In efforts to prepare myself for purchasing a home in the next year or two, I bit the bullet and ordered FICO scores & credit reports from the three major agencies. I was surprised by how much the FICO number varies, my highest score was 680 and lowest 655...that seems like a pretty drastic difference to me. Any idea why this is? Don't they all use the same formula?
2007-03-03 04:22:41 · 6 answers · asked by everything_indie 2 in Business & Finance ➔ Credit
They use different versions of the FICO formula. To give an analogy, think of the scores like MS Windows, you have Vista, XP, and Office 97. All of them do the same, but they are a little bit different so you get similar, but different results.
Another reason is that not all lendors report to all three bureaus so you may have items on one report, that isn't on another bureaus report. Those type of things can affect your score as well.
2007-03-03 04:31:29 · answer #1 · answered by Mariposa 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you are getting your scores from the credit bureaus than they are not true FICO scores.
The only place to get true FICO scores is directly from FICO.
As for the difference in scores, when you pull your FICO it is a snapshot of your score "at that very second" that you pull your score.
Like others have mentioned, not all lenders report to all 3 credit bureaus.
Also, many lenders that do report to all 3, do not report to all 3 at the exact same moment in time.
2007-03-03 08:43:33 · answer #2 · answered by echo 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Credit Bureaus are tied to different financial institutions to monitor your activities. But they can monitor only about 80% of your activities. Depending upon which part of your activity they are monitoring, your score could be different. They all do not see 100% of all your actions.
When you go for a loan, the mortgage company usually takes the average of all the three.
2007-03-03 05:05:37 · answer #3 · answered by kenneth h 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
mariposa is correct. I look at credit every day and 100 point spread is not uncommon due to the fact that a lot of lenders usually local banks will only report to one bureau if they report at all.
2007-03-03 04:49:23 · answer #4 · answered by ? 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think that it's probably because your creditors only report to one. Sometimes these guys get things all messed up, so it's a good idea to check it at least once a year, and tell them to correct what is inaccurate. Very important for getting loans, credit cards, etc.
2007-03-03 04:31:37 · answer #5 · answered by karenhar 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think it might have something to do with the timeliness of information (payments, new credit, etc).
But I also think it's a way to force us to pull the big report. Sometimes it all feels like a scam. Why is it so easy and fast to ruin your credit, but it takes forever to rebuild it?
2007-03-03 04:30:35 · answer #6 · answered by LifesAMystery 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋