If in preparation for your purchase of a new home in Atlanta you have pulled you credit reports and scores to make sure your financing ducks are in a row, you may have noticed that your scores are different from each of the three agencies. This is normal and the Equifax experts explain why in the aptly titled, ”
Why Are My Three Credit Scores Different?”
It comes down to three factors that can account for differences in score:
Timing – if you don’t pull the scores at the same time, they will naturally reflect changes and different statuses. Even if do pull them at the same time, you cannot be sure that all the information got to each agency at the same time, so not all data may be present yet.
Difference in Accounts – as each credit score is a total picture of what is reported to each reporting group, creditors may not have sent all the information to each agency. This missing data would lead to each agency using a slightly different set of information with which to evaluate you.
Different Scoring models – even if all the data has gotten to the right group, there are different weights that each bureau assigns to certain behaviors and actions, so when the final tally comes in to make your score, it could be different. This is because there are so many factors involved in estimating risk that it is easy for one potential problem to have a different value from one group to another.
To learn more about credit scores, planning for big purchases, saving for
retirement and avoiding identity theft at the Equifax Finance Blog.