I know i sound bitter, but i'm really curious. What's the point of these FAKO type scores, like the new PLUS score from Experian? Creditors don't see these scores right? And if they don't, what's the point then?? Why not stick to just FICO for everything? Are they selling us a service with a useless score or what?? any answers will probably not diminish my irritation, but i'm definitely curious. Thanks everyone! gilmores
Well...no one answered you, so I'll give it a shot. The scores (note the plural) exist is because each one of them is a product. Now, the the company that produces the statistical software FOR credit scoring Fair, Isaac and CO has a huge number of things that can go into a given rating...including length of credit history, number of lates, etc. Now, a given business can value different things about your credit history. This is why car loan companies don't use the same score in most cases that Mortgage lenders do. Still...they are all "FICO" scores since the statistical models came from Fair Isaac and CO (get it, FICO). The CRA are now buying credit scoring products from FICO in order to be able to sell this score to you as a consumer. One of these is the PLUS score... I find it a bit helpful to guage your overall credit health....(I wouldn't expect to see a 740 PLUS score and yet have your mortgage company's real FICO score come back with a 520). Still, wide gaps HAVE been known to exist. The only real way is to pull scores using the model of your target audience. For most people this is either a car or home loan. You CAN buy from some brokers a "tri-merged" report that also contains your scores. These are usually the most accurate you can get. Unfortunately, they usually are expensive to use for frequent checking. Well..there are lots more details, but that's the gist of it.
