The Vantage Score

A Challenge to FICO

In 2006, the three major credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion announced that together they had developed a new credit scoring system, which they named Vantage. Their goal was to mount a viable challenge to the widely used FICO system.

A Good Effort

Vantage was not the first attempt by the bureaus to challenge FICO. In fact, each of the bureaus had previously created scoring systems on their own, none of which made any inroads into the lender market. Together they believed that they could make enough of an impression to finally gain market traction.

The Potential Payoff

The bureaus have enormous financial incentive to develop a scoring system to rival FICO. Every time a lender purchases a FICO score from one of the bureaus they must pay a fee to Fair Isaac. If the bureaus could cut Fair Isaac out of the picture it would be a financial windfall.

A New Focus

As it stands today, almost four years later, lenders have not adopted Vantage. Given FICO’s hold on the market, combined with the fact that FICO scores have proven to provide quite accurate risk assessments, Vantage is not likely to find lender acceptance anytime soon. This does not means that Vantage is fading from the scene. The TransUnion website, TrueCredit.com, now offers the Vantage score in place of their own TrueCredit Score. It is possible that Experian and Equifax will follow suit.

The Look of Vantage

Vantage scores range from 501 to 990, and assign letter grades to five numeric score ranges as follows:

  • 901-990: A Credit
  • 801-900: B Credit
  • 701-800: C Credit
  • 601-700: D Credit
  • 501-600: F Credit

Stick With FICO

It is important to recognize that Vantage scores are quite different, both in the way they behave and the range of numbers themselves. It is essential to be aware of the presence of Vantage, but for credit repair purposes your focus should remain on FICO.