Vantage is so off from FICO. There's no way to compare. There are so many things with Vantage that aren't even considered. Too many to list. And any simulator is worthless. The best simulators are the fine folks here on the forum. Use Vantage sites to keep an eye on your reports and changes to them. But forget the rest. Anyway. Welcome to the forums!
@Anonymous wrote:
So I recently got a new CC with a bonus for making $4k in purchases in the first three months, and doing so dropped my FAKO Vantage 3.0 score down 41 pts. I started playing around with the score simulators and learned what most here already know, carrying a 9% UTI bumps my score the highest +70pts. Above that I have a significant drop off, and below that my score drops as well. According to the sim 9% really is a magical number.
My short term goals are to apply for a Chase Freedom Unlimited card, under the 5/24 Mark and request a CLI on my Lowe's card. Probably within the next 4 months on each.
So my question is this, will my FICO 8 score bumps be similar to what I'm seeing from the Vantage 3.0 simulators by changing this one thing, and in doing so will it improve my odds in getting approved for the CFU card or result in a higher CLI with Lowe's? The alternative is to do what I intended on doing and having a UTI of 3% or less prior to submitting CLI req and then applying for CFU.
Thanks for all the help.
1. I can't tell from your post what your limits and balances were, and can't tell what you did, and can't tell whether what you did would or would not have caused a change in your FICO 8 scores.
2. 9% is not a magic number.
3. Vantage 3.0 scores are meaningless.
4. Your conclusions about changes in credit scores are not correct.
If you want know what you need to do in terms of utilization, to maximize your FICO 8 scores, we would need to know
-what your accounts are
-what your limits and balances are
OP. Like many of us have stated. I will give you one example on the difference from Vantage vs. FICO. As I said earlier there's so much Vantage doesnt take into consideration for their score. One aspect is AAoA's. Vantage only goes by open accounts. FICO goes by open/closed accounts. The difference between over 5ys and under 2 yrs AAoA if it was only FICO. There's some lost points. Both are recent EQ.
@Anonymous wrote:
My combined credit limit is 20,500. Highest limit is Lowe's $11.5k, then CSP $5k, and WM Synch (switching to Cap One in October) $4k.
Current UTI is 18%, with available $ to pay down to near 0% and short term credit goals as stated above.
I get that no one really wants to make similarities between V 3.0 and FICO 8, and in my situation the Vantage scores are higher scores then the FICO 8s, BUT I suspect there are some correlations between the two. When I was applying for my mortgage it was strongly suggest that I keep a 10% credit UTI amount due to what my broker was showing in her simulations and I think it's more that a coincidence that I'm also seeing higher scores when playing with the V 3.0 simulators.
Based on my last mailing from Sync bank I also think they may be using Van 3.0 scores when processing CLIs.
I'm interested in learning as much as I can so will continue using the search function on the forum and hopefully gain a better understanding of how this all works.
You have 3 revolving accounts. The way to maximize the revolving utilization component of your scores is to let
one Card (NOT the Chase card) report a small balance each month which you immediately pay off, while the other two report zero balances.
(The reason I say NOT the Chase card is that when you pay a Chase card down to zero, it reports the zero balance within a day or two. So while the Chase card is great as one of your zero balance accounts, it should not be used as your small balance reporting account).
Do NOT be misled by the baloney on the Credit Karma site. It is false and misleading. Your notion that you should "keep" a balance in a certain minimum percentage is completely wrong. Your one balance card should report as little as possible. Ten or twenty dollars would be fine.