Is Score Watch not working properly?

[TapDancer324]

I've read the SW guide, but I may be missing something.

I enrolled in Score Watch in October 2011, and have been receiving alerts periodically since that time. Two weeks ago, out of curiousity, I went to the Equifax website and pulled a report and score. The score shown there was 22 points higher than my last Equifax score on myfico.com. Since the date I visited Equifax's site, I've yet to receive notification from Score Watch that my score has changed.  I received a SW alert today about a cc balance change, but the message says that my score has not changed since December 2 - the date of my last score change shown on myfico.com.

Note: In my ScoreWatch settings, my notification "threshold" is set at 1 point above the currently shown score.

What gives?  Is the Equifax.com score phony, or is Score Watch not working properly?

Thanks for your help,

Tappy

[Anonymous]

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@TapDancer324 wrote:

I've read the SW guide, but I may be missing something.

I enrolled in Score Watch in October 2011, and have been receiving alerts periodically since that time. Two weeks ago, out of curiousity, I went to the Equifax website and pulled a report and score. The score shown there was 22 points higher than my last Equifax score on myfico.com. Since the date I visited Equifax's site, I've yet to receive notification from Score Watch that my score has changed.  I received a SW alert today about a cc balance change, but the message says that my score has not changed since December 2 - the date of my last score change shown on myfico.com.

Note: In my ScoreWatch settings, my notification "threshold" is set at 1 point above the currently shown score.

What gives?  Is the Equifax.com score phony, or is Score Watch not working properly?

Thanks for your help,

Tappy

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Hi Tappy and Welcome to the Forums.

The score you got at Equifax is a Fako not a FICO, you say you received a SW alert today about a CC balance change, if your FICO had changed you would have either received an alert prior to the one you got today, or included in the alert you received today SW would have notified you of a score change.

Go back to you score settings and set your "Target" score to exactly what your EQ FICO is now.

Happy Holidays.

[TapDancer324]

Thanks, Mustanglvr... and sorry for the newbie question.  I'll get the hang of FAKO vs. FICO soon.

Merry Christmas to you too!

[MarineVietVet]

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@Anonymous wrote:

 

Hi Tappy and Welcome to the Forums.

The score you got at Equifax is a Fako not a FICO, you say you received a SW alert today about a CC balance change, if your FICO had changed you would have either received an alert prior to the one you got today, or included in the alert you received today SW would have notified you of a score change.

Go back to you score settings and set your "Target" score to exactly what your EQ FICO is now.

Happy Holidays.

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Maybe it is. You have to be careful about which product you buy from the EQ website. They sell their own proprietary "Equifax Credit Score" which is not an EQ FICO score but Equifax will still sell you a FICO score found here: www.equifax.com/web-myfico-products/

If what you bought there doesn't have the word "FICO" showing anywhere then you almost certainly bought the EQ FAKO score.

Here is a short primer on FICO vs. FAKO scores (With all due credit to long time member llecs for this):

"Virtually everyone sells scores, but they are not all FICO scores. If you got scores from the big 3, then very likely 2 or all 3 of them are not FICO scores. Experian and TransUnion do not sell FICO scores on their website. We call these non-FICO scores, FAKOs, and can easily be as much as a few points to 100+ points off your real FICO when pulled the same day. If it didn't say "FICO" next to the score, then it isn't.

Other companies (e.g. freecreditreport.com, freescore.com, truecredit, creditkarma, Equifax Credit Complete, Quizzle, and dozens of others out there) sell scores, but they are nothing more than gimmicks and lenders don't use them. They do this because they want to avoid paying any fees to FICO and when they say "credit score" people buy it anyway on the assumption that it is a FICO. The scores are off because the formula is different, factors in different things as compared to FICO, and score ranges are different than FICO's (e.g. FICO is 300-850, Vantage is 501-990, PLUS is 330-830, TransRisk is 350-850, and so on)."

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".