The three major credit bureaus in the United States – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion – developed the Vantage Score credit scoring model as a competitor to the industry standard Fair Isaac Corporation’s FICO score. However, lenders and financial institutions have not widely accepted Vantage Score due to its differences in scoring ranges and low adoption rates.
Vantage Score uses a scoring range of 501-990, which is different from most credit scoring models that use a range of 350-850. This leads to confusion for consumers who may not be aware of the scoring differences between models. A Vantage Score of 700, for example, is considered a bad score while it is a good score in the FICO scale. This underscores the importance of using a service that provides scores based on the same scoring model that lenders use to get an accurate picture of your creditworthiness.
TransUnion-owned True Credit is one credit monitoring service that uses Vantage Score. It’s advisable to avoid using services owned by credit bureaus and instead, look for third-party services that use FICO scores or other widely accepted credit scoring models to get a clear and accurate picture of your creditworthiness.
New Version of Credit Scores
In 2009, Fair Isaac introduced FICO 08, a new version of its FICO score that has since been widely adopted by lenders and is now the most commonly used credit scoring model. It’s essential to monitor your credit score using a service that provides FICO 08 scores or another widely accepted credit scoring model to get an accurate picture of your creditworthiness.
In summary, Vantage Score has not been widely accepted by lenders and financial institutions due to differences in scoring ranges and low adoption rates. To get a clear and accurate picture of your creditworthiness, it’s vital to use a service that provides scores based on a widely accepted credit scoring model. Contact us to learn more about credit monitoring services and how they can help you stay on top of your credit.