I am hoping someone can provide some clarity regarding the Vantage and FICO scoring models. It has been my understanding that when potential lenders and insurers are evaluating you for creditworthiness and insurance, they use FICO scores, but companies like Credit Karma use the newer Vantage scoring models. I have been told that Vantage scores, because they are not really used by lenders, are useless to consumers who are trying to get an accurate read on how potential lenders will look at them for loans or credit cards. Anyone want to weigh in on this?
I don’t think they’re useless. They may not be identical, but they’re in the ballpark and will give you an idea of what your credit score is. All of my credit cards give me monthly credit scores, and they’re all different by as much as 20-30 points at any given point in time. The score I get from CK is also in the same ballpark, but maybe a little lower, than the scores I get from my CC’s. Seems to me the only issue is if you’re on the bubble between good and bad credit (around 740 maybe??), then the Vantage score may not tell you what side of the line you’re on. If you’re solidly above that, then it’s really irrelevant.
To make things more confusing…there are multiple versions of the FICO score and multiple versions of the Vantage score and a creditor can use a specific version.
The motivation is profit. Credit rating agencies make lots of money selling reports to creditors. If the dominant actor is using the Fahrenheit scale and you want a piece of the action, start selling the benefits of the metric version.
