Experian now offers VantageScore to Consumers

You can now go to vantagescore.experian.com to order your VantageScore report. Not sure about the price since you need to fill out an order form in order to see it. But this site reports $6 per copy.

Also more information about the new model was released, such as national average and the weighting of each factor. A few examples on the Experian site are also very interesting as they tell you how a particular action would affect the score and by how much.

$5.95. Once you verify all your info they take you to a page to pay for the score.

one feature i like (listed on the TU site):

they count multiple non-telco utility queries in a 14-day period as one. Moving can get you half-a-dozen hards on a single report, it's happened to me... i wonder why they exclude telcos from that? Maybe they're thinking mobile phone contracts??

And it'd be nice if they would start treating insurance queries the same way. It's very easy to imagine a scenario whereby simply getting multiple rate quotes could knock someone from one tier to another, depending on the insurer. I read somewhere they're supposed to be soft, but it's not my experience.

it's unreal nowadays the number of hard pulls you can get without truly applying for credit... i hope Fair Isaacs and the CRAs have taken that into account and tweaked their formulas. So many more people check your credit now than even 5 yrs. ago.

So who tried it? I got an 885 via Experian (84.21 percentile). Not bad considering that I have a bunch of inquiries, new accounts and money out after last App-O-BT-O-Rama.

ok, i bit...

969 on a scale of 501-990. It says i'm "super prime," better than 98.46% of US consumers.

here are the 'negative' factors that lowered my score:
1) "the average loan amount across open, recently reported real estate accounts, such as a mortgage, is too low. Having low loan amounts has a negative impact on your credit score. (ME)

maybe if i'd bought well beyond my means & picked up an interest-only loan for a much bigger house, i might have done better.. I'm happy with my 15-yr. fixed, though.

2) "the balance amount paid down across your open real estate accounts, such as a mortgage, is too low. Paying down the balances on your real estate accounts can have a positive impact on your credit score. (MF)"

makes sense to me... mine's only 27 mos. old.

3) "your report shows that the available credit across your open, recently reported revolving accounts, such as a credit card, is too low. Having low available credit amounts on revolving accounts has a negative impact on your credit score. (RL)"

i have 3 bank cards and a few store cards... total limits on those have been unchanged for years & total ~60% of my annual income. I don't particularly care about this, since my CLs are more than i'll ever need. I've never asked for increases.

4) "your report shows that the time since your oldest revolving account, such as a credit card, was opened is too short. Having revolving accounts open for a longer period fo time can have a positive impact on your credit score. (RP)"

fair enough... one of my bank cards i opened only a year ago (the other two both are over a decade old) and ditto for one of my store accounts. I opened both last July.

5) "your report shows one or more inquiries on file. Each time a potential creditor pulls your credit report for review, an inquiry is placed on your file. While having inquiries on file does affect your score, the impact is minimal. (Q0)"

It's kinda interesting to see if lenders are gonna use this new score. In truth, the VantageScore is really only a useful indication if credit issuers use it for their decision to give you credit or not.

It's been out since March but a couple of friends and I bought new properties and applied for new mortgages and all our (3) lenders used Beacon 5 FICO scores. Maybe they just need more data to prove that it's a more accurate reflector of credit worthiness than FICO but without that, it's unlikely that lenders are gonna move to that VantageScore. So I'd wait before paying to check a score that very few lenders care about. Especially considering that so far, the results I've read about from other people still point to the same ratings.

Funny how vantage score rewards people for having a department store credit card but the insurance industry credit report penalizes people for having one. I recently obtained my insurance score credit report to see why my insurance is so high and it said that people with department store cards have a tendency to place more auto insurance related claims.

theman2 said: when do lenders start using the newer scoring systems?

I'm curious as to what 'VantaScore' will do to AORs.

Having worked as a loan officer for several years and having had conversations with several lender reps over past few months about this I can say that everyone I have talked with about it says they have no plans to start using VantageScore anytime soon.

We'll see. It will only take one or two big names to start using it and other will follow.

Vantage likes me, it really likes me!

990
Super Prime
What your VantageScore means:
Your credit score currently falls into a risk grade category of A. Factors in your credit file indicate that you may be viewed as a very low credit risk by lenders. Lenders will likely offer you the best rates and terms.
Credit scores are calculated based on various factors in your credit report. Currently, your credit report does not show any significant negative or derogatory information. You can be proud of the fact that you are building a good credit history, so continue with your positive credit behavior! (N)

BTW--
here are the reason codes on my triple FICO for comparison. I think it's interesting that Vantage lists no negs.

There are too many inquiries on your credit report. [TransUnion, Experian, Equifax] When lenders review your credit report for the purpose of an application, an inquiry is placed on the credit report they checked. A few inquiries a year is normal, but multiple inquiries within a short time frame may cause a temporary drop in your credit score. If you have many recent inquiries, lenders may assume that you are having financial problems. Avoid unnecessary inquiries by only applying for credit cards or loans that you are sure you want.


Your installment account balances are too high in comparison with your credit limits. [TransUnion] Having credit available to you is a sign that you are able to manage your finances responsibly. Lenders like to see that consumers have a large amount of credit available to them, but not so much that they could spend more than they could afford to pay back. If you currently have multiple accounts open with high balances, try reducing your balances below 35 percent of your limits to improve your score. If you do not have many open accounts, consider opening a new credit account or asking your creditors to increase your limits in order to improve your credit score.


There are too many bankcard accounts on your credit report. [TransUnion] Having too much available credit can sometimes harm your credit score. Lenders may feel that you have the ability to spend more than you could potentially pay back. You might want to consider closing a few accounts or asking to have your credit limits reduced. Avoid closing too many accounts - especially the oldest accounts on your credit report - because it could harm your credit score. Closing the oldest accounts can damage your score by making the length of your credit use appear shorter.


Not enough revolving debt experience. [Experian, Equifax] A healthy balance of credit and loan accounts is key to achieving a high credit score. It is important to build a record of responsible credit use over time with different types of accounts. Consider opening a new account to strengthen your credit report and improve your score.

of course, they are nonsense. I don't have any balances higher than 35% except mortgage and an auto loan I took out 8 months ago. "You might want to consider closing a few accounts or asking to have your credit limits reduced" That always slays me. Interestingly, I should also "Consider opening a new account"


I have a feeling that lenders are going to stick with FICO. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Pulled mine earlier..

got an 804 which was there "B" catagory. 62.31% higher then other US Consumers

Basically told me, you dont own a house, your history is limited, balance ration too high/not enough open avail credit ( I was confused by this becuase my 15k in BT's haven't hit any reports yet.. Possibly due to I owe 17k to the US DOEd, other then that not too bad considering I've had like 11 pulls in the last month due to apps/cli and such.

This also was a good way to put a small charge on a card so I dont get random closings due ot inactivity

So far I give a thumbs down to Vanatage Score. Myfico.com does not list the following as negatives. While my score of 915 is good at 92.58%, FICO puts me at 98%. I don't think I will every be able to get Vanatge as high. Looks like being debt free will not allow much room for improvement. I don't get how they say I don't have much available credit, My cards have $78k of open CL. Does that not get reported? And while I don't have a mortgage or any other loans I do pay on the average $4,000-$5,000 a month in credit card bills which I would think is higher than most mortgages. Looking more like doing 0% BT's is the only way to improve my score

What factors lower your VantageScore:
Your report does not show any usable/valid real estate loans, such as a mortgage. Having valid real estate loans with good payment history as part of your credit history can have a positive impact on your credit score.


Your report shows that the available credit across your open, recently reported revolving accounts, such as a credit card, is too low. Having low available credit amounts on revolving accounts has a negative impact on your credit score

I checked my score and also got the line about not having enough available credit.

I'm rather curious what they consider "enough" because I've amassed pretty huge credit lines through App-O-Ramas and so forth.

davef139 said: scott1961 said: ...
My cards have $78k of open CL. Does that not get reported? ...

Do your cards report to all agencies? I know my auto loan which i've been paying on for over a year now only reports to TransUnion.
I monitor all 3 of my files thru truecredit and do daily pulls and know that all of my cards report every month. Seems Vantage does not show available credit for any of us

Doh I have no mortage...I hope they don't switch to this stupid new system or my scores are going south =(

And I'm not buying a house just to improve my score lol.

cirrus said:

WTF?! My balance to loan amounts on my CC's are not high at all! And it while the stupid score claims I have low available credit on revolving accounts, I have like 40K+ in available CC credit. What the hell are they talking about, is 40K no longer sufficient available credit?!!

Damn idiots had to go and screw the whole system up again. Grrr...at least I'm still above Prime, but this is some BS.
I wasted that $7 for my vanatage score but will not give them another penny. I have $78k in available credit but keep my utilization at zero by paying off before my cards report. There has to be a flaw where they don't pick up available credit. Seems we get penalized under this new score by trying to stay debt free even though I have a long history of paying off cards. I will stick with MyFico. At least with them I have figured out what is required to keep a high score and they just sent me an alert that my score just went up to 809

Thanks OP for alerting me to this thread here , as I hadn't seen it before. Here's my writeup:

-Your VantageScore is: 892 on a scale of 501-990.
-Your Risk Grade is: B
-Percentile: Your credit rating ranks higher than 86.40% of U.S. consumers.

What factors lower your VantageScore:
# Your report shows too many open credit card accounts. Although having credit card accounts can help you build a solid credit history, having too many open credit card accounts has a negative impact on your credit score. (BB)

# The average loan amount across open, recently reported real estate accounts, such as a mortgage, is too low. Having low loan amounts has a negative impact on your credit score. (ME)

# Your report shows that the ratio of balances-to-credit-limits across your open credit accounts or loans is too high. Having a high proportion of balances to credit limits on your credit accounts or loans has a negative impact on your credit score. (TQ)

# Your report shows one or more inquiries on file. Each time a potential lender pulls your credit report for review, an inquiry is placed on your file. While having inquiries on file does affect your score, the impact is minimal. (Q0)


Hmm...this appears very different from FICO, and will take some getting used to. I think the changes, as much as anything else, will probably slow the widespread adoption of this model.

Here's another weird one. "Your VantageScore is: 990 on a scale of 501-990."

Fico score last year was in the 790s.