VantageScore

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are Famine, Pestilence, War, and Death. The Three Horsemen of the Credit Score are Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax.

While we may be familiar with these major credit bureaus thanks to checking our own credit score, back in 2006 the three of them got together and launched a whole new collaborative project called VantageScore.

“VantageScore” is a score between 501 and 990 that tells lenders how “safe” of a borrower we are. It’s similar to our FICO score, but it’s calculated a little bit differently. The lower our VantageScore, the more likely we are to default on a loan.

How do they determine how safe or unsafe we are? They do a statistical analysis based on a combo of several factors: our payment history, how much credit debt we have, how much credit we have available, the types of credit accounts we’ve had in the past, how long we’ve been building our credit history, how we use our credit, and how friendly of a smile we have.

Okay, not so much that last one. But the rest of ‘em are in there. A score over 720 is considered good (though we have to get a 901 or better to receive an “A” grade from VantageScore), and a score below 630 is considered, um...not so good.