Disparity in scores despite same reports?

Question

After reading the forums for a while i've finally decided to sign up and join everyone.I've been subscribed to experian for a while and it shows my score's coming in at a healthy(considering my currently sky high utilization) 632, however I found my equifax to come in at 576.They both have the same exact report information, Except for inquiries, i got hit with a whopping 10 on equifax when i was getting my car in feburary, but i was always told those only count as one. equifax shows 16, experian 7 The biggest hit on me is a very late payment 2 years ago when i didn't know anything about credit. I let it run to 180 days, equifax reports as 180, Experian reports as 120+. The account was eventually paid off in full but it still shows negative on the account. To complicate things even further, When i signed up for EQ, it showed scores for all 3 accounts, and Eq came in at 576, TU 590, Experian 585. Long term i know this is all gonna be fine, but in the short term i wanted to get my score up to 680  to Refi my car in the next 2 months by paying down my utlization, which with experian, is entirely possible, With EQ coming in at 576 though, seems impossible. Eq is the score that ultimately matters as its the one they pull. Any input/advice?

Answer 1

Kuma wrote:
After reading the forums for a while i've finally decided to sign up and join everyone.I've been subscribed to experian for a while and it shows my score's coming in at a healthy(considering my currently sky high utilization) 632, however I found my equifax to come in at 576.They both have the same exact report information, Except for inquiries, i got hit with a whopping 10 on equifax when i was getting my car in feburary, but i was always told those only count as one. equifax shows 16, experian 7 The biggest hit on me is a very late payment 2 years ago when i didn't know anything about credit. I let it run to 180 days, equifax reports as 180, Experian reports as 120+. The account was eventually paid off in full but it still shows negative on the account. To complicate things even further, When i signed up for EQ, it showed scores for all 3 accounts, and Eq came in at 576, TU 590, Experian 585. Long term i know this is all gonna be fine, but in the short term i wanted to get my score up to 680  to Refi my car in the next 2 months by paying down my utlization, which with experian, is entirely possible, With EQ coming in at 576 though, seems impossible. Eq is the score that ultimately matters as its the one they pull. Any input/advice?Well, actually, and as you noted, they are not the same reports The inquiries are different as well as the late payments. Different data = different scores. You can't get rid of the inquires, well I guess you could but it's not likely, and the lates, well, those are major derogs and will continue to hurt your score really for the enitre 7 years but they will lessen over time - you need to work to get rid of those if you have not already (it took me a year to get rid of one 30-day late, you will need to work at this). One thing I would do is determine which is correct - was it 180 or 120? If it was 120 then fix the other reporting for 180 (if it was 180 then don't rock the boat). Are you sure you are checking your scores from these sources all at the same time? If not then a difference in time can equal a difference in scores based on the same report. Hoping for a 50 point gain in the short term is not realistic UNLESS you have other areas that can be changed. For example, UTIL, you say it's sky high, well depending on what your definition of sky high is and on how many accounts you could very well be able to grab 50 points by lowering that UTIL to under 10%. And heck, get rid of those lates and you could shoot for the moon. If you'd like more detailed info you'd need to list all your tradelines with their respective balances and limits. The median FICO® Score 8 for the entire U.S. was 713 as of October 2014 (50% of the population scores above and below that score). I'll let you determine if you feel your score is healthy based on that data point.