Equifax Vantage Score vs Transunion?

Anonymous · ‎01-02-2021

Hi All,

Hope everyone's having a good Saturday night. I'm happy to report I was able to achieve my dream of buying a home last summer thanks to a lot of the great advice I've received on this board. I'm generally just letting my credit sit/coast for the moment--as it ages and sheds inquiries. I have a number of accounts at zero balance. I use one as my weekend card and pay it off in full each month and collect my Reward dollars. I use another to pay household bills like internet, Netflix and security monitoring and also pay that off every month. I only have a running blance on my Barclays (the biggest balance I have), my Amazon store card, Overstock and West Elm and Cap1--all a result of items I needed for the house. All with a plan for paying down and then off in the first half of this year. I just paid off the Crate and Barrel card ahead of getting hit with accrued interest this month. I splurged on an expensive piece of furniture and paid off the $1000 I still had left on it so now Crate & Barrel is at a zero balance. So a curious thing happened when this zero balance reported to Trasnunion via Credit Karma: my score went up 73 points. When this payoff reported to Equifax a few days ahead of Trasnunion, my Equifax score actually dropped by a point. So both reports are now showing all the exact same information, but Transunion reaped a huge reward for the payoff of Crate and Barrel and for Equifax, I took a hit. I know the Vantage score is not very useful, but I'm still curious about what the difference could be? Any takers? Note, I only get my TU and EQ scores through Credit Karma. I get my real Fico through the EX site. Thanks for any insight. And Happy New Year!

AllZero · ‎01-02-2021

@Anonymous wrote:
I know the Vantage score is not very useful, but I'm still curious about what the difference could be? Any takers? Note, I only get my TU and EQ scores through Credit Karma. I get my real Fico through the EX site. Thanks for any insight. And Happy New Year!

Unfortunately, I won't be able to answer your question. I'm not sure if people here have tried to figure out their scoring algorithm as in depth compared to FICO?

Was your card near maxed out? Perhaps, that is why you got the VantageScore increase?

Was their any major change in your FICO scores, Experian?

Happy New Year!

Anonymous · ‎01-02-2021

@AllZero wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I know the Vantage score is not very useful, but I'm still curious about what the difference could be? Any takers? Note, I only get my TU and EQ scores through Credit Karma. I get my real Fico through the EX site. Thanks for any insight. And Happy New Year!
Unfortunately, I won't be able to answer your question. I'm not sure if people here have tried to figure out their scoring algorithm as in depth compared to FICO?

Was your card near maxed out? Perhaps, that is why you got the VantageScore increase?

Was their any major change in your FICO scores, Experian?

Happy New Year!

Thanks! Thought I'd give it a try. The card was at 50% before I paid it off. EX Fico score has been a solid 704 for months now. The payoff didn't move it, which was also surprising, actually.

AllZero · ‎01-02-2021

@Anonymous wrote:
@AllZero wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I know the Vantage score is not very useful, but I'm still curious about what the difference could be? Any takers? Note, I only get my TU and EQ scores through Credit Karma. I get my real Fico through the EX site. Thanks for any insight. And Happy New Year!
Unfortunately, I won't be able to answer your question. I'm not sure if people here have tried to figure out their scoring algorithm as in depth compared to FICO?

Was your card near maxed out? Perhaps, that is why you got the VantageScore increase?

Was their any major change in your FICO scores, Experian?

Happy New Year!
Thanks! Thought I'd give it a try. The card was at 50% before I paid it off. EX Fico score has been a solid 704 for months now. The payoff didn't move it, which was also surprising, actually.

I guess you didn't cross any individual or aggregate utilization thresholds since EX was solid.

If you want to learn more about thresholds, see below.

From ABCD2199
The Truth about Credit Card Utilization

From Birdman7
General Scoring Primer and Version 8 Master Thread rev.5.17.20

Anonymous · ‎01-02-2021

@AllZero wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@AllZero wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I know the Vantage score is not very useful, but I'm still curious about what the difference could be? Any takers? Note, I only get my TU and EQ scores through Credit Karma. I get my real Fico through the EX site. Thanks for any insight. And Happy New Year!
Unfortunately, I won't be able to answer your question. I'm not sure if people here have tried to figure out their scoring algorithm as in depth compared to FICO?

Was your card near maxed out? Perhaps, that is why you got the VantageScore increase?

Was their any major change in your FICO scores, Experian?

Happy New Year!
Thanks! Thought I'd give it a try. The card was at 50% before I paid it off. EX Fico score has been a solid 704 for months now. The payoff didn't move it, which was also surprising, actually.
I guess you didn't cross any individual or aggregate utilization thresholds since EX was solid.

If you want to learn more about thresholds, see below.

From ABCD2199
The Truth about Credit Card Utilization

From Birdman7
General Scoring Primer and Version 8 Master Thread rev.5.17.20

Yeah, I'm under 30% (at 22%), but still above 10%. Thanks for the links. Will read.

Iusedtolurk · ‎01-03-2021

@Anonymous wrote:
@AllZero wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@AllZero wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I know the Vantage score is not very useful, but I'm still curious about what the difference could be? Any takers? Note, I only get my TU and EQ scores through Credit Karma. I get my real Fico through the EX site. Thanks for any insight. And Happy New Year!
Unfortunately, I won't be able to answer your question. I'm not sure if people here have tried to figure out their scoring algorithm as in depth compared to FICO?

Was your card near maxed out? Perhaps, that is why you got the VantageScore increase?

Was their any major change in your FICO scores, Experian?

Happy New Year!
Thanks! Thought I'd give it a try. The card was at 50% before I paid it off. EX Fico score has been a solid 704 for months now. The payoff didn't move it, which was also surprising, actually.
I guess you didn't cross any individual or aggregate utilization thresholds since EX was solid.

If you want to learn more about thresholds, see below.

From ABCD2199
The Truth about Credit Card Utilization

From Birdman7
General Scoring Primer and Version 8 Master Thread rev.5.17.20
Yeah, I'm under 30% (at 22%), but still above 10%. Thanks for the links. Will read.

Yes that Vantage is a hard one to nail down due to little things making it have wild swings. Mines have not really done that my Trans and EQ stay pretty close with almost identical data. Right now they are 734 and 733 respectfully.

You say one account was at 50% and you paid it down to 0% that's crossing thresholds of 50% and 30% should have been good for a few points. (not losings 1 and gaining 70+) but that's Vantage for you. It may even out later but as most will say the Fico only matters which I believe you already know. But no harm in looking for a better understanding of Vantage especially since V4 seems to be easing its way in to some creditors reports.

Anonymous · ‎01-03-2021

@Iusedtolurk wrote:
especially since V4 seems to be easing its way in to some creditors reports.

Well, that's distressing. Sigh.

Thanks for insight. Vantage remains curious and elusive.