What is VantageScore and How Does It Work?

Many lending decisions are influenced by your credit score and the financial standing that score represents. You’ve probably heard of the popular FICO® Score, but lenders use other models as well. VantageScore® is another credit score that you should get to know, especially since over 2,200 financial institutions use it as part of assessing creditworthiness.¹

What is VantageScore?

Your VantageScore helps lenders determine how likely you are to repay them. It was developed by three nationally recognized credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) to provide a consistent, predictive and easy-to-understand scoring model.² Like the FICO model, VantageScore uses the recognizable scale of 300-850,³ so even if you’re accustomed to FICO, your VantageScore credit score will still look and feel familiar.

What is the difference between VantageScore and FICO?

Although these scoring models are similar, there are a few differences that you should be aware of. For example, VantageScore only requires one month of credit history to establish a score.⁴ FICO, on the other hand, requires a minimum of six months of credit history to establish a score.⁵

Another important difference is that VantageScore examines consumer credit behavior over a period of time, as opposed to a simple snapshot. This method gives lenders a broader look at your overall credit health and creditworthiness.⁶

Which companies use VantageScore?

Credit card issuers and banks account for over half of all VantageScore users.⁷ Financial institutions use approximately 12.3 billion VantageScore credit scores to make loan decisions each year, including 9 of the 10 largest banks and 29 of the 100 largest credit unions.⁸

How is my VantageScore calculated?

Here’s the breakdown of factors that are used to help determine your VantageScore:⁹

• Payment History: Extremely influential
• Age and type of credit, percentage of credit used: Highly influential
• Total balance of debt: Moderately influential
• Available credit, recent credit inquiries and behavior: Less influential

How can I improve my VantageScore?

Here are a few ways to get smart about credit and improve your VantageScore:¹⁰

• Pay all monthly bills on time
• Keep an eye on your credit utilization
• Use a mix of loan products like personal loans and credit cards
• Do not open too many new accounts in a short period of time. That might trigger multiple hard inquiries, which might be seen as a red flag to lenders

Also pay attention to the reason codes on your credit report. These little notes on why your score wasn’t higher can help you make a plan to improve it.

Where can I get my VantageScore?

Getting your VantageScore credit score is easy if you’re a current OneMain loan customer.¹ Log in to your account to see your score displayed on your account summary page. You can also use the links on that page to see how your score has evolved over time. Your score is updated monthly.

If you’re not currently a OneMain customer, you can get your VantageScore by contacting one of the three major credit reporting agencies to request your current score. A fee may apply.

Understand the ins and outs

VantageScore is one of many credit scoring models available. Now that you’ve learned how it works and how to raise your score, you should feel even more prepared to reach more of your financial goals.

---

1. Score is displayed for primary borrower only, and will be updated monthly. The credit score provided is for educational purposes only. We do not guarantee that the credit score shown will be used by us or third parties to assess your creditworthiness or eligibility for any particular product or service or for employment.
1,2. VantageScore. https://vantagescore.com/company/about-vantagescore/
3 CreditKarma. “What you should know about the VantageScore 3.0 credit scoring model” https://www.creditkarma.com/credit-cards/i/vantagescore-30
4,5. Housser, Andrew. "What you should know about new and traditional credit scores." Your.vantagescore.com. https://your.vantagescore.com/news-story/204/what-you-should-know-about-new-and-traditional-credit-scores
6. VantageScore. https://vantagescore.com/lenders/why-vantagescore/our-models/
7,8. VantageScore. https://vantagescore.com/
9,10. VantageScore. https://vantagescore.com/consumers/education/how-credit-scores-work/

This article has been updated from a previous posting on October 13, 2020. Jessica Leshnoff contributed.