Difference in My Beacon Score and Vantage Score

by Goodlala
(Florida)

Question: I am a member of an online credit monitoring service and I was told that the credit scores that I get from them are Vantage Scores.

I am interested in purchasing a new vehicle and was wondering how I would know what my Beacon Score is.

What is the difference between my Vantage Score and my Beacon Score? Does the auto finance company just accept the highest score?

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Answer: The Vantage Score is actually a fairly new scoring model (created in 2006) that was created by the three largest credit reporting agencies (Experian, Equifax and Transunion) to more accurately display the risk - or lack of one - that a consumer represents to a lender.

Your Beacon Score on the other hand is the score generated by Equifax.

Which one of those scores that will be used will depend on the lenders and dealerships in your area. They may not use either your Vantage Score or Beacon Score and may use your FICO score.

At my dealership and the majority of lenders that I work with in Arizona use the Experian FICO Score and that score is adjusted for auto purchases.

Regarding your question as to what score will be used, the answer is the same...It depends on the lenders in your area.

Some lenders will use one score and only one score, while others will use multiple credit bureaus and take the highest score, some use multiple bureaus and use the lowest score and others might take a blend of all three (which would be similar to the Vantage Score).

Unfortunately, you as a consumer will really have very little control over which credit bureau that they use.

Hope this helps,
Justin