Personal credit scores just got more interesting. FICO no longer has a lock on them. According to an article in today’s New York Times, the three credit reporting agencies have gotten together to come up with another rating system — Vantage Score — that takes more variables into consideration than FICO does. Their thought is that the resulting score will be fairer and more reflective of the person’s actual situation. VantageScore is also supposed to be easier to understand. Unfortunately, the two scoring ranges are different but overlap so there’s likely to be confusion especially at the beginning.
It’s way too soon to know if VantageScore will catch on. However with a second system on the market and in use by lenders, it’s even more important for us to be vigilant over our personal credit rating.