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Capital One, Credit Karma and some others provide VantageScore 3.0 scores. Do any lenders actually use these for anything or are they totally for entertainment purposes?
Some lenders do for sure. Revelate I believe has had direct experience where a credit granting decision was made to him based in part on a Vantage score (and he received a letter to that effect).
Moreover, it's likely (in my opinion) that many more lenders are testing Vantage behind the scenes to see whether it might be a reliable model for them as indeed it appears to be (reliable at predicting risk, which is what FICO and VS are all about).
So even if a given creditor today is far more likely to pull your FICO score rather than a Vantage Score, that could be very different as time goes on.
Therefore the phrase "totally for entertainment purposes" would not be the best way to describe Vantage, especially if that means "only good for its silly comic value." Vanatge Scores are especially good IMO for people who want a free simple choice to track their improvement over time, e.g. via Credit Karma. My advice to such folks is to once a year grab their FICO 8 scores pulled on the same date via a $1 solution like Credit Check Total, just so they have some sense as to how the two models are differing for their profile.
@Anonymous wrote:
I haven't had a lender pull it yet, but my apartment used it when running my credit for their application. At this moment, I'd prefer everyone pull my vantage scores. THOSE scores are excellent. LOL
VantageScore is going after the low hanging fruit first. The rental market is a primary target for them and they have made major inroads in that market segment. Some of the success is likely due to credit score use for rental decisions is more recent so there is no holy grail baseline reference to contend with.
My Vantage 3.0 scores are 75-100 points LOWER than my Fico 8. And 100-125 points lower than my Fico 9s.
And those Vantage scores don't want to move... I went from 35% util to 22% util over two months, and my TU Vantage score went up 2 points while my TU Fico 8 went up 17.
NFCU MR: $25K | Venture: $21K | Amex ED: $18K | NFCU CR: $18K | Amex BCE: $15K | IT #1: $17.5K | PNC Core: $15K | PPMC: $12K | Wells Fargo: $11K | Savor: 12K | Cap1 QS: $8.5K | Barclays Rewards: $7.75K | IT #2: $7.3K | MLife: $9.5K | Sportsman's Guide: $8.7K | PenFed PR: $5.5K | Elan Plat: $2.3K | TRV: $3.6K | BotW: $3K
Current FICO 8 Scores: EQ: 828| TU: 805 | EX: 814
My 3.0 scores are 5-10 points lower than my 08 scores.
I must be the odd one. My Fico 8 scores pretty much exactly match, within a point or 3, my Vantage scores every single month.