Home > Blogs > My Essistant > MyEssistant - Real Estate Virtual Assistant Services

SERIOUS Credit Score Discrepancies - and it happened to ME!!!

By My Essistant

Services for Real Estate Pros with MyEssistant

July 01, 2007 02:34 PM

This is funny (please note the dripping sarcasm). I moved to the US about a year and a half ago from Canada. Understanding the importance of a FICO score (I knew I wanted to get into Real Estate and Property Investing) - I had been very active on working on building up a strong credit history and score from day one.
I even signed up for one of those memberships (with Equifax) that "monitors" your report monthly .... and also provides you with access to your score monthly.
I was shocked after just moving here to see that they were already reporting a score of 704 (at that point I only had one credit card - with a whopping credit line of $300.00 - and it had been open for only 3 or 4 months - that is ALL that was on my report). I was feeling pretty good about myself .... UNTIL .... when applying for a job about a month later .... I found out that Experian was ACTUALLY reporting a score of 590 when a credit report is pulled by a 3rd party! I am still having a hard time sorting out how the product they were selling me was reporting one number .... and the reality was a completely different number. HOW DOES THAT HELP THE CONSUMER AT ALL?

The sole purpose of my purchasing their product was to ensure everything was going right with my FICO score and history .... HOWEVER .... I was not obtaining the true information that I was paying to obtain .... and therefore was not only ignorant of the TRUE situation .... but believed the situation was the exact opposite of what it was (phew! does that make any sense?)

*sigh* - I learned the 'Buyer Beware' lesson on this one. Anyone else out there experience this?

Comments(15)

Comment

Show All Comments Sort:

Doug McAnally

RCP Realty Group, LLC - Calera, AL

Working Hard to Make your Experience Easier

Absolutely...My last home purchase showed my score 60 points higher when I pulled it than when the mortgage compnay pulled it. It is just another sales pitch if you ask me.

Doug

Jul 01, 2007 02:37 PM

Chris Lengquist

Ad Astra Realty - Olathe, KS

Kansas City Real Estate Investing

It is just stupid. But as I understand it there can be large changes depending on whether or not you pull it, a car company pulls it, a credit card commpany pulls it or a mortgage company pulls it. Why does it have to be such a mystery?

Jul 01, 2007 02:40 PM

Ray Perry

CENTURY 21 The Neil Company Real Estate - Roseburg, OR

Realtor, CRS, GRI, e-PRO

If they make a mistake it's near impossible to correct it. We are at their mercy and there is very little we can do about except spend lots of money on one of those services that clean up credit. Good luck in calling them on it.

Jul 01, 2007 02:43 PM

Angel Jackson

Atlanta, GA

Not only do they give you different credit scores you better beware of the credit fraud alert. They never alert you when someone is trying to obtain credit in your name. This happened to my nephew who's only 20. Someone brought a house and a car in his name in another state. You pay a monthly fee for what?whats up with that??????

Jul 01, 2007 02:50 PM

Jason Price

Mortgage Financial Group, Inc (NMLS 219650) - Tavares, FL

The Mortgage Rider

Dierdre,

I hear this quite frequently from borrowers. When I ask how they think their credit is, they often say great; I just pulled it through such and such credit bureau. I pay for their monthly service check-up, and it says I have a ### credit score. My eyes roll back because I know what is going to happen next.

I believe the reason for this is because credit lenders pull credit from various 3rd party credit reporting agencies. These 3rd parties have their own matrix that filters information provided by the 3 main bureaus. For example: I can pull your credit at the same exact time that someone else pulls it but through a different 3rd party company. They will most likely show different scores and maybe even a couple different trades (plus or minus). It is this filtering that causes the big discrepancy.

Jul 01, 2007 02:56 PM

Bruce Swedal

Denver, CO

Denver Real Estate

I had not heard of this happening before. Maybe you can get your money back from Experian.

Jul 01, 2007 02:57 PM

Joan Whitebook

BHG The Masiello Group - Nashua, NH

Consumer Focused Real Estate Services

I think it is time for some real reform in the credit car reporting industry. I think someone on AR wrote something about making sure the information was consistent -- However, it is not easy to fix something -- even when it is not your fault! It is time to call your congressmen and women.

Jul 01, 2007 03:19 PM

» Bill Burress Nationwide Mortgage Originator

» Bill Burress Nationwide Mortgage Originator - Fort Myers, FL

Try explaining this to the borrower that brings you their credit report and score only to find their real score is much lower.

BLOG ON!

Jul 02, 2007 01:00 AM

Desiree Daniels

RE/MAX Tri County - Robbinsville, NJ

I have found nothing but inconsistencies with credit scores and the different reporting agencies... and ya know what .. i don't know how they are complied but as long as the scores are good in the 700's I am happy with that.

okay on another note - What does the graphic say? Khirni - What the Hell is Khirni???

Jul 03, 2007 05:40 AM

Ray Perry

CENTURY 21 The Neil Company Real Estate - Roseburg, OR

Realtor, CRS, GRI, e-PRO

I don't think they know what they say, it's a bunch of letters. mine is magolo. What's that? I'm just about to have a run in with the credit reporting folks. They have too much power.

Jul 03, 2007 07:43 AM

Laura Monroe

Inman News - San Francisco, CA

Dir. of Industry Engagement & Social Media

Deirdre~ That totally sucks! I had no idea. I just signed up for the same type of thing. Unbelievable! I can't believe there is such misrepresentation going on to the consumer..?

Jul 04, 2007 04:26 AM

JudyAnn Lorenz

Bar JD Communications - Mansfield, MO

Virtual Marketing Consultant

I've heard mortgage people say not to pull your own score because frequent 'pulling' can make it go up too. Anyone know about that?

Jul 05, 2007 11:41 PM

My Essistant

MyEssistant - Santa Monica, CA

JudyAnn - According to the advertising - pulling your own score is a right that you have and you should suffer no detriment because of it (such as lowering your own FICO).

I think the main issue here is that there is a number of irresponsible companies (including the main credit reporting bureaus) running around in an industry that is highly unregulated -- but highly influential on one's financial successes or failures .... and no one is holding anyone accountable. Because it is such a confusing industry with so many players - I don't think anyone knows where to point the finger and would rather just walk away defeated. It's frustrating to say the least.

Jul 06, 2007 04:23 PM

Jennifer Bowen

Richland, WA

You also must remember that the credit score is figured differently depending on who is pulling it. Some industries pull the FICO score and some pull the Beacon. These are figured with different ratios and certain account types add in differently.

It is all a bit confusing. Between the 3 bureaus your score can be different as well since many companies only report to 1 or 2 bureaus. Each report will have different accounts. They do this because of the cost of reporting.

I agree with JudyAnn that the industry needs better regulations and information should be shared between the bureaus if it is ever going to give a truly accurate picture of one's credit profile.

Jul 26, 2007 04:57 AM

Melissa Boyd

iAssist Virtual Services - Fayetteville, NC

i too have noticed that my and my husband's scores vary as much as 75 points or more between the 3 major bureaus. But we had a different experience recently. We've been working on rebuilding our credit after some major financial problems and have raised our score over 100 points but still under what I was told by 3 banks our minimum needed to be in order to get a car loan. When I went and applied for a car loan, I was expecting 8% or more. We got a very low rate that is only for people with the excellent credit rating! It seems our score is actually better than what shows up!

I do wish that there were better regulations with credit reporting and scoring but now that we are on track again, I hope to never go back again.

Jul 30, 2007 02:04 PM