Credit Scores Inconsistent

[jenrw74]

I filed ch 13 2/04. Just made my last payment in Mar. and am now waiting to be discharged. I have no inquiries or new credit on my CR's.

On Mar. 8th I ordered CR's and scores from Experian (665) and Equifax (613). I was so excited!

Today I signed up for the TrueCredit.com 3-Bureau Credit Monitoring for $14.95/mo. which lets you look at your CR's and scores anytime you want, they update daily. Anyway, my scores are WAY off!! All the info is the same but Exp. is now 589? Eqfx. is now 590? How can they be different in 3 weeks with no activity or changes of any kind? That's a huge drop for no reason! Is this a mistake? It seems like if I go to the Bureaus' individual websites the scores are higher, but a 3-in-1 is saying they're lower?

Has this happened to anyone ever? We need a new car really bad after discharge and now I'm freaking out about being denied an auto loan!!

[SinkingFast]

Each Credit Bureau uses their own set of Criteria for figuring your scores. That's why you getting the difference.

If you want the score that Lenders will use, you're gonna have to get your FICO scores. I believe the site is myfico.com, so you might check there. You can do a one time look and print out for something like $15.

[FilingOnMyOwn]

Yup. Any score you obtain from a credit bureau or service outside of myfico, is considered a 'fako' score (fake). Your real fico score can only be obtained from myfico.com. But the problem is its expensive, $15 per each of the 3 bureaus = $45. Most of us just use the True Credit service from transunion, for unlimited 3 bureau credit reports and fako scores, just for a good general idea of how things are going. The scores are not accurate, but its the cheapest way to keep up on your credit reports.

[poorme]

You can still get the 3-bureau monitoring thru the Wal-Mart site for $11.21/mo, look under their 'financial services' area.

I pull FICO's from myfico about 2-3 times per year to spread out the cost, and treat it as an investment in my credit rebuilding efforts.

[Princesskina]

Yup. Any score you obtain from a credit bureau or service outside of myfico, is considered a 'fako' score (fake). Your real fico score can only be obtained from myfico.com. But the problem is its expensive, $15 per each of the 3 bureaus = $45. Most of us just use the True Credit service from transunion, for unlimited 3 bureau credit reports and fako scores, just for a good general idea of how things are going. The scores are not accurate, but its the cheapest way to keep up on your credit reports.

Thanks this info was useful and I also use Truecredit.com to figure my scores out.

[jenrw74]

Today I signed up for the TrueCredit.com 3-Bureau Credit Monitoring for $14.95/mo. which lets you look at your CR's and scores anytime you want, they update daily. Anyway, my scores are WAY off!! All the info is the same but Exp. is now 589? Eqfx. is now 590? How can they be different in 3 weeks with no activity or changes of any kind? That's a huge drop for no reason! Is this a mistake? It seems like if I go to the Bureaus' individual websites the scores are higher, but a 3-in-1 is saying they're lower?

So are u saying that I shouldn't be concerned if my TrueCredit scores are so much lower? I can't believe the difference between them and the individual sites' scores. 665 is so much better than 589!!

[FilingOnMyOwn]

You can just about entirely disregard the fako scores, they are not accurate.

The only useful thing is as you monitor their direction over time, you can at least see if they are going up or down and why. But the number itself is meaningless.

[BKOnce]

Yeap!. credit scores always go UP & DOWN like a Yo-Yo!...