Credit Score Chart

The most commonly used credit score is Fico, with more than 90% of all lenders and creditors using it to make their lending decisions and set your terms. Fico credit score has 3 basic versions, all of which run on the same scale, from 300 to 850.

On 2006, the 3 major credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion & Equifax) released a new credit score called Vantage in an attempt to compete with Fico. It claimed to benefit with consumers that have “thin” credit files, and also better predict risks. Most creditors however continue to use Fico.

The following credit score chart illustrates the differences between Fico and Vantage:

As illustrated, if you have a credit score of 680 it actually means nothing unless you know which credit score chart is being used. If it’s a 680 Fico score then your credit is good and you can expect very good terms. However, if you have a 680 Vantage score – your credit is actually very bad and you will probably won’t even qualify

Other Credit Scores
In addition to the standard Fico and Vantage credit scores, each of the 3 major credit bureaus has its own private version of Fico score (e.g. Beacon, TransRisk, Pinnacle, ScorePower etc).

While most run on the same scale as Fico (300-850), some use a slightly different scale. For more information about these credit scores and the differences between them see Credit Score Range.