Definition
VantageScore is a consumer credit-scoring model, created through a joint venture of the three major credit bureaus. The model is managed and maintained by an independent company, VantageScore Solutions, LLC, that was formed in 2006 and is jointly owned by the three bureaus.
VantageScore
What is ‘VantageScore’
A consumer credit rating product developed by three credit rating agencies – Equifax, TransUnion and Experian – as an alternative to the FICO Score. VantageScore uses a different rating scale (501 to 990) than FICO (300 to 850), and is branded as a score that provides lending institutions and banks information related to subprime financing. The score is calculated through a weighted average of a consumer’s available credit, recent credit, payment history, credit utilization, depth of credit and credit balances. It was launched in 2006.
Explaining ‘VantageScore’
VantageScore places the greatest weight on payment history and credit utilization, just as the FICO Score does. As a parallel to its numerical score VantageScore also has an alphabetical score ranging from A to F, with a determination of “A” meaning that a consumer is the most credit worthy. Most lending institutions continue to use the FICO Score as it has been around much longer, since 1956.
Further Reading
- The impact of religiosity on personal financial decisions – dspace.creighton.edu [PDF]
- … Financial Engineering or Toxic Finance? The genesis of the US subprime mortgage loans crisis and its consequences on the global financial markets and real … – papers.ssrn.com [PDF]
- 'All data is credit data': Constituting the unbanked – journals.sagepub.com [PDF]
- The credit card debt puzzle: The role of preferences, credit access risk, and financial literacy – www.mitpressjournals.org [PDF]
- Objective and Subjective Consumer Financial Well-Being – papers.ssrn.com [PDF]
