So I'm back to all zero for less than a week to transition from Discover to QS being my reporting card, I'll be back to AZEO when that statement closes in a few days and then possibly with 2 cards reporting while I transition again and have the VX be my AZEO card when it starts reporting (with it being my only higher limit it's goign to be my AZEO card for the foreseeable future). Anyways, my amusement is that while my EQ8 dropped 14pts last time (expecting the same this time it just hasn't updated), my EQ VS3.0 just went up a point to 685 for going all zero (VS generally updates faster for me than FICO scores do).
Well, they weigh things differently and have different priorities for what's important. Unfortunately, nobody is interested in figuring out how it works, despite a recent trend of lenders starting to use it more, due to fico being the standard. Honestly, I think more attention should be paid to it, especially with how the economy is coming off the pandemic and inflation. Vantagescore is more sensitive to utilization, factors out closed accounts, and focuses on more recent history, like the last 2 years. It can be a more accurate representation of risk and that's a big deal with lenders tightening up. But, until more lenders start using it for decisions, I doubt many will care. We'll just have to see if the recent uptick with credit unions like BCU using vantagescore continues or even spreads to other lenders.
I think the few lenders who are starting to use VantageScore are mostly using 4.0. That's not available to us unless you have a bank or credit union account that provides it. Most of the VantageScores we see everywhere for free, like from CreditKarma and many credit card issuers, are 3.0. Different thing. I'm not really sure why anyone pays attention to that score except that it is readily available. Use CK and services like that for quick updates on what is happening, but not for the actual score number.
Starting Score: EQ8 680, TU8 713, EX8 701
@mgood wrote:I think the few lenders who are starting to use VantageScore are mostly using 4.0. That's not available to us unless you have a bank or credit union account that provides it. Most of the VantageScores we see everywhere for free, like from CreditKarma and many credit card issuers, are 3.0. Different thing. I'm not really sure why anyone pays attention to that score except that it is readily available. Use CK and services like that for quick updates on what is happening, but not for the actual score number.
This. I have zero interest in FAKO scores and just ignore them.
@mgood wrote:I think the few lenders who are starting to use VantageScore are mostly using 4.0. That's not available to us unless you have a bank or credit union account that provides it. Most of the VantageScores we see everywhere for free, like from CreditKarma and many credit card issuers, are 3.0. Different thing. I'm not really sure why anyone pays attention to that score except that it is readily available. Use CK and services like that for quick updates on what is happening, but not for the actual score number.
Cause vantagescore 3 is used? That's like saying now that 10T is here, we shouldn't worry about 8 anymore. Do you know how much of vs3 is still a part of vs4? We know what's different and how certain things are weighed differently, but if you don't understand vs3, you can't appreciate the changes in vs4. Something like trended data could have a huge impact in scores between the two, but for most, it'll have almost no impact because humans are habitual and basically nothing has changed. But, since nobody cares for it, nobody researches it, so we'll never know if vs3 can be a good substitute if one doesn't have access to vs4 scores.
Having worked for chase in originations, they 100% pull vantagescore 3 along with multiple fico, and their CARS. The underwriter doesn't go through each report to make their decision. The printout is an almagam of all the negatives from all the reports with codes to reference where they come from and the severity. I've posted a photo of one of the reports on this site previously. And, as a consumer, chase denied we for a southwest card based on my vantagescore 3 per the denial letter. I've posted a photo of that on here as well.
Each score has their strengths and weaknesses, but I just don't understand dismissing one type just because it's not normally used. You can look at mortgage scores as an example. Nobody cares about them until they need to. The only difference here is people know how fico mortgage works. I guarantee the moment an excellent product comes around that uses vantagescore for approval, everyone will go nuts trying to figure out how to manipulate it.
I know I've said it before, but I'm still of the opinion if VS4.0 is going to be used, given that a handful of lenders use it for CC decisions and being approved for mortage usage, there absolutely must be a way for consumers to obtain these scores, regardless of what lenders they do business with. We have this for FICO scores and should for VS4.0.
As for VS3.0, I don't pay as close attention to them since they aren't used much but I do watch them and a few things I've noticed over the last year and a half:
- VS is scoreable before FICO (I think most of us already know that). When an old student loan dropped off and my credit age AoOA went from 18yrs and change to 3 months, I lost a signficant chunk of points but was still scoreable.
- with a very young profile only a month or so afte regenerating a FICO score they were lower than my FICO 8s. They now have a slightly higher ceiling than FICO 8 but lower ceiling than 9 (significantly), and 10T
- Both EQ and TU give 1 point for all zero
- Both EQ and TU were -3 for my last inquiry - (2/12) for EQ, (3/12) for TU.
- The CRAs track far more similarly to one another than FICO. There seems to be fewer CRA specific customizations and the majority of the score differences are from differences in the datasets reported (for me it's mainly who was pulled for a given inquiry and with Capital One being 3 of my 5 cards that's mostly triple pulls
If I had my way FICO 9 would be what every lender used since they have the highest ceiling for me.
@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:
@mgood wrote:I think the few lenders who are starting to use VantageScore are mostly using 4.0. That's not available to us unless you have a bank or credit union account that provides it. Most of the VantageScores we see everywhere for free, like from CreditKarma and many credit card issuers, are 3.0. Different thing. I'm not really sure why anyone pays attention to that score except that it is readily available. Use CK and services like that for quick updates on what is happening, but not for the actual score number.
Cause vantagescore 3 is used? That's like saying now that 10T is here, we shouldn't worry about 8 anymore. Do you know how much of vs3 is still a part of vs4? We know what's different and how certain things are weighed differently, but if you don't understand vs3, you can't appreciate the changes in vs4. Something like trended data could have a huge impact in scores between the two, but for most, it'll have almost no impact because humans are habitual and basically nothing has changed. But, since nobody cares for it, nobody researches it, so we'll never know if vs3 can be a good substitute if one doesn't have access to vs4 scores.
Having worked for chase in originations, they 100% pull vantagescore 3 along with multiple fico, and their CARS. The underwriter doesn't go through each report to make their decision. The printout is an almagam of all the negatives from all the reports with codes to reference where they come from and the severity. I've posted a photo of one of the reports on this site previously. And, as a consumer, chase denied we for a southwest card based on my vantagescore 3 per the denial letter. I've posted a photo of that on here as well.
Each score has their strengths and weaknesses, but I just don't understand dismissing one type just because it's not normally used. You can look at mortgage scores as an example. Nobody cares about them until they need to. The only difference here is people know how fico mortgage works. I guarantee the moment an excellent product comes around that uses vantagescore for approval, everyone will go nuts trying to figure out how to manipulate it.
I didn't know anyone relevant actually used VS3. I guess I was running my mouth (or keyboard) without fully knowing what I was talking about. 
(Not the first time, and probably not the last, lol.)
