Community Chat

[LilacTree]

I am more confused now than I was when I posted this. Since I was just making an observation and asking for responses out of curiosity, and don't really need this information to do anything right now, I will try doing some research . . . but not today.

Thank you for all of your responses, I truly appreciate it. I hope someone got something out of it. Obviously the rep I spoke to at Experian doesn't even know how the scores are compiled, since he told me "FICO does it." That sounded so strange to me and I said to him, "I didn't know FICO was anything but an acronym."

But others are saying the bureaus each do their own (which is what I always thought). Ay yi yi!!!

[stilltamn8r]

It IS an acronym -Fair Isaac Corporation

[straykatz]

On 3/27/2014 Ford1224 said:

I am more confused now than I was when I posted this. Since I was just making an observation and asking for responses out of curiosity, and don't really need this information to do anything right now, I will try doing some research . . . but not today.

Thank you for all of your responses, I truly appreciate it. I hope someone got something out of it. Obviously the rep I spoke to at Experian doesn't even know how the scores are compiled, since he told me "FICO does it." That sounded so strange to me and I said to him, "I didn't know FICO was anything but an acronym."

But others are saying the bureaus each do their own (which is what I always thought). Ay yi yi!!!

Ford....creditors still use FICO....I know there was a push to get the Vantage Score out there as a main source of scoring but it never took off in the lending industry....it would mean most lenders needing new software if the scoring system changed.

[KathyPet]

FICO (Fair Issac Co) is the company which developed these scoring models for the credit bureaus to use HOWEVER each credit bureau's model and calculations differs because the data that is used is based on each individual credit bureaus past experience and projections of future customer behavior. Thus the different scores. Trans UnIon may assign a certain weight factor to how many open ""retail"" (store) credit cards you have based on their experience while Experian may assign a different weight factor based on their past customer history. it is all extremely complicated and the different credit bureaus may tweak their calculations as their experience with customers changes. The customer service guy at Experian was partially correct. FICO does develop the models but the credit bureaus themselves provide the data and decide the weight factors to be used.

[LilacTree]

On 3/27/2014 KathyPet said: FICO (Fair Issac Co) is the company which developed these scoring models for the credit bureaus to use HOWEVER each credit bureau's model and calculations differs because the data that is used is based on each individual credit bureaus past experience and projections of future customer behavior. Thus the different scores. Trans UnIon may assign a certain weight factor to how many open "retail" (store) credit cards you have based on their experience while Experian may assign a different weight factor based on their past customer history. it is all extremely complicated and the different credit bureaus may tweak their calculations as their experience with customers changes. The customer service guy at Experian was partially correct. FICO does develop the models but the credit bureaus themselves provide the data and decide the weight factors to be used.

THANK YOU, KathyPet . . . something I can understand at last!! So it IS the credit bureau itself that comes up with the FICO score, which still makes me angry that Experian's is so much lower than both TransUnion and Equifax, which are just two digits apart. If I need credit the future, I guess I have to hope that whoever it is uses the higher ("good") bureaus!

Thank you so much, I really appreciate and understand it now. What they do to come up with the scores is probably something I don't need to know. I guess I will have to come up the ladder more slowly with them, LOL!

[LilacTree]

On 3/27/2014 stilltamn8r said:

On 3/27/2014 KathyPet said:

On 3/27/2014 stilltamn8r said:

On 3/27/2014 KathyPet said:

On 3/27/2014 straykatz said:

There is some good info on this thread but there is a lot of bad stuff posted...this thread is a good indicator of how many people really know little about how credit is reported and works in this country.

Kathy...great post....too bad it will go unnoticed or be challeneged by the ones who THINK they know how it all works.

Thanks. There is no truth whatsoever to the statement that your credit score goes down if you are retired. The credit bureaus have absolutely no,knowledge of your monthly income whether retired or working and while a lending institution may factor that in when deciding on a loan application when you have provided them with that information the credit bureaus do not lower your score because you are retired. Also, the statement that medical providers send information to the credit bureaus on a regular basis is untrue and the very idea that your credit score might be lower because you visited a oncologist is so absurd I don't even know what to say.

That is NOT what was said- a poster was asking about their medical records boing reported to the bureaus, and I replied that at most, an unpaid bill COULD be linked to a certain type of physician and a conclusion COULD be drawn by the person reading the report as to the persons health- NOT that that would be used in any type of scoring ...

Sorry I thought you were saying that the credit bureau would lower your score based on this. I suppose your statement could be true on a individual credit application but I think,it's a awfully big stretch. If you have a unpaid medical bill that has been turned over to a collection agency and they report it to the credit bureau as being owed to ABC Medical Associates or to Dr John Jones the person looking at your credit report would then have to go and investigate what,kind of medical speciality this particular individual Dr or medical practice specialized in. Rather a stretch IMHO especially if they can just turn you down because you have a unpaid collection on your report.

True- I think my point was to reassure the poster that it is farfetched, at best, to think your medical info is available via the credit bureau-

I didn't think it was because of HIPAA, but I wasn't sure. Thank you so much.

[KathyPet]

Ford, I am glad I was able to help you understand some of this. The formulas that are used are as complicated as you can imagine taking hundreds of factors into consideration and weighting them to come up with a score based on each Credit Bureaus customer experience. I will say one thing though. There is no arguing with them. it is their formulas based on huge amounts of data from millions of people so the explanation you got is unfortunately all you are going to get.