What the heck is my credit score?!

(Guest Poster Profile: Daniel works for financial advisory firm for small businesses, prior that he was a mortgage broker and had dealt with credit scores on many occasions!)

With the proliferation of free credit report monitoring has come the proliferation of credit scores.  Credit Karma tells you that your score is 723, Discover tells you that it’s 731, the dealership tells you that it’s 702 and the mortgage bank says that it’s 687.

Is someone lying?

Who’s right?

Why are they all so different?

It is well known that everyone has 3 different scores - Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian.  But what isn’t so widely known is that each Bureau has many different versions of credit scores.

Over time, each bureau has updated their scoring algorithms and changed how different credit events weigh into the score, but they haven't discarded the previous versions.  Each industry has adopted a standard for a version that they like best and stuck to it. 

When you’re shopping for something in particular and comparing rates, rather than just telling them your Credit Karma score, it’s always best to get an industry-specific score from one of the sellers, so you can get accurate quotes while you’re shopping.

So you can put your mind at ease about the variety of scores that you have.

Daniel Pinkous