Why is my credit score different with each agency?

Question

I recently applied for a loan. All 3 agencies gave me a different FICO score, and the difference between the high one and the low one is about 100 points! And how can I get a lender to use my higher credit score instead of one of the lower ones?
Oh, by the way, watch the online mortgage companies. They offer you hope, and then try to sock you with a $500 "good faith" deposit request.

Answer 1

The 3 companies that you are dealing with are....Equifax, Experian and Transunion. These companies try to keep the report as accurate as possible, but like everyone, they also make mistakes....so Don't expect the scores to ever be the same. Normally, the lowest score should be Equifax...the Median score (usually the most accurate) is Experian, and the highest score normally comes from Transunion. They all see the same accounts, but some get the dates and payment dates wrong, or they input them too late so the determined score is a little off. Usually, mortgage companies will always go off of your median score, unless the median and the highest one have the exact same info, and the only difference is the score, then they will use the highest....FYI, for future reference, in case you ever go to purchase a car....these credit reports are scored completely different than Mortgage or Regular Credit reports, so your scores will always be way different, usually lower by at least 45 points....car dealerships always run Experian....at times they will check your Transunion to see if the score is higher...some finance companies will use the higher score........FINALLY, STOP USING ONLINE MORTGAGE COMPANIES.!!! I would never trust my information to them....Good Luck.

Answer 2

Quite honestly, I would never recommend doing business with your mortgage broker totally online. The transaction is far too large to conduct as essentially a "faceless" transaction.

Face-to-face human contact allows you to see "tell" signs on their face when they bait and switch you & attempt to violate consumer protection laws. You can also take their picture in case they decide they want to commit mortgage fraud.

Your credit score is different because the credit agencies may not receive all of the same information from the same creditors. Some creditors only report to ONE bureau instead of three, so obviously different information on your credit reports with the same FICO score algorithm will easily lead to various FICO scores. This does not include the fact that almost every credit report has at least ONE error on it.

Answer 3

The reason you get different scores is that every company that you have credit with dose not report to all three credit agencies what you need to do is contact each credit agency and ask for a copy of your credit report and compare them to each other and report any discrepancies to the credit reporting agency it will take some time but in the long run well worth it.

Answer 4

You would think that all 3 agencie would have the same information but unfortunately they all have something different. Strange I know. A friend of my had his identity stolen this year, the culprits changed his physical address, 2 of the agencies had this new change of address, the 3rd agency had not on trace of the new address (which was not correct anyways as my friend had not moved, changed his address, etc, it was the thieves).

About all I can say is maybe contact each agency to find out why they have different information and why they score differently than the other.

Best of luck to you!

Answer 5

Each of the 3 agencies operate independently of each other and are not related. Make sure there are no errors on the report. It sounds like there is some kind of error or omission going on causing this discrepency because 100 points is alot.

Answer 6

I think that is why the three bureaus combined efforts and established the single "VantageScore" scoring method... I am not sure if this method will become the new standard or not however.

Answer 7

apparently there is a type, but i forgot