Why is Vantage Score 3.0 so useless?

[Anonymous]

A few weeks ago I came on these forums horrified because in one night my VS as reported on WalletHub, CK, TU's site, etc. lost 140 points. One night, 140 point drop. 718 to 578. Over the ensuing weeks, it got back a measly 3 points up to 581. Now, again after a single night, it's up 130 points all at once to 711. What the heck? (To be clear, I have a MyFico subscription to monitor my real scores.)

[Anonymous]

I don't really have an answer for your question regarding why the score is useless but I question what is causing these significant score deficits? What are the alerts saying when you check them? Have you received any alerts from MyFICO? Sounds like something else is going on in the background to cause this and usually with a decrease that great, that denotes a major derogatory event hitting your reports (I.e.-collections, 90, 120+ lates, etc.). If you don't have any alerts accompanied with the decrease, I wouldn't sweat it too much; however, it's concerning and needs to be monitored closely.

 Best of luck to you and keep us posted. 🙃

[Anonymous]

That's what I was originally concerned about when the 140 point drop happened. But I knew there were no new derogatories as I have been obsessive about my credit since becoming serious about my rebuild last year. Also, I monitored like a hawk the MyFICO service, Experian (CCT), etc. There were no bombs dropped. Nothing happened. When I got the Credit Karma update after the 140 point drop, here were the listed changes: 

1) a 2013 charged off account that showed a balance of $389 and that was using 156% of its available credit was removed from my report due to age (this change was in the neutral black type); 2) a 2013 paid off collection account was removed from my report due to age (this change was in the positive green type); 3) a remark meant to make the report more clear was added to my student loan account that says "payment deferred" (this change was in the neutral black type); and 4) my balance for my student loans went up $434 due to interest (this change was in the negative red type). That's it. No other changes. Since then, my NFCU Cash Rewards Card started to report as did my new Wayfair account and my Amex Gold card. That has resulted in modest FICO 8 drops of 9 points on EQ and 4 points on EX. My understanding is after a few months those points will recover. I'm not exactly sure why Vantage Score's model dinged me so hard unless it was an actual honest to goodness anomaly. But the points are back now and that score is not used by anyone anyway. Just find the DP interesting. 

[Anonymous]

The only thing that I can think of is when the baddies updated, it tanked your score. Then the baddies were removed and your score recovered. Typically, that's how it works when you're paying off bad debt; it updates first and then it's removed from your reports (if you're doing a PFD). Aside from that, I don't have an explanation. The good news is MyFico isn't tanking, so I wouldn't worry too much! 

Great job paying off those baddies though!!! You should continue to see an increase as time goes on, with good usage of your revolvers and time!

[Anonymous]

Vantage scores also aren't fond of new accounts. My SO had a 615 VS3.0 and then it plummeted 60 or 70 points because his new Cap 1 card reported. It really hates new accounts. I am hoping (even though the scores dont "matter") that they go back up as time progresses a bit.

[I_Love_Cards]

I have had strange experiences with Vantage scores when negative info has been removed.  

When my last collection was removed, my Vantage 3.0 dropped 70 points (no other changes or aging at that time).  Ok.  That makes sense?  My FICO08 went up 50.  

I just recently had 2 old paid charge offs age off my report which leaves me with no accounts with a status of "derogatory".   My FICO 08 went up 10-ish (I still have serious late payments on other accounts with status of paid/closed).   My vantage 3.0 was unchanged. My vantage 4.0 dropped 65 points.  At the same time I had an inquiry fall off, an inquiry become no longer scorable, an account age past 2 years and a different account age past 1 year.  No other changes re: utilization/inquiries/accounts/etc.  

My experience with vantage scores (and I've seen some similar reports in google searching) is that removal of certain baddies triggers a score drop.  I can't begin to fathom why.  That's not how it's supposed to work.  

FICO responds the way I would expect and since everyone but Synchrony uses FICO, I'm not too worried. 

[I_Love_Cards]

I will also mention that after losing a chunk of Vantage 3.0 points when my collections were removed, most of them were returned the day after my last late payment (was a 30 day late) aged to 2 years.   

My V4.0 dropped when my charge offs aged off earlier this month.  I don't know what might spark a return of those points.  We shall see.  Perhaps it will be when the unicorns rise from the sea and launch their long awaited rebellion against the zombie apocalypse?  That seems about as likely as anything else with Vantage scores.  

[Anonymous]

Hi all. Been lurking or a bit, just finally made an account to reply to this thread because I have similar story to add.

I've been rebuilding my credit after a couple of bad accounts, and general young person irresponsbility in life pre 2010. Since I've started working on this, I've been monitoring everything like a hawk. Have myFico. Also use CK and the like. Last year (around August) I noticed the start of some weird VantageScore rollercoaster action with absolutely no change to the reports. Literally nothing happening (all of my credit cards are paid in full before statement dates, no accounts in collections being added or anything like that, and nothing is aging out even). Just a random notification from CK (and Credit Sesame, and TurboTax, all monitoring my vantagescore) that my credit dropped ~56-75 points. Then a few weeks later, notification that my score went UP by 60-80 or so. Same pattern each time. Down by an amount, up by that amount plus 1-2 points each time. It did this through the entire rest of the year and was so annoying that I turned off notifications for score changes from those apps. And it wasn't a single app either, it was the score being changed because I would see the notification/alert in an app (say, Credit Sesame) and then a few days later, CK then TurboTax. Same with the score increase alert. My FICO meanwhile would be solid as a rock or slightly increasing over time during the same time period. So my takeaway: Vantage Score is garbage. 

[Anonymous]

i took advantage of the no compounded interest defferment in response to COVID from navient.  my balance went up 108 the 1 month it was deffered so far.  my vantage score dropped 58 points on TU and 47 points on EF.

[coreysw12]

My TU Vantage 3.0 score dropped from ~690 to 575 in one week, a few months ago, for no apparent reason whatsoever. It still hasn't recovered, I only just this week got it to 601.

Do I care? Nope.

I have the full MyFICO subscription and can see all 30-or-however-many FICO scores on all 3 bureaus, and my FICO scores are what I would expect them to be, high 600's. My FICO's did not drop at all when my TU VS3 tanked.

No idea why it happened, but at this point I don't really care, either. My reports are fine and there's no cause for alarm, sometimes VS3.0 is just really wonky. Very few (if any) creditors look at VS3.0 scores, so it's not very important for those scores to be good.