Im confused. Up until December I always thought I had pretty good credit. Every time it was pulled my scores ranged from 720-750. I subscribe to a credit monitoring service through my bank, they send me notifications when people have viewed, changed or added things on my credit report - plus a quarterly score report. Though in December I was thinking about trading in my car, so I called my current auto loan holder and asked about going through them again. When they pulled my credit report from Experian they said my score was 628!!!!!!!!!!!! Which I freaked because that is almost 100pts less! Even though I was looking right at the most recent quarterly report showing my scores from all 3 bureaus being in the mid 700's???? I did opened a new credit card a week before I did this, but other than that nothing had changed on my report. I just received my next quarterly report after this incident, and while my scores have dropped a MINOR amount from the last quarterly report they are still in the low to mid 700's with all 3 (Exp, Equifax & TransU).......... So, Im confused....... my quarterly reports dont reflect that big of a change to the 628 that my auto loan company pulled. Does it depend on who is pulling the score or what its for? Why would it bounce back and forth so fast and with such different numbers? Which score should I trust?
Please remember - Not all creditors are reporting to all three CRAs. Some to one only, some to two. I ran into the same problem with my car loan. The account is only showing up on two, Experian and Equifax, but not on Transunion, and my TU score is a hell of a lower than the other two. I think it's a conspiracy between creditors and CRAs to keep consumers' credit scores in the toilet.
Also remember that the only real score is from myfico. If you're getting scores from some of the other services, they aren't real scores and can vary quite a bit.
I've seen the reports from all 3 and they pretty much have the same stuff on it. The thing that confused me is the auto loan company pulled my score from Experian, though the first quarterly report score from Experian was 724 - then the most recent report score from Experian was 710..... so where does 628 come into play?????
Where did the 628 come from? Was it from myfico or one of the other monitoring sites? As I said, only myfico has real FICO scores. That said, there are also many different scoring models. The one which generated the 710 and the one that generated the 628 are obviously different models. Many auto dealers use a score model that is different from the normal FICO.
Is there a way to know what lenders use the real score? So I don't get some bogus score that makes me get a 13% interest rate on my loan its so low? I think a 100 point difference is a little ridiculous personally.
You probably received an auto enhanced FICO score, which is different from a "pure" FICO. It likely is weighting both auto loan activity, as well as other installment type loans heavier. The scores you are getting from your bank's monitoring service are probably not even a FICO score, but some other FAKO model. Have you ever bought your scores from myfico.com? If not, you should.
Short of asking, no. But just because they don't use the "real" score doesn't mean that you won't qualify for a loan. Perhaps in that scoring model a 628 is very good. It could even be that the scale only goes to 650 or something. Who knows? When I got my auto loan from my credit union, they pulled my report and said my score was three hundred and something. I about fell over. It turns out that in the model they used, a low score was better, and a 300 was excellent, so I was very good. The point is that if it's not the real FICO, then you can't judge whether or not the score is good by comparing it to a FICO scale. You have to know what the scale for that score is. It's like getting an orange and thinking it's no good because it's not red. It's not supposed to be!
jlynn - Im not totally up on all of the credit stuff - can you explain what you mean by this further? I am getting the credit quarterly reports through my wells fargo ID/credit protection.
I don't know what model Wells Fargo uses. Each bureau has its own model. Besides that, I was trying to say that an auto dealer might not pull a straight FICO (or any of the other bureaus) score. It's entirely possible that they are pulling a model developed by one of the bureaus especially for car loans.
I guess maybe the better question to ask then is - before I go for a loan (because I'm also planning to buy my second home later this year) whether its auto, personal or home loan I should ask the company what "credit model" they use..... but do you know the names of the best "models" that will keep me as close to my real FICO as possible. That way if they use a bad model I dont waste a hit on my credit report. Thanks for any help so far, this has been a great source of info!
You won't be able to get copies of the scores from the various models. If you apply for a mortgage, they have to provide you with a copy of the report they got. But the bureaus don't sell the scores from the various models to consumers. The best you can do is to get the copies of your report from each separate bureau (instead of the one you get from Wells Fargo) and go over each entry. Get the information as correct as you can. The rest will take care of itself.
There are many different models used for different purposes. Ex - Hubby has a Wa MU card and gets a free monthly "FICO" score via TU. That score is actually geared as a cc score, and weights cc activity more heavily than other aspects. IOW - the score considers how revolving accounts are handled. Auto Enhanced - this type of score, used by many auto loan companies. They are more interested in how you handle auto loans or other installment type (closed end) loans. Once you have read here a bunch more, you will see many many people say "I have xxxx charge offs and collections, but I have always paid my car payments on time". I was there myself once. There is a thread here from way back with me talking about it. We desperately needed a vehicle, but scores were in the high 5's I think. We went thru a financial crisis, and I was in the beginnings of recovery and repair. Anyway, because our auto loans and auto history was perfect, with a score in the 5's we were still able to secure 4.9 financing, simply because our auto repayment habits were weighted more heavily - and evidently our auto-enhanced score was much higher. FAKOs - provided many places including the scores you buy directly from the CRAs. These are various models which no one knows how they calculate. They aren't really good for anything but to gauge progress if you are in full blown repair mode. myfico.com - This is the only place a consumer can purchase a score that is closest to a true balanced FICO. Many, many over the years have reported that when applying for mortgages, the mortgage company's scores were the same/or extremely close to their myfico score.
I guess the whole credit scoring seems like a big mystery to me. No matter how much I try and wrap my head around it I just can't understand why they come to the numbers they do. I am 23 and have had credit cards in my name only since I was 18, and previously I had cards with my mother (but my social was attached as well) I've always paid more than the minimum payments on time or early. I have kept all revolving accounts below 30-40% of the credit limit. I have a mortgage, auto and student loans.... so I also have installment loans. In the entire time since I've started to obtain credit history I have had 2 late payments - one due to moving and messing up the due date and the other was an auto bill pay problem (both are far in the past). I would say the worst thing going against me is I have traded in 3 cars within 1 1/2 years, but again all payments were on time. It almost seems pointless to get the "myFICO" score because it sounds like it really doesnt matter - since wherever you go switches around how they evaluate it and its not the same anyway, and there is no way to know how they weigh it. I know I have no errors on my report because I have previously gone though disputes and verifying corrections when I purchased my home, and nothing has changed since. The whole system seems like there is some magical formula that only Merlin knows........
Merlin doesn't know it, only Fair-Isaac knows it. Did the auto loan company quote you an interest rate? Hedwig pointed out that their model might have a lower ceiling and a 628 is really very good.
