confused about different scores

[Junejer]

To make my point very clear, let me say the following. Your FICO score, IMO, is the only one that matters. Your landlord may have very well pulled your FICO score from EX or TU. You won't know that until you ask them. Following the advice that is on the FAKO reports can most certainly be good for your FAKO, but HARMFUL to your FICO. You may choose to follow this information, if you wish, but we have been on this site for some time now giving this advice. I use a CMS to monitor my reports, but I don't look at their scores, nor their advice. It's useless information, and this is not being presumptuous.

I never said that this (EQ) FICO score is the only one that matters, what I said was that your FICO score is the only one that matters.

Hope this clarifies my point to you. GL

[Anonymous]

Thanks Byrdman,your response does help clarify!  I think without knowing yet what the other response said, I was still confused but now with both yours and Susy's reponses, I see exactly where you are coming from.  The tips I find on TC don't seem to differ from the advice offered on here.  Is there something specific on other sites that directly contradicts advice on here?  The advice I see on TC is mostly stuff to improve your credit report (paying all your bills on time, keeping balances on those accounts at 30% util, making sure your reports are accurate, etc), which I would assume in turn, can improve your FICO (or credit report) score over time.  I will most certainly keep my ScoreWatch subscription here, now that I know that the FICO score is the most commonly used, and my top priorities will be to monitor and work on improving my Eq. and TU FICO scores.  Thanks again to both you and Susy for the helpful information!!

[Junejer]

The reason that I, and other senior members here, recommend to ignore the advice, is because many of us have seen our FAKO scores go up and at the same time, have our FICO scores go down for the same action and vice versa. The algorithms that FAKOs uses have no correlation to the FICO algorithm, therefore, an action done to appease a FAKO can certainly have an adverse action to the FICO.

One of the commonly known tips here is to keep util at 9% or under. 30% is fine, but the lower the better for your scores.

[Anonymous]

I am wondering now if my scores are correct, I pulled my experian through USAA.com credit check monitoring and my transunion from true credit.com because I got that website from Transunion hotline. I also got my FICO score from this website and it is 50 points less than the other two. All report the same things but EX and TU puts me with a Good Crdit score and FICO has me as fair. Why is this?

[haulingthescoreup]

Hi, welcome to the forums!

The TU and EX scores are FAKO's. I'm guessing that you pulled your Equifax FICO score, right?

You actually have three FICO scores: one from Equifax (EQ), one from TransUnion (TU), and one from Experian (EX.) Unfortunately, you can no longer buy your EX FICO anyway, per their decision back in February. You can find out your EX FICO if you're willing to apply for a mortgage ( ), or if you belong to a credit union in Pennsylvania (PSECU), which kindly supplies it to its members.

(Hint, everyone: start pestering your local banks and credit unions to supply members with their EX FICO scores --the classics, not the CC-enhanced ones!)

So you know your FICO EQ score, and you have no idea what the FICO TU and FICO EX scores are. The FAKO's that you have for TU and EX are based on different scoring formulas, and they have different score ranges, and very, very few lenders use them, so they're quite useless.

You can get your TU FICO here. Be sure to Google for fico discount coupon code first. You should be able to get 20% off.

On the EQ FICO score report, what are the negatives on screen 2, in order? They're what are hurting your score(s) the most.

[Anonymous]

Thanx so much haulingthescoreup!!!!