written to both Sallie Mae and all three credit agencies about this. None of them feel that it is an error.  In addition to that, Sallie Mae has a few installments that still report as 180days deliquent, despite that happening back in 2010.  

I completely understand why there is a credit system in America.  I also take responsibilty for screwing my own credit up.  However, I feel credit repair is far too complex, difficult, and takes entirely too long to get back unto good standing.  Three years of dismal credit and crazy monetary penalties on my loans should be penance enough for going 180 days deliquent.  I could have robbed a convenient store for the same amount of money as my loans and would have been out of jail already for first offence and good behaviour.