FICO Score Discount

[vsjhoc]

Time to check your 3 FICO scores?

According to an email I received from http://www.myfico.com , if you buy your 3 scores before Feb. 22, 2007 and use the promo code FEBDELUXE you get 20% off, so it costs $38.28 instead of $47.85.

The fine print: You have to sign up for the annual subscription, and it reverts to the full product price on renewal. You may want to sign up, get your scores at the discount, and then cancel. Otherwise, in a year's time you may forget that you signed up, and then you'll be charged the full price.

It's odd that the website shows the annual fee as $42.84 and the one-time fee as $47.85 ... I don't know what happens if you use the code for either purchase but it's worth a try.

[kv968]

You can use this site to get your credit report free from the three agencies:

https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp

It will provide you with a credit report from each agency however if you want an actual FICO score, you have to pay a little extra. I've used it for two of them and it's something like $5-$8/score per agency. However you can only get one free report from each agency per year so if you get all three at once you'll have to wait a year to be able to do it again. I just get one from one agency then 4 months later, get it from another and 4 months later from the last one. That way I'll get a free look at different times during the year.

[vsjhoc]

Residents of Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Vermont can get an ADDITIONAL free annual report. Some other states offer a reduced rate. See the table at http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/20010223c.asp.

If you buy a credit score anywhere other than at Equifax or FICO or pay less than $15.95, you are almost certainly not buying a FICO score. TransUnion and Experian sell "FAKO" scores.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Didn't we hear last year that those three companies had compacted to soon all use the same scoring formulae? They could still come up with slightly different scores because they might not have all the same info on you, but they should be fairly close in score---once they are using the same formulae. I don't know when that goes into effect. I don't think I just dreamed this, did I?

[vsjhoc]

Joan - You weren't dreaming. It's called VantageScore. It will only affect consumers if and when the banks and mortgage companies decide to stop using FICO and drop or revise their internal scoring systems. That certainly hasn't happened yet. Here's a
post from the Credit Info Center with Fair Isaac's (seller of FICO scores) public reaction. Fair Isaac has the most to lose if the VantageScores are widely adopted. You would still have 3 different VantageScores because the information each credit bureau has can be very different.

[kv968]

Originally Posted by vsjhoc

If you buy a credit score anywhere other than at Equifax or FICO or pay less than $15.95, you are almost certainly not buying a FICO score. TransUnion and Experian sell "FAKO" scores.

I got an Equifax credit report with FICO score and it cost me $7.95. Is that a "FAKO" score just because I didn't pay $15.95?

[vsjhoc]

Originally Posted by kv968

I got an Equifax credit report with FICO score and it cost me $7.95. Is that a "FAKO" score just because I didn't pay $15.95?

If you're sure it's FICO, then you got a good deal! Sometimes they offer reduced prices but not as a general rule.

[MarianneJ]

Not sure if it still works, but you should be able to get 20% at MyFico anytime with the code MYFICO144. I have used this one for the past few years with no problem.

If that does not work try code CPPSAVINGS.

[vsjhoc]

Originally Posted by MarianneJ

If that does not work try code CPPSAVINGS.

Thanks, I was told that this code is still valid.

[kv968]

Originally Posted by vsjhoc

If you're sure it's FICO, then you got a good deal! Sometimes they offer reduced prices but not as a general rule.

I got it off the above site I mentioned and I take it it's a genuine FICO. It says it is and it's got the "registered trademark" next to it. However since you mentioned that scores by TransUnion and Experian are "FAKO" scores I went back and looked at the score I got from I used TransUnion from the same site. I noticed it said my "credit score is..." but it didn't say FICO (paid $5.95 for that one ). So I guess maybe it wasn't a true FICO score. Thanks for pointing that out. Although I wonder does it really matter? I did them about 4 months apart and they both showed just about the same score. Which they should have because nothing really changed within that time period.

[vsjhoc]

If you want to compare apples to apples among the scores that lenders see, then get the FICOs. If your FAKOs are in the same range, I wouldn't worry about it. Your scores only really matter at the time you apply for credit, and in the meanwhile they will vary every month.

It just makes me so mad that TU and EX sell their own scores and unless you read the very fine print, you don't realize that you're not getting a FICO. From TU's site:

"The TransUnion TransRisk New Account Credit Score is provided to help you better understand how lenders view your credit report ... TrueCredit is not connected in any way with Fair, Isaac and Company; the credit score provided here is not a so-called FICO score. The credit scores of TransUnion may not be identical in every respect to any consumer credit scores produced by any other company."

[kv968]

So what determines which credit agency a lender uses if TransUnion and Experian aren't true FICO scores? Some places use one and not the other.

[vsjhoc]

Originally Posted by kv968

So what determines which credit agency a lender uses if TransUnion and Experian aren't true FICO scores? Some places use one and not the other.

You can get a bona fide FICO score from each of the 3 credit bureaus if you get them from the FICO site (or Equifax's). In addition to the real FICO scores, TransUnion and Experian have their own scores -- the FAKOs.

Lenders rely on the FICOs (well, actually it's a different version of the FICOs that you buy -- but let's not make this any more confusing).

As for which FICO score(s) an individual lender views ... well, that's up to the lender. This is why it pays to make sure all 3 reports are accurate, because you never know which one(s) a lender will choose.