Consumer Car Buying Advice Blog

Here at Auto Credit Express, many of our customers want to know why their credit score is not the same on all three credit reports…

The credit scoring model is the same.

All three credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, use a version of the FICO score. Equifax calls this a BEACON score, Experian calls theirs the Experian/Fair Isaac Risk Model and TransUnion calls theirs an EMPIRICA score. All three bureaus are also rolling out a new model, not from Fair Isaac, called the VantageScore.

In a perfect world, the three FICO scores should all be the same and the three VantageScore scores should all be the same. But the difference in scores is not because the scoring model is different, but the information that the different bureaus contain.

Differences in the credit bureaus

Unless your credit file is fairly new, there are bound to be differences in the credit bureaus. Among the many reasons:

1.    While many creditors report to all three bureaus, some report to only one or two.
2.    It may take a bureau longer to report a new creditor
3.    It may a bureau longer to remove an old file

Any one of these factors, and many others, can result in different scores.

The Bottom Line

The more closely you monitor your credit bureaus, the less chance you have of incorrect information appearing on them. Remember, you are entitled to one free credit report per year from each of the bureaus. Take advantage of this service by staggering the reports throughout the year. Remember, here at Auto Credit Express, we want you “on the road” to better credit!

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