Dear Colleague:
At VantageScore Solutions, we’re committed to innovation in credit scoring model design. One testament to that is the patents we hold on techniques for ensuring consistency among scores from all three major credit reporting companies (CRCs) – Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Another is our status as the first tri-bureau generic scoring model to consider rental-payment data when it is present in a consumer’s credit file. Still another is our development, in the VantageScore 3.0 model, of highly predictive scoring factors that allow the model to ignore paid collections, including paid medical collections. One more is our ability to score 30-35 million more consumers than conventional scoring models.
Our pride in innovation makes it particularly satisfying to see the VantageScore model widely embraced by the current generation of online credit-management services. Online-loan pioneer LendingTree recently joined Credit.com, Credit Karma, and Quizzle in offering VantageScore credit scores as part of their free credit-management services.
Innovators surround themselves with other innovators, and the adoption of the VantageScore model by these cutting-edge services is an important validation of the VantageScore model’s accuracy, consistency, and ability to score more people. It also ensures widespread consumer access to VantageScore credit scores and greater consumer awareness of the VantageScore model and its benefits. Many of us at VantageScore use these online services, and we encourage readers of The Score to check them out as well.
And speaking of validation of our approach, an Experian study highlighted below attests to the positive impact that consideration of on-time rental payment data can have on consumer credit scores. The VantageScore model has always considered rental data when it is present in a consumer’s credit file. It’s rewarding to see the potential benefits to conscientious consumers of doing so, in terms of improved scores and all they imply in terms of access to credit and more-affordable lending terms.
Other items in this month’s issue include some great advice from credit guru John Ulzheimer on managing your free annual credit reports; a “Did You Know” article on how credit inquiries affect (and do not affect) your credit score; and a terrific “Five Questions with” interview with Dave Stevens, CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association.
It makes for some compelling reading, with something for everyone. We hope you enjoy perusing it as much as we did compiling it.
All the best,
Barrett Burns