Formula for converting the Vantange score into a rough FICO

[Anonymous]

I've heard about a  formula for converting the Vantange score into a rough idea of what your FICO score would be.

Supposedly it's the Vantage score multiplied by .86.    

Does anyone have experience with this and if so is the calculation close? 

[haulingthescoreup]

It came sorta close on one of my scores, but not on the other two. (This was back when we could pull our EX FICO score.)

What the .86 conversion factor is doing is accounting for the different score ranges of Vantage and FICO scores. It's like converting Fahrenheit to Celsius [C = (F-32) x 5/9] It doesn't address the fact that Vantage gives different weights to many of the factors on your score reports. So depending on how clean or how, ummm, complex your reports are, the conversion will vary in its ability to predict the real thing, aka your FICO score.

[smallfry]

I think if you have an absolutely clean report it should be fairly close. If you look at the % weightings versus FICO they really aren't that much different. Vantage seems to want more available credit and an open mortgage. Even when I had a BK present my number 1 negative was no open real estate tradeline. My TU and EX are nearly identical and the last FICO pulls in Feb. 2009 were very close. While it is not a true FICO score Vantage shouldn't be dismissed out of hand for those with clean reports.

[llecs]

A few months ago I applied that formula and compared my FICO with Vantage on the same day. My FICO score was still 70 or so points higher. As mentioned, both scores have different formulas. Vantage factors in stuff FICO does not and vice-versa.

[crivas21]

IMO  its always best to go for the "real thing" and spend a few dls and buy your fico to make sure where your credit stands! 

[MattH]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I've heard about a  formula for converting the Vantange score into a rough idea of what your FICO score would be.

Supposedly it's the Vantage score multiplied by .86.    

Does anyone have experience with this and if so is the calculation close? 

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As others have said, there does not exist an accurate conversion.  The best you can do is to look at percentiles of the scores as given in the table below, but since they weight different factors differently even percentiles may be misleading.  Think of a college class with several instructors: no matter how hard they try to be fair, there are going to be differences (I was once one of those instructors, and I can assure anybody who has not done this that we worked very hard to minimize differences but never managed to eliminate them).  We all know that even real FICO scores vary somewhat among the different FICO scoring models.  Anyway, the best you can do if you know one but want the other is to compare percentiles.  For instance FICO says 13% of the population are 800 or higher while Vantage says 11% of the population are 901 or higher, from which we conclude a 900 Vantage score corresponds to a FICO score a little below 800.  FICO says 15% of the population are 599 or lower while Vantage says 19% of the population are 600 or lower, from which we conclude a 600 Vantage score corresponds to a FICO score somewhat lower than 600.

Fico				Vantage
range	percent	cumulative		range	percent	cumulative
up to 499	2	2		501 to 600	19	19
500 to 549	5	7		601 to 700	19	38
550 to 599	8	15		701 to 800	22	60
600 to 649	12	27		801 to 900	29	89
650 to 699	15	42		901 to 990	11	100
700 to 749	18	60
750 to 799	27	87
800 plus	13	100

Above I compare the distribution of FICO scores as given in http://www.myfico.com/Downloads/Files/myFICO_UYFS_Booklet.pdf (they only give the percentage in each range so I had to add up the percentages myself to get the cumulative distribution) versus the distribution of Vantage Scores according to http://www.vantagescore.experian.com/ (given in a less convenient format than the FICO table: as I roll over each range in a Flash animation, the percentage of the population in that range pops up; also it gives cumulative percentages in a confusing manner, describing the lower categories as "bottom X percent" and upper categories as "top X percent" so I had to subtract to get the percentages).

Experian says 97.73% of U.S. consumers have Vantage Scores below the 955 I pulled just now, but since EX refuses to sell FICO scores to consumers I do not know how that translates into my EX FICO score.  Back when I could pull EX FICO scores mine was typically 820 to 830, and my credit profile now is quite similar to what it was back then.

[MattH]

Note added December 2010 to this posting from Spring 2010: the Great Recession may have shifted these distributions somewhat, see http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/General-Credit-Topics/CreditKarma-now-offers-yet-another-FAKO-Vantag...

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@MattH wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I've heard about a  formula for converting the Vantange score into a rough idea of what your FICO score would be.

Supposedly it's the Vantage score multiplied by .86.    

Does anyone have experience with this and if so is the calculation close? 

---

As others have said, there does not exist an accurate conversion.  The best you can do is to look at percentiles of the scores as given in the table below, but since they weight different factors differently even percentiles may be misleading.  Think of a college class with several instructors: no matter how hard they try to be fair, there are going to be differences (I was once one of those instructors, and I can assure anybody who has not done this that we worked very hard to minimize differences but never managed to eliminate them).  We all know that even real FICO scores vary somewhat among the different FICO scoring models.  Anyway, the best you can do if you know one but want the other is to compare percentiles.  For instance FICO says 13% of the population are 800 or higher while Vantage says 11% of the population are 901 or higher, from which we conclude a 900 Vantage score corresponds to a FICO score a little below 800.  FICO says 15% of the population are 599 or lower while Vantage says 19% of the population are 600 or lower, from which we conclude a 600 Vantage score corresponds to a FICO score somewhat lower than 600.

Fico				Vantage
range	percent	cumulative		range	percent	cumulative
up to 499	2	2		501 to 600	19	19
500 to 549	5	7		601 to 700	19	38
550 to 599	8	15		701 to 800	22	60
600 to 649	12	27		801 to 900	29	89
650 to 699	15	42		901 to 990	11	100
700 to 749	18	60
750 to 799	27	87
800 plus	13	100

Above I compare the distribution of FICO scores as given in http://www.myfico.com/Downloads/Files/myFICO_UYFS_Booklet.pdf (they only give the percentage in each range so I had to add up the percentages myself to get the cumulative distribution) versus the distribution of Vantage Scores according to http://www.vantagescore.experian.com/ (given in a less convenient format than the FICO table: as I roll over each range in a Flash animation, the percentage of the population in that range pops up; also it gives cumulative percentages in a confusing manner, describing the lower categories as "bottom X percent" and upper categories as "top X percent" so I had to subtract to get the percentages).

Experian says 97.73% of U.S. consumers have Vantage Scores below the 955 I pulled just now, but since EX refuses to sell FICO scores to consumers I do not know how that translates into my EX FICO score.  Back when I could pull EX FICO scores mine was typically 820 to 830, and my credit profile now is quite similar to what it was back then.

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A few years ago the Federal Reserve did an interesting study of credit scoring, on which I posted here:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Federal-Reserve-Bank-report-on-effects-of-credit-scoring/m-p/667315#M46439

But for this thread the relevant aspect is near the end of the Fed report: some graphs plotting various factors with several different scoring models: Vantage Score, TransRisk Score, and a score of their own devising created for their research purposes.  Also very revealing is that even authors with the clout of the Fed and a legal mandate by Congress to study the impact of credit scoring had to do considerable reverse-engineering because the industry was not about to reveal their secret sauce to the Fed.  Close study of the Fed report will teach you quite a lot about which factors have the highest weight in credit scoring and why they do.