OK - First the good news and then down to business. As some of you know I am a big fan of Credit unions. Mine have treated me great since my injury and resultant BK that was discharged in Feb '99. In 2000, two of the CU's gave me good visa cards after my BK when I documented what happened to cause the BK. Each has now been upgraded to gold cards with... $6,000 limit, 25 day grace, 12.4% or 12.5% apr. respectively, and rewards. Yesterday I was notified that the 2nd of the 2 cards was being upgraded to the new $6,000 limit from the original $2,000 limit and that the apr. was being reduced from 13.9% to 12.5% as it is now gold. As you have guessed, I requested the increase and a hard inquiry was done on Experian which is now a clean report free of derogatories. Now the interesting part - I keep a daily log of my Creditexpert score. My score was 701 on Sunday when I applied on-line for the increase and Creditexpert recorded the "hard inquiry" by the credit union the same day. Yesterday, the credit union let me know what my Fico score was!! 728 - Yes! - 27 points higher than shown on Creditexpert. Sticking to facts. I have 2 credit items in dispute. One is a recent credit inquiry and the other is my Target account which shows a high balance figure but not the credit limit. I do not think that these 2 items in dispute could result in a 27 point difference. My conclusion is that there is more than one Fico score depending on what the inquiry is being pulled for. For example, the credit union did an inquiry for a credit card. I suspect a different score would result for an auto loan or real estate loan as a different algorithm would be used. I think the Creditexpert score is just a rough approximation of the actual Fico score(s) available. I have to admit that I was shocked to see a 27 point difference as most of us who subscribe to Creditexpert are probably in the market for credit cards rather than other loans. These are the facts. opinions anyone?? BTW - The day after the new inquiry was made, my Creditexpert score dropped 2 points. Also, this credit union is very consumer friendly and this is the 3rd time since May 2000 that I have been allowed to either see or be told my score. I am also keeping Creditexpert. Best regards Jim
I had a tri merged report run for mortgage and checked my Creditexpert score in about an hour of each other Experian Score on the trimerged report: 631 Creditexpert score : 611 Dan
My opinion is that there's no reason to conclude that scores are customized to different types of applications. Your different results can be explained by your other statement, that Credit Expert is just a rough approximation of the FICO score. It is a slightly different scoring model, and doesn't even claim to be a FICO score. The lender who gave you your FICO score may have been using it as a generic term for any credit score. It may not have been a FICO score, but even more important, it probably wasn't a Credit Expert score. That alone is sufficient to explain the difference of 27 points. I'm really getting off on this subject. Anyhow, I think that either of your scores is fine, considering the fairly recent bankruptcy. You're doing great.
Hello, Jim. I have a question for you. You know how the bar graph shown on the "credit simulator" section of Creditexpert does not accurately reflect the numerical credit score given by Creditexpert? I wonder if that representation on the bar graph is not the Creditexpert score but rather one's real FICO score? In my case, my Creditexpert score is 588, but based on the bar graph, it appears that I have a score of about 630 or so. I wonder if 630 is my real FICO score? I don't know what it is at this time. What are your thoughts on this? How does the score shown on the bar graph relate to your real FICO score? If you can, check it out and tell me if you see any correlation. Appreciate the info, Jim. -chriscraft
No. The simulator is just that, a simulation. It does not use even half of the variables that the true FICO score uses. It is a tool to give you a ballpark idea of what can effect your score. Your CreditExpert score is typically lower than the true FICO counterpart, and some have reported over a 25 pt difference in scores. Don't waste too much time looking at the simulator.
MikeB, thanks for the reply. Yep, I know the simulator is just that - a simulator, however, it sure would be nice to know why the bar graph doesn't even represent the number that Creditexpert gives you as your CE "score". That makes no sense to me, and nobody can explain to me why the simulator doesn't accurately reflect my Creditexpert score. I know it is only a simulator, but hell, since I have a 588 CE score, why doesn't the bar graph show that I have a 588 rather than a 630. That makes no sense to me at all. It is wrong. And apparently Experian doesn't give a damn about fixing it. Oh well. Such is life. I guess the best we can expect from the simulator is to be given a senses of what generally happens when certain of the variables making up the CE score change. Anyways, take care, MikeB.
The simulator uses, as was posted previously, about 4 of the approximately 60 variables that go into making up your "real score". Your credit expert score factors in all 60 variables. It is the same concept that causes different creditors to pull different scores depending on the variables they choose to use.
Hi chriscraft, The simulator in my opinion is worthless. My simulator score appears to be 760's. Half the information located to the left of the simulator bar is wrong and so negative that my simulator score should be lower not higher. Credit scoring is certainly a complex issue. Just for your interest, when my CU pulls Experian, the score is printed in the top center of page one of the report. I've seen it myself. Jim
