The nation's three major credit data reporting agencies have joined to create a single system for calculating credit scores.

VantageScore information is initially sketchy -- the current leading credit score system (FICO) provider, Fair Isaac has had years to develop vast reams of consumer information -- but consumers can look forward to purchasing their new uniform score by year's end and more details in the weeks to come.

Credit information reporting agencies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion have created the single system in a move designed, they say, to make it easier to apply for a loan.

A credit score, used by the vast majority of lenders to approve or deny a mortgage application, is a statistical analysis of a consumers' creditworthiness generated, in part, from information on a credit report. A credit report tracks credit consumers' payment records on individual credit accounts and reveals how well or how poorly each account is being paid.

Today, three different credit scores, one from each agency, are based on three different scoring models. Under the new VantageScore system, you could still get three different scores, but they'll all be based on the same system which the partnership says will make scoring less confusing.

The system uses a numerical score, like previous systems, but also a letter grading system scoring consumers from A to F.

• 901-990 is an A

• 801-900 is a B

• 701-800 is a C

• 601-700 is a D

• 501-600 is an F

The dominant FICO score ranges from 350 to 850 with no letter grading system.

In both cases, generally, the higher the score the more likely you are to qualify for a home loan and the lower the interest rate and better the terms.

It's not yet clear what this will mean for FICO and other scores. The new system is being marketed to lenders, but it's up to them to buy in or not. That could leave some of the confusion the new score is designed to eliminate.

"This score provides a new and unique option to the marketplace. There will continue to be multiple scoring solutions in the market that meet business needs. VantageScore will compete on the merits of its consistent, predictive power," the Big Three said in a prepared statement.

The three also said the same VantageScore model will be used across all three companies, but differences in scores can occur when one agency has underlying data that is different from another agency.

VantageScore was developed from a national sample of approximately 15 million anonymous consumer credit profiles pulled from across the three major credit reporting companies (five million from each source).

The big three claim the new score predicts the likelihood of future serious delinquencies of 90 days late or greater, based on a 24-month performance period.

Published: March 16, 2006

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.