Community Chat

[LilacTree]

I don't know how many of you care to know about this, but I follow my FICO scores at least once every couple of months. I subscribe to ScoreSense online.

It really annoys me that both Equifax and TransUnion are within two points of each other (score "Good"), and Experian is a full 30 points lower (score "Fair"). Since these scores determine what finance rate would apply if an individual wanted a loan for any reason (to buy a house or a car, etc.), that Experian could factor into a higher rate for these loans seems unfair.

Does anyone know if they average the scores, or if they consider the higher "good" scores as more representative of one's credit, since two of the services are nearly identical in rating, while Experian is so far below them?

I am not looking for credit right now, so it's not a factor for me at this point. It just seems inequitable overall.

[KathyPet]

most companies that offer any sort of credit terms (auto dealers, dept. Stores etc.) have agreements with one,or more credit bureaus to access your score. So, it depends on where your financing source gets your score from. If they have a contract with Experian then that is the score they will use.

[151949]

When we bought our house 4 years ago we applied for a mortgage in case we didn't sell the old house in time and we were given our scores by the mortgage agent. They were quite a bit lower than our scores on the 3 sites where we check them online. the agent said that banks and finance co's use a different scoring system and instead of scores being up to 900 (for example ) the firm they use only scores up to 800 - so no one can have a score > 800. It all depends on the company used and the scale they use - and every company is free to do it however they want. So our score of 770 that we thought was awful was in fact really excellant with that company.And when they send their score to the lender they include the scale they are using.

[bathina]

Most of the major banks have their own proprietary internal score based on the 3 bureau scores.

[KathyPet]

The other thing to be considered is that each credit bureau has their own top and bottom score so having a score 30 points less at one bureau may not make any difference. Whatnis important is where your score falls in that credit bureau's score range. So if you have a 675 score at a bureau where the top of the range is 800 and a 650 score where the top of the range for that bureau is 700 you obviously will fall into a different category at each bureau.

[LilacTree]

On 3/27/2014 KathyPet said: The other thing to be considered is that each credit bureau has their own top and bottom score so having a score 30 points less at one bureau may not make any difference. Whatnis important is where your score falls in that credit bureau's score range. So if you have a 675 score at a bureau where the top of the range is 800 and a 650 score where the top of the range for that bureau is 700 you obviously will fall into a different category at each bureau.

The credit rating numbers are shown on ScoreSense. The Experian rating is 30 points below the other two and shows as Fair on the same chart that the others show as Good (with higher numbers, as I indicated). Maybe that's just the way ScoreSense displays it.

I don't know why these agencies can't be standardized. I'm going to call Experian (I keep saying Equifax by mistake) today and ask them why their scoring system is so much lower than the other two. (Can you tell this is really bugging me?)

[dandyoo]

I thought FICO provided the means to calculate a score based on the info the reporting agency has. If you are in fact looking at FICO's score for all three it sounds like the one with the lower # has something negative the others don't. I'd start with checking my reports.

[LilacTree]

On 3/27/2014 dandyoo said:

I thought FICO provided the means to calculate a score based on the info the reporting agency has. If you are in fact looking at FICO's score for all three it sounds like the one with the lower # has something negative the others don't. I'd start with checking my reports.

I was told Experian always scores lower, but ScoreSense allows one to see the entire credit report, so I can easily check if there's anything bad on there. I'm still going to call them though.

[------]

Please correct me if I'm wrong but I thought checking your scores frequently will have a negative impact on score. Or is it only credit checks done by third parties? I always found the credit score system confusing.

[stilltamn8r]

Yes, in my business we understand the "foibles and idiosyncracies" of the different bureaus and act accordingly...

Also remember that the numerical score is only one PART of the credit granting process- you can be high 700's and have very light credit, for example, and still be considered a greater risk than someone with a lower score and MORE past credit...

Not everyone 700+ is considered a brick...