Yes, TransUnion offers and uses the FICO Score 9 model. While FICO Score 8 remains the most widely used, FICO 9 is available to lenders for evaluating TransUnion credit reports, particularly for personal loans, auto loans, and to better handle medical debt and paid collections.
TransUnion FICO Score 9 separates medical debt from non‑medical collections, ignores paid medical collections and reduces the penalty for a single late payment; it also adds trended‑payment data, so a brief slip‑up hurts less than it would under previous models.
Auto lenders typically use FICO Auto Score 9, an industry-specific variation of FICO® Score 9, or other FICO Auto Scores. FICO Auto Scores are designed for auto lenders and help predict how likely a borrower is to pay a car loan on time.
A credit score is generally a number from 300 to 850 that is calculated based on the information in your credit report. Lenders may look at it to help them determine the risk in lending money to you.
When the scores are significantly different across bureaus, it is likely the underlying data in the credit bureaus is different and thus driving that observed score difference.
FICO® Score 9, is the most current and predictive FICO® Score to date that maintains the same odds-to-score relationship for ease of migration and acceptance. The adoption by hundreds of lenders confirms the predictive power of FICO® Score 9 and the benefits for the market to drive smarter decisions.
Versions 8 and 9 of FICO scores are similar, but FICO Score 9 is generally considered the more forgiving of the two for a few reasons: With FICO 9, third-party collections no longer hurt your credit score once those debts are paid off. FICO 9 treats medical collections differently than other types of debt.
Is Credit Karma your FICO score? Credit Karma does not provide credit scores using the FICO scoring model. It provides free credit scores and reports from TransUnion and Equifax using the VantageScore 3.0 scoring model.
The Three Bureaus and FICO
For example, an apartment manager who checks your credit may only look at Experian while a credit card company might only look at TransUnion. FICO was developed as an alternative to these bureaus. Many lenders prefer FICO because it paints a more holistic picture of the potential borrower.
TransUnion uses the VantageScore® credit scoring model to calculate your credit score. This model ranges from 300 to 850. A “good” score may rest in the 661 – 720 range. Equifax, meanwhile, uses its own scoring model with a range of 280 – 850, with “good” being 670 – 739 and higher.
However, most mortgage lenders use FICO scores. Your score can differ depending on which credit reporting company is used, but most mortgage lenders look at scores from all three major credit reporting companies – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion – and use the middle score for deciding what rate to offer you.
It's partly true: most negative items like late payments and collections are removed from your credit report after about seven years, but the underlying debt often still exists, and bankruptcies (Chapter 7) last 10 years, so your credit isn't entirely "clear" but mostly refreshed from old negatives. The 7-year clock starts from the date of the original delinquency, not when you paid it off or sent to collections, and the debt itself can still be pursued by collectors.
You're most likely familiar with their FICO score. FICO offers specific products and solutions for car dealers and auto loans. Their product is called Auto Score 8. As you can see here from FICO's promotional materials, Auto Score 8 is meant to help dealers assess credit risk and make approval decisions for auto loans.
Fair Isaac Corporation, or FICO, has created a variety of credit-scoring models that lenders, credit card issuers and other creditors use to gauge a borrower's potential credit risk. FICO's different credit scoring models generally consider ranges from 670 to 739 as “good.”
FICO® Scores are updated on a monthly basis, when available.
Your FICO Score is a specific, widely-used type of credit score, but it's not the only credit score, as other models (like VantageScore) and lender-specific scores exist, though FICO scores are used in over 90% of lending decisions, making them the most important to know for loans and credit cards. Think of "credit score" as the general term for a risk number, and "FICO Score" as a popular brand, like how "soda" is general and "Coca-Cola" is specific.
How to improve your FICO® Score
An excellent credit score is between 781 – 850 based on the VantageScore® 3.0 model. To achieve an excellent credit score, you need to consistently practice healthy credit habits like making payments on time and keeping your balances low.
When you get a credit score from TransUnion, it's a VantageScore® 3.0 credit score. Although scoring models tend to look at similar factors, they may weigh those factors differently, which may account for some variation in your credit scores.