Credit score varied widely?
Sarah W asked:
I checked my score at Experian.com and it was 780, that was exactly one month ago, and nothing on my credit has changed, yet when I went to creditkarma.com, they said my transunion score was only 671. Why is that? I even checked my report, and all three bureaus have the exact same information, so why the huge gap?
Darrell
I checked my score at Experian.com and it was 780, that was exactly one month ago, and nothing on my credit has changed, yet when I went to creditkarma.com, they said my transunion score was only 671. Why is that? I even checked my report, and all three bureaus have the exact same information, so why the huge gap?
Darrell
Charles
I think that you may have been tricked into a FAKO score. Experian and the others use their own scoring system like PLUS scores and the like that arent used by any agencies really and can differ greatly from your FICO, which explains the 100+ point gap.
Judy
It’s really not that unusual for your credit score to vary by 50 or more points between the 3 major credit bureaus. They all use their own proprietary formulas to calculate a score and they are all different. My scores also vary by almost 100 points.
Kenneth
Yes I agree, those scores were calculated under different models. The real FICO score used by most of the lenders can only be obtained from Equifax.com and the Fair Isaac site MyFico.com.
Also there might be differences on the information reported to different bureaus, for instance some account not reported to Experian but showing in Transunion and Equifax, or even the same accounts reported in a slightly different way on one bureau may have an impact on your score, its very rare for someone to have the exactly same FICO score on all 3 bureaus.
Carl.-
Lewis
This should explain it to you.
FICO scores from 300 to 850 and Vantage scores from 501 to 990.
Here is the breakdown for both systems.
Vantage Plus system scores from 501-990.
A-901-990
B-801-900
C-701-800
D-601-700
F-501-600
FICO system scores from 300-850.
Elite-740-& up
Prime-700-739
Preferred-660-699
Standard-625-659
Sub-prime-624-& under
FICO is the only one that matters since it’s the one that all major lenders look at.
So as you can see it depends on if your looking at a true FICO score or a Vantage plus score.
As far as what makes up credit scores it’s the following;
1. Payment history (longer the better) 35%
2. Time in bureau (longer the better) 15%
3. Types of credit (mix of credit cards & installment loans) 10%
4. New credit (new accounts and inquiries) 10%
5. Debt to credit ratio (lower the better) 30%
And just so you will know Experian only uses Vantage, Equifax only uses FICO and Transunion uses both depending of which type of credit report is requested of which there are 3. The standard that people get from The Internet, the auto enhanced which only car dealers and lenders see and the factual which only mortgage people see. The last two are not available to the general public.
And creditkarma is a joke they are always off by at least 50 points.