My verdict on Vantage Scores

I've posted in lots of places about the credit bureaus' new Vantage scores (here, here, and here are just a few of the posts.) I finally obtained a copy of my Vantage Score, and my verdict is:

It sucks.

It's way off from my FICO scores, which I purchased at the same time, and which all seem pretty accurate to me. It's also lower, which doesn't make any sense, as the FICO score is based on the same data and seems to be right where it should be. Also , Vantage scores go up to 990, while FICO scores go to 850, so if a Vantage score is lower, it's WAY lower, right?

My fears about the Vantage Score system have been confirmed. I won't be doing business with any lender who uses them instead of FICO scores. Fortunately, I doubt there are very many of those at this point.

And no, I'm not just cheesed because the Vantage Score is lower (althought that's reason enough). It seems that an old inaccurate account that I've been fighting to remove for years, which only appears on my TransUnion report and not on Experian or Equifax, is affecting my Vantage Score. So just as I feared, a mistake on one of my credit reports is now damaging my entire score. Under the FICO model, that Transunion mistake wouldn't affect my other two reports, so I'd have the potential to have a better score. (As a matter of fact, my Experian score is 9 points higher than my Equifax score, which is 53 points higher than my Transunion score. That difference is far from insignificant. Naturally, I think the higher two scores are more accurate, but imagine all of them being drug down to the TransUnion score's level because of that error on the report. That's what seems to be happening with the Vantage Score.)

Comments

[John Galt]

You said, "Under the FICO model, that Transunion mistake wouldn't affect my other two reports, so I'd have the potential to have a better score." VantageScore works the same way. If you get your VantageScore using your Equifax report, a bad account on TransUnion will not impact your score.

If you pull your VantageScore and your FICO score on the same day with the same report and the VantageScore is considerably lower, all that means is that the VantageScore considers you to be more risky than FICO.

[Jeff Michael]

Okay, but the Vantagescore marketing repeatedly stresses the "greater consistency" between the three bureaus. My basic point is that the consistency they're so high on is bad for consumers. It's only good for the bureaus, who are trying to out-compete Fair Isaac. In my case, they've got me pegged completely wrong. Whom does that benefit? Do they think lenders will prefer VantageScores because they'll justify higher interest and fees for a consumer like me, with a perfect payment history?

Check out their site and tell me if I'm exaggerating about their emphasis on consistency:
http://www.vantagescore.com/

[Joh Galt]

"My basic point is that the consistency they're so high on is bad for consumers." After reading up on this, it appears that by consistency, they are referring the the issue where one bank might be getting FICO version 1.1, and your score is 700, and another bank might be using 1.2 and your score is 680 even though the underlying report data is the same. Vantage apparently keeps their model up to date for all customers.

"In my case, they've got me pegged completely wrong." Maybe it is the issue where FICO looks at accounts where you are an authorized user and Vantage does not?

[Michael Hackett]

Imagine my suprise when I was "dinged" on my Vantage report for not having a real estate mortgage. This was odd, since such a loan appears in my Experian Credit Report. Come to find out, since I paid off the Mortgage and I therefore do not have an "open" one, I am penalized under the Vantage Model.Is this stupid or is it just me?