How are Vantage Credit Score and FICO Credit Score Different?
Recently, the credit market has been abuzz with news of a new credit scoring system called VantageScore. But wait! You just figured out what your FICO score meant, and now you have to learn a new one? For many people, credit ratings are confusing enough, why do we need another one?

Well, in March of 2006, the three major credit reporting bureaus (Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax) all decided that this topic could be made easier if they all scored credit ratings the same way. So, VantageScore was born. VantageScore is the result of the collaboration between the "big three" to streamline the way credit ratings are determined.

So how is this different from a FICO score? First, the old system based your score on a scale of 350-850. The problem was, each company had a different way of determining this score, based on their own value placed on credit cards, loans, late payments, and other factors.

The new system determines uniformly what value is placed on every factor of your credit, trying to eliminate the divergence between the three scores. Also, the scales are different. VantageScore rates from 301-990 and scores are broken down by letter in addition. Although the differences between the two systems are not overly complicated, they are significant enough that the consumer and lending market may reject the new system in time. The market will tell in the coming months, but for now, the old FICO system is still very much in popular use.