3/15/06
Secret VantageScore - "The New Standard in Credit Risk Scoring"
The scale is 501 to 990. In the Robert Parker wine scale, you get 50 just for showing up.
The official FAQ
Apparently, "How can I get my score?" is not asked frequently.
That's probably because-- with our prior experince-- we already know their response: Go away, you can't have your score.
Terry Savage, Chicago Sun-Times: "Equifax says it'll wait until lenders accept this new score before marketing it to consumers. That's expected to take at least six months."
Caroline Mayer, Washington Post: It doesn't predict anything until lenders say so.
"The new scoring system will not be valuable to consumers 'unless the credit grantor adopts and uses it,' said Paul J. Springman, chief marketing officer for Equifax. He said his firm would switch as soon as lenders accept the new system. 'That will take more than six months,' he said."
Background
Internet domain
vantagescore.com domain was registered by "Trans Union LLC" on January 30.
Two-year commitment: expires 2008 (by contrast, creditaccuracy.com and creditscoring.com are registered through 2012).
Corporation: "VANTAGESCORE SOLUTIONS, LLC" was incorporated in the state of Delaware exactly one month before the official announcement of the company's existance. File number 4109899.
Who's who
TransUnion: "Chet D. Wiermanski is vice president of TransUnion’s Analytic Decision Services group responsible for identifying, evaluating and developing new business opportunities involving predictive modeling and related consulting services."
A virtual company; no physical address on its web site, no president.
Press releases
vantagescore.com
TransUnion
Joint release; dateline in alphabetical order
"VantageScore(SM) To Set New Standard For The Marketplace - TransUnion Says - New Score to Fill Void of Consistency and Choice in the Industry"
Equifax
Joint release
It's another secret forula, so you'll just have to take their word for it, again. "No other model does a better job of delivering objective and consistent credit scoring."
Experian
Joint release
"Experian launches new credit scoring system, VantageScoreSM" - "The new scoring system addresses the potential weaknesses in existing scoring solutions in the marketplace because any variances in credit scores between credit reporting companies will be attributed to data differences within each of the three consumer credit files and not to the structure of the scoring model or interpretation of the data."
The Wizard speaks
Kathy M. Kristof, Los Angeles Times
"Ron Totaro, vice president and general manager of global scoring solutions at Fair Isaac, said the credit-reporting companies 'have all had their own credit scores that they have tried to sell against us, and they've been wildly unsuccessful. This is them trying to take another crack at our fortress.'"
Eileen Alt Powell, Associated Press: "'Do the customers . . . really want to go through the pain of converting to another system?' [Fair Isaac's] Grudnowski asked. 'I think only time will tell.'"
Jean Chatzky: "Stephen Brobeck, executive director of the Consumer Federation of America, said the new score will create problems... 'It's a terrible idea.'"
Matthai Chakko Kuruvila, San Jose Mercury News: "The changes in credit scoring underscore the intimate way credit lives with consumers as a measure of self-worth."
GIGO, Businessweek Online, Peter Coy
"... VantageScore can't overcome the problem of incomplete or inaccurate information. "Garbage in, garbage out," says Greg Fisher of Dayton, Ohio, who runs two web sites on the subject, creditscoring.com and creditaccuracy.com."
Christopher Conkey, The Wall Street Journal:
"Atlanta-based Equifax says annual revenues for its "personal solutions" division, which sells consumers credit scores (used by lenders to assess risk and set interest rates), reports and monitoring services, jumped by more than 60 percent to $115 million over the last two years, outpacing the 19 percent rise in its $800-million-a-year division that sells credit information and risk-assessment tools to businesses."
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