I track my FICOs and my Vantage scores, so that I can get a more complete picture of my credit. It's silly to just decide to completely ignore VS, when it's free. Just don't use it as your only source of credit scoring and it'll perfectly valid and useful information to know, in addition to your FICOs.
The mistake people seem to make most frequently, is using only VS scores. And then they're shocked to learn later that their FICOs are way different. Of course they are. Heck, even different versions of FICO have large variances between them.
Total Loan Balance: $43k / $65k
Total SL: $78k
When I first started getting into credit scores, back around maybe 2000-2002 or so, it was pretty much impossible to acquire real credit scores online. The only way to get them was to apply for credit, and *maybe* the lender would be considerate enough to provide you with the scores they received. There were lots of online credit score services, the one I used was whatever Experian's offering at the time was, which provided what they called an "Experian Plus Score". What was an Experian Plus Score, you ask? Who the heck knows. Basically it was a number Experian made up. Unlike Vantage which uses a real algorithm and (theoretically, at least) is used by a small handful of creditors, the Exp Plus score was only a number that the consumer would ever see. Totally worthless. Anyways, being new to credit at the time, I subscribed to that service for years and never thought twice about the score they gave me - I assumed it was the one and only credit score, because nobody ever told me otherwise.
So, honestly, if someone only ever uses a FAKO site like creditkarma, and isn't someone like us who does a ton of research about it, how would they ever know that the scores are useless by themselves? CK's website certainly makes no mention about their scores not being the ones lenders see.
Fortunately, in this day and age, there are plenty of websites offering real FICO credit scores for cheap or free. Discover and Experian offer free Exp FICO8's to anyone, plus lots of banks offer various free FICOs to their members, and of course anyone can also buy lots of FICO scores from this website. It's a lot easier now than ever before to get real credit scores, but you have to know where to look, and unfortunately a lot of people still don't.
@coreysw12 wrote:
So, honestly, if someone only ever uses a FAKO site like creditkarma, and isn't someone like us who does a ton of research about it, how would they ever know that the scores are useless by themselves? CK's website certainly makes no mention about their scores not being the ones lenders see.
Why would they? They want to push the consumer into auto, credit cards and loans that they make money off, Do I really need 11 cards to be in the green? Misinformation and why its important to be informed
I get a kick out of their credit card recommendations. Like this one from today. So many "platinum" cards to pick from, they're probably all the same, I think I'll pick the CreditOne platinum 
@Anonymous wrote:IMO vantage scores take the last 2 to 3 months into account very very much
It's my understandaing that VS actually tracks trends, unlike FICO. Fico "has no memory" - it doesn't care what your balances were last month, or the month before that, it only cares what your balances are currently. Whereas, apparently VS tracks your balance trend, in other words it can tell whether it appears your balances are growing more and more every month versus whether it appears you're paying down your balances gradually every month. Arguably, this could be a VERY valuable tool for creditors. A simple snapshot of your current balances is not very helpful for a creditor who wants to know whether or not you're spiralling into deep debt.
@coreysw12 wrote:I get a kick out of their credit card recommendations. Like this one from today. So many "platinum" cards to pick from, they're probably all the same, I think I'll pick the CreditOne platinum
Platinum cards are all over the place. For Capital One, it's their entry-level card. For Amex, it's one of their top products that carries a monster AF. For Credit One, it's a worthless rebuilder card that carries a completely bogus, unnecessary predatory lender fee.
@coreysw12 wrote:I get a kick out of their credit card recommendations. Like this one from today. So many "platinum" cards to pick from, they're probably all the same, I think I'll pick the CreditOne platinum
ROFL, I cannot believe you went there. I personally do not think I have ever had a listing with Credit One on that site. They always find some higher quality card to fill in for it. That is funny that all of those are platinum cards but at the same time are all over the quality spectrum.
