Even as household debt has climbed to nearly $19 trillion in the United States, there are still millions of Americans who have been locked out of borrowing – something that, for decades, has required a traditional credit score.
A recent segment on ‘CNN Explains’ shares the solution to this problem: VantageScore.
Launched by the credit bureaus in 2006, VantageScore is celebrating 20 years as a game-changer in credit scoring. In 2025, VantageScore’s 4.0 credit scoring model was approved for use in all Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac-backed mortgages. Its usage has soared beyond the mortgage market, with record-breaking numbers in asset-backed securities as well.
VantageScore can open the door to creditworthy consumers who have been shut out from credit cards and mortgages by conventional scoring models like FICO.
To gain access to credit, you need a credit history. Millions of Americans have fallen through the cracks under the legacy FICO models, which do not consider the breadth of data that VantageScore factors into a credit score.
VantageScore uses the same payment history data from consumer credit files and expands, also analyzing alternative data points such as rent and utility bills. Thanks to the use of trended data, VantageScore can create a score with only a month of credit history, whereas FICO requires at least 6 months. This can be a significant advantage for younger Americans without credit history, as well as people of color or immigrants new to the financial system.
The result: VantageScore can generate credit scores for 33 million of the nearly 50 million Americans who haven’t been able to get one through FICO. That is 33 million more people who can open lines of credit, allowing them to eventually qualify for mortgages, car loans, credit cards and more. Having a credit score is essential in accessing financial opportunities, especially when it comes to the American dream of buying a home, a ticket to wealth generation in the United States.
VantageScore has long been the leader in innovation, prediction, and inclusion in the financial industry, and the best is yet to come.
Learn more about VantageScore’s key benefits here.
Access the full ‘CNN Explains’ segment here (subscription required).
