Credit Score Question

[TexasN1880]

I am posting this thread to see if anyone can explain why my credit scores are different when other people check my score.

For example-- I checked my credit score through Truecredit.com and it was a 588 (had some problems in the past)
Then I was trying to get a new truck so the dealer had to pull my report and he told me my score was a 533.
Another dealer pulled my score as well and he told me it was a 457.

All of this was in the same day. Its really frustrating when I the scores range so much for different people. Can anyone help me figure this out????

[chane]

Very simple. TrueCredit gives out FAKO scores. (They basically guess at what your scores are, but they are usually way off.) The lenders user FICO scores.

Read more here:

Credit Scoring Basics

[Lian]

The more prominent difference in comparison of scores is when you get a non-FICO (commonly referred to as a FAKO) score, and try to compare it with a FICO score, but that is not the only difference.

Even if the score you receive was produced by a scoring algorithm licensed from Fair Isaac, that does not tell the story. Fair Isaac markets many different versions of its scoring algorithms. Consumers see this most often when comparing their scores produced based on the data from each of the three CRAs. Each CRA contracts with FI for their own distinct scoring algorithms. Thus, even with identical data with each of the three CRAs, the scores they generate, even though true FICO scores, can vary by as much as 20 or so points.

To further compound the confusion, scoring algorithms are also tailored to the needs of specific segments of the credit industry. FICO markets different versions for the auto and mortgage loan credit industries, for example. So the consumer scores you get from myFICO will often be different from the scores pulled by some market-specific creditors.

And that does not even get into the fact that, even within any FICO score you get based on a single type of scoring algorithm, such as from myFICO, that algorithm is in fact approx a dozen or so algorithms, and which one is used for generating your specific score is first determined by your "scoring bucket." Those with clean credit files are scored with one algorithm, and those with dirty credit files are scored under others. Similarly, those with lean credit files are scored under different algorithms, or sub-algorithms, from those with thick credit files. This so-called "rebucketing," which is really shifting you from one scoring algorithm to another, creates a great amount of confusion.

Just realize that there is no such thing as one FICO score.