Credit Advice

What are you trying to achieve with monitoring your credit?  If you are trying to get to a certain FICO score to apply for financing, the Vantage Score also has a letter grade next to the score.  Once you're in the "C" range, you should be in position to apply. The "C" range will get you into the 600's on the FICO model.  The "B" range is upper 600's to low 700. And the "A" range should put you at 740+ on the FICO scale. Most banks/lenders are still using the FICO scores.  The Vantage model has yet to be fully accepted by the lending industry, but there are some bank that do.

 I already have a 739 score ( TransRisk New Account Score provided by TransUnion), but my vanatage score is much lower.  I know about the letter by the vanatage but it does not explain why there is a difference between the two, especially since both my recent and my less recent activity has been good.    Likewise how do I get the second score higher?  Or is the FICO and Vantage scores the same thing and the transunion score something totally different?

I'm in a similar boat.  My transrisk score (which would more closely mimic the FICO score) went up.  But, my Vantage score went down.   Relative between the two, my transrisk score is SIGNIFICANTLY better than my Vantage score.    I am not getting why the difference here.  Why would something that makes the Transrisk score jump by 20 or so points, but make the Vantage score go down by about 20. 

 I just read online that your transrisk score is based on your score over your life time (300-800) where your vantage score (500-900) is based on more recent credit history so if your vantage score is lower that means you have bad things on your reports from recently.  Same if your vantage score is higher you have been "good lately", but possibly not in the past.  The banks use your FICO score. which is closer to your transrisk score than vantage score. 

What are the highest scores available for transrisk and advantage?

If the Vantage score is considred the most recent score why dont the Lenders take the vantage score over the transrisk score?

 I'm just sick of all these games.  First, why do all three credit reports have different numbers.  They should all have the same information.  Next it seems the more I pay down my debt, the more my score goes down.  This is ridiculous!  Why bother especially when the government can't pay their bills but I can pay mine ON TIME!