fico vs equifax score extremely different

[Anonymous]

Our credit union, as a courtesy, supplies us with our FICO score. We had a dispute with our daughters' landlord (we were co-signers) over security deposit and other issues and although we tried every tactic to get them to respond to our inquiries for 9 months. During that time period, withheld what they claimed we owed- $350- (very long story- bottom line, we would have spent more money taking them to court than we would have gotten back even though it was clearly in our favor) .They ended up putting ithe $350 into collections after which we decided to pay it upon advice from our lawyer. But, too late, it was in collections.

However, upon looking into how it impacted us, our FICO went down from 720 to 614. Our EQ only went from 734 to 724. We got our EQ report and found that everything was on there, there was nothing missing related to the collections, etc. So why didn't our EQ score go down as much? Shouldn't they be at least within RANGE of each other?

[llecs]

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jakeike82 wrote:

Our credit union, as a courtesy, supplies us with our FICO score.

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If you don't mind, which CU?

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jakeike82 wrote:

 We had a dispute with our daughters' landlord (we were co-signers) over security deposit and other issues and although we tried every tactic to get them to respond to our inquiries for 9 months. During that time period, withheld what they claimed we owed- $350- (very long story- bottom line, we would have spent more money taking them to court than we would have gotten back even though it was clearly in our favor) .They ended up putting ithe $350 into collections after which we decided to pay it upon advice from our lawyer. But, too late, it was in collections.

However, upon looking into how it impacted us, our FICO went down from 720 to 614. Our EQ only went from 734 to 724. We got our EQ report and found that everything was on there, there was nothing missing related to the collections, etc. So why didn't our EQ score go down as much? Shouldn't they be at least within RANGE of each other?

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Woops....I hit the reply button too early....

A 100+ point drop isn't unreasonable, though I am surprised your EQ only dropped by a few. Do you have any other baddies reporting on EQ like a late or another CA?

There could be many reasons, in general,  why one didn't fall as much as the other. One could easily be how the CA was reporting. Dates, lates, etc. are dependant on that. Another could be that you might be in a scoring bucket on EQ that you aren't on TU. Based on your bucket, it is possible that collections don't hit as bad. Another reason could be that you have other baddies on EQ that aren't reporting on TU. Sound like your TU report was pretty clean as compared to EQ. Finally, each formula differs between the CRAs.

Message Edited by llecs on 09-01-2009 02:17 PM

[jackg]

I'm a bit confused, don't worry though it happens frequently, about the scores you're referencing.

You say your "...FICO went down from 720 to 614." Which CRA is this score from?

Next, you say "Our EQ only went from 734 to 724." Where did these scores come from?

[Anonymous]

Sorry, exact numbers are:

FICO (supplied by Pennsylvania State Employees Credit Union) 

High: 3/09- 732

Low (current): 8/09-614

Experian (not equifax, sorry)

High 734

Low(current) 722

We have no other 'black marks'. Always pay on time, never defaulted on anything and no other collections,ever. We cosign for our kids college loans (4 daughters). Two are out of college and have always paid on time. We've never had to step in or have been forced to take over. One daughter has requested we be taken off as cosigners which I guess will help? The only thing I can think of is one credit card got just below the limit of 12500. But would that explain that much of a gap between FICO and Experian? Weird huh?

[llecs]

jackg was on to something...the score from PSECU is actually an Experian FICO score. In fact, you are one of the only ones who has access to an Experian FICO score, other than a score lender provided or other PSECU members. I envy you....

However, like jackg mentioned, where did you get the Experian score from, the one at 722? From Experian.com?

[haulingthescoreup]

In other words, if you didn't get both the EX (Experian) scores from PSECU, you might be comparing apples with oranges. EX (and others) sell what we call FAKO scores, which don't match FICO scores at all.

So if the high and low scores both came from PSECU, and were both FICO's, then the score drop is a puzzler. But if one score came directly from Experian's website, or from a credit monitoring service, they don't compare at all.

[Anonymous]

Hey all, thanks for your input. I'll try to follow along with out getting too lost :-)

Ok the PSECU FICO score came right from our online banking website.

The Experian score came from Experian's website (yes, we fell for it and signed up for a subscription to freecreditreport.com but figured it might be a good thing to have if we needed to check throughout the year).

I can't imagine that the psecu score would be experian since they're not even close. I'll see if I can find out from them where they get these numbers.

Thanks!

[haulingthescoreup]

Ah, well then, don't worry about a sudden score change. There might not have been one at all.

The score from the EX site is useless. Just go with the PSECU scores, knowing that 99.9% of the rest of us here envy you for being able to know your EX FICO!

[llecs]

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haulingthescoreup wrote:
The score from the EX site is useless. Just go with the PSECU scores, knowing that 99.9% of the rest of us here envy you for being able to know your EX FICO!

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...and if you are looking for a long lost brother, I'm your man. Just short of being related to someone here or moving to PA, there's zero chance of me joining PSECU.

[Anonymous]

So does this make sense to anyone? I emailed PSECU today and got this response:

'The score PSECU provides through the free credit score program is given to us directly from Experian. Any questions regarding discrepancies would be answered by them.'

So it is Experian...but 2 different scores from the same place? I guess our next move is to contact them.  

We applied as cosigners and were denied a student loan for our daughter because of what was in our credit report. Hence, looking at both and discovering the huge discrepancy.

Thanks for helping me sort this thru!