Q&A: Why Do My Credit Scores Look Different Depending On Where I Check Them?
Writer: John Ulzheimer
Editor: Jon McDonald
Reviewer: Ashley Fricker
Key Takeaways
Credit scores look different depending on where you check them because there is no single, universal credit score. Instead, the U.S. market relies on two credit score brands — FICO and VantageScore — which you can think of like Coke and Pepsi. Both sodas, but different formulas.
Credit scores also fluctuate because the information on your credit reports changes constantly.
That means your score can change when balances rise or fall, or when items are added or removed from your report. So, it is normal to see different credit scores depending on where you check and what model produces them.
Editor’s Note: This answer is from an in-depth video Q&A with John Ulzheimer, which you can see in full on our YouTube page.
Why Credit Scores Are Like the Cereal Aisle At the Grocery Store
“In the credit market in the United States, there are two generally used brands of credit scores. FICO, which is my former employer, and VantageScore, which is a creation of the credit reporting agencies.
Actually, I was a contractor for VantageScore for a very long time and had a business relationship with both companies for, collectively, about 16 years. They’re not the same thing, right? They’re both credit scores. They’re both credit bureau-based scores, meaning that they’re determined based on the information on your credit report, but they are two entirely different things, right?
Think Pepsi, think Coke. Now, underneath the FICO brand, which is still the most commonly used credit score in the U.S. and Canadian credit markets, there are dozens and dozens and dozens of different FICO scores.
| Types of FICO Scores by Credit Bureau | ||
|---|---|---|
| Experian | Equifax | TransUnion |
| Widely used versions | ||
| FICO® Score 9 FICO® Score 8 | FICO® Score 9 FICO® Score 8 | FICO® Score 9 FICO® Score 8 |
| Versions used in auto lending | ||
| FICO® Auto Score 9 FICO® Auto Score 8 FICO® Auto Score 2 | FICO® Auto Score 9 FICO® Auto Score 8 FICO® Auto Score 5 | FICO® Auto Score 9 FICO® Auto Score 8 FICO® Auto Score 4 |
| Versions used in credit card decisioning | ||
| FICO® Bankcard Score 9 FICO® Bankcard Score 8 FICO® Score 3 FICO® Bankcard Score 2 | FICO® Bankcard Score 9 FICO® Bankcard Score 8 FICO® Bankcard Score 5 | FICO® Bankcard Score 9 FICO® Bankcard Score 8 FICO® Bankcard Score 4 |
| Versions used in mortgage lending | ||
| FICO® Score 2 | FICO® Score 5 | FICO® Score 4 |
| Newly released version | ||
| FICO® Score 10 FICO® Auto Score 10 FICO® Bankcard Score 10 FICO® Score 10T | FICO® Score 10 FICO® Auto Score 10 FICO® Bankcard Score 10 FICO® Score 10T | FICO® Score 10 FICO® Auto Score 10 FICO® Bankcard Score 10 FICO® Score 10T |
And so here’s the analogy that I use, and it makes a whole lot of sense when I use this. Let’s say you’re at the grocery store, and you get to the cereal aisle … and you know how long the cereal aisle is. It’s really, really long. And there are literally dozens and dozens of different types of cereal made by different companies.
The one thing they all have in common, they’re all cereal, but they’re not the same thing. So think of the credit score aisle at the grocery store. And when you walk down the credit score aisle, you could see a ton of credit scores, and they’re all different, but they’re all credit scores.
So that’s how it is in the U.S. credit market. People hear FICO, and they think, ‘My FICO score is this,’ or ‘my VantageScore is this.’ When in reality, you have dozens of credit scores, and there’s no guarantee they’re all going to be the same because they’re all different.
There’s no guarantee that they’re going to be the same for any specific period of time because your credit reports go through a series of changes every single month.
Just because your FICO score from Experian may be a 750 today, it doesn’t mean that your FICO score from Experian is going to be a 750 tomorrow or that your FICO score from Equifax or TransUnion is going to be the same as your FICO score from Experian.
| FICO Score 8 Factors | VantageScore 4.0 Factors |
|---|---|
| Payment History: 35% | Payment History: 41% |
| Amounts Owed: 30% | Utilization: 20% |
| Credit History: 15% | Age/Credit Mix: 20% |
| Credit Mix: 10% | New Credit: 11% |
| New Credit: 10% | Balance: 6% |
| Only uses five factors | Available Credit: 2% |
So that’s one of the things that I think consumers have a hard time wrapping their head around. I’ve been reading articles about credit scores for decades.
And one of the things that I think a lot of them fail to point out is that just because you may see references to ‘your score is this,’ in reality, that’s a little bit misleading because … no one has A score. We all have dozens of scores built by multiple companies.
Just because you may see references to ‘your score is this,’ in reality, that’s a little bit misleading because … no one has A score. We all have dozens of scores built by multiple companies.
And they’re not all the same, and there’s no guarantee they’re going to be the same because they’re designed to predict slightly different things, and so you would not expect them to be the same.
So, the FICO score that American Express is going to get may be different than the FICO score that Chase’s auto loan division is going to get because it’s two … entirely different products, right? A credit card versus a car loan.
They’re both extensions of credit, but they’re certainly not the same. One is secure, one is unsecured. One may be for $50,000, $60,000, $70,000, or one may be for a $10,000 credit limit.
So they’re very, very different things. And so the scoring systems that are used to predict the likelihood of you making payments on those two different things are going to be different because they’re designed to predict different things.
