VS 5.0?

[GreatLife]

Apparently now there's gonna be this..I'm  getting credit score weary:

"Tomorrow at 2:30 PM ET, VantageScore leaders are hosting an exclusive session on the next generation of credit risk decisioning:

VantageScore® 5.0 and the New Economics of Credit Risk"

[BrutalBodyShots]

VS5 has been advertised on the VS web site for probably a year now. It's not new in that there's been "talk" of it for at least that long. The problem with it (and with all new models/versions released) is that it's exactly that, talk. Until new versions are adopted and actually used in lending decisions they don't actually matter.

VS4 has been around for nearly a decade now, and you can count on one hand how many lenders actually use it in lending decisions. When Synchrony started using it in ~2018 it seemed like it may become a "thing" but that never actually happened.

I have no reason to believe VS5 will be any different. This is one of those "I'll believe it when I see it" or "we'll cross that bridge when we get to it" situations.

[FicoMike0]

Reading their sales pitch, I see a lot of phrases like 

"expand credit access to unsecured lending products to traditionally underserved borrowers."

 They seem to be offering to scrape the bottom of the risk barrel. No talk about flagging high risk better. This would seem to me to appeal to the subprime fee harvesters. If vs5 is adopted mostly by banks that try to profit from high fees and interest from those who are high risk, won't they become identified with high risk?

[AndySoCal]

Here is a link to information on VS 5.0. It might be the replacement for Vantagecscore 3.0 in the long run.

[Thomas_Thumb]

A lot of these new products are geared toward "scoring the unscorable" and adding score boost potential. Typically VS has touted ability to score a greater percentage of the population. 

As many know, Fico has rolled BNPL versions of F10 and F10T with a similar objective. I would not classify those new to credit as bottom of the barrel. They are unknown entities that creditors want to solicit and cultivate as potential long term customers.

VS 5.0 has been around for creditor evaluation testing since atleast early 2025.

[TrapLine]

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@Thomas_Thumb wrote:

A lot of these new products are geared toward "scoring the unscorable" and adding score boost potential. Typically VS has touted ability to score a greater percentage of the population. 

As many know, Fico has rolled BNPL versions of F10 and F10T with a similar objective. I would not classify those new to credit as bottom of the barrel. They are unknown entities that creditors want to solicit and cultivate as potential long term customers.

VS 5.0 has been around for creditor evaluation testing since atleast early 2025.

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An added point ... a credit union I belong to swtiched from VS 3 to VS 4. My score was good but under VS 4. Took a hammering. The credit union stated it would allow them to offer more people membership and products ... but, based on  my limited view it wacked me down to 813 on VS 4 when I was at 837 on VS 3. Not understanding how this makes a person more scoreable. My record is spotless and good product mix. Life is as a transactor so basically, it is all irrelevant for me but still wonder. Now we talk VS 5 and Fico 10 ... too much!

[BrutalBodyShots]

I don't know that your experience is typical, @TrapLine. From what I've seen, VS4 tends to run higher than VS3 more often than not, at least with higher scores. It's much easier to hit 850 on VS4 than it is on VS3 for whatever reason.

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@TrapLine wrote:

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@Thomas_Thumb wrote:

A lot of these new products are geared toward "scoring the unscorable" and adding score boost potential. 

As many know, Fico has rolled BNPL versions of F10 and F10T with a similar objective. I would not classify those new to credit as bottom of the barrel. They are unknown entities that creditors want to solicit and cultivate as potential long term customers.

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An added point ... a credit union I belong to swtiched from VS 3 to VS 4. My score was good but under VS 4. Took a hammering. The credit union stated it would allow them to offer more people membership and products ... 

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@TrapLine 

The score boost potential I was referring to is for those with limited credit by taking payment history of non traditional accounts into consideration.

Win some lose some scorewise when new models are rolled out. If everyone wins it's just score inflation (which, like grade inflation, is real based on macro averages).

[FicoMike0]

@TrapLine ,

I don't think you're part of the target demographic, lol. If their model reduces the high scores, that leaves room to increase low scores without changing the mean. This makes the score inflation invisible at the bulk level.

@Thomas_Thumb , I get the attraction of adding the unscorable, but what makes one unscorable to vantage? I guess no Credit history at all? I suppose they could add lease and utility payment history, but that's not available from the credit report. They do have products that require the addition of banking data, e.g. Vs4plus, but they don't include that for vs5.

[TrapLine]

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@BrutalBodyShots wrote:

I don't know that your experience is typical, @TrapLine. From what I've seen, VS4 tends to run higher than VS3 more often than not, at least with higher scores. It's much easier to hit 850 on VS4 than it is on VS3 for whatever reason.

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Bugs me! Follow your comment and at no time since the switch from VS 3 to VS 4 has my score increased. In fact it was just lowered to 813 because a new credit product reported. Frustrating! Ok, you could say not really a factor at my score level but, I have found no betterment with VS 4.