Question: My wife and I recently applied for an increase in our HELOC with Bank of America. Through the mail we received our individual credit scores provided through Experian. Mine was lower than I thought it should be so I went on line and looked up via Experian my personal score only to find it 59 points higher than reported on our report through BAC. The reports were dated only 9 days apart. Can things change that quickly? Which one is valid? Thanks John, Billings, MT

Answer: Yes, your credit score could change that quickly–or not. A credit score is a snapshot that changes all the time as your credit report changes.

In your case the shift probably came from the snapshot being taken at different times.

In other cases, people notice that their credit scores from the various credit scoring companies are different. The basic information is the same, but Experian, Fair Isaac (creator of FICO), and other companies in the business use different techniques to come up with a proprietary score.