Vantage Score is really the worst! I added a new card a few months ago and my score dropped 40 points. Ridiculous. Meanwhile my FICO score is steady on the rise. Now that I'm signed up to myFICO I don't even pay attention to my Vantage Score apps anymore
VantageScore is extremely complex because of the amount of trended data they use. FICO 10 will begin to rely on trended data more, and word is, people aren't going to like the lower scores they're expected to have because of it.
FICO 8 doesn't take into account things like the amount of your payments while VantageScore does. If you PIF and then all of a sudden start making minimum payments, you'll only take a hit on FICO 8 when you cross utilization thresholds. VantageScore on the other hand sees a problem and adjusts your risk score appropriately by tanking as a warning to lenders that based on the trended data they have on you and millions of others with similar profiles, your chance of default has gone up. I assume the random payoff of cards that's outside of normal behavior may also be a trigger. The lenders are typically on their own to figure that out based on their own scoring models, algorithms, and manual reviews. Having 2+ years of data crunched for them of established patterns is a benefit and these volatile reactions can be considered more accurate as FICO can be gamed with things like AZEO because it's only a snapshot versus multiple years of pattern data.
Unfortunately, due to how little it's used in making credit decisions, people aren't willing to watch them or provide datapoints, so it's hard to predict what will happen or what the triggers are. However, we have started to see an increase in use, specifically with Synchrony as well as an increase of other models like Sagestream's Credit Optics. I wouldn't be surprised if Comenity also used them as the recent knee-jerk reaction closures could be related to plunging VantageScores. We won't know though unless people decide to see if there's a correlation.
