Tried to search and couldn't seem to find an answer to this particular question....Why is there such a difference in my TU score as opposed to my EXP score? EQ is right in the middle of both but there's about a 50 point difference between TU and EXP. TU-636 EQ-607 EXP-584? How does this happen when the EXP report actually doesn't even include all of the negatives that the TU report does. I am really new at all of this, please forgive my ignorance. TIA! Jen
If the TU negatives are in the form of a few late payments on accounts that have substantial history and are now in good standing, those accounts could have a positive FICO effect, even if they are categorized as "negative" by the dumb consumer friendly report. In particular, a more extensive history of accounts in good standing can lessen the effects of other negatives, including even having higher debt to available credit ratios. If it didn't, people with 20 year credit histories and lots of accounts would be pulled down by just the random reporting errors, compared to those starting out with a few clean accounts but little history. Statistics are more reliable on large numbers than on small. If you were making a manual decision, who would you rather lend to, a consumer with 20 accounts that were opened 20 years ago, all paid as agreed, an outstanding mortgage paid as agreed, but one paid or even unpaid collection, or a consumer with only 2 accounts, paid as agreed, opened 2 years ago, and no negatives? Who would you have more confidence would pay you back?
The negatives are 4 charge offs that are due to fall off my report in early 07. I was a young stupid kid and offered too many cards and not paying the bills never occured as an issue to me at the time. Since then I wound up settling with the CAs back in 2005 (Midland and NCO) both of which "promised" to remove the negatives from my CR. HA! At any rate I've disputed the 4 negatives but I'm pretty sure I'll be waiting until early 07 for them to fall off. In the last 12 months I've opened CC accounts with Orchard, First Premier and just recently a platinum card with Washington Mutual. All paid as agreed. I'm hoping to see a jump sometime in the next 6 months. I feel like such an idiot that I neglected my credit for so long. I'm def. reaping what I sowed since we now can't qualify for a mortgage with a favorable rate. Hoping to learn some tricks here to help me out of this financial rut. Thanks so much for the info. Jen
Are the paid CA accounts showing as settled, or do they still show an amount due? If they were settled for less than full, they may have sold the "balance" (which should have been $0 if it was settled) to some other CA, so keep any paperwork you have on their settlement offer, and your payment.
They were all settled in full and show zero balances but are still there blemishing my reports. *Sigh* The road to home ownership is most definitely a bumpy one. Thanks for the input. Jen
This is true. We are going to wait until they've disappeared to begin the application process. Hopefully one year from now we'll be in a house.
Each CRA uses their own flavor of FICO. EQ and EX have scores from 300-850. TU's scoring is from 300-930 (maybe 950?). I'm not sure these figures are exact, but they are close. Also there may be differences in information on each individual report.
