Agencies Adopt New Credit Scoring System

From today's Chronicle,

The nation's three major consumer credit bureaus have created a new credit scoring system designed to make it easier for financial institutions to evaluate loan applications and to give consumers a better way of measuring their financial health.

The credit reporting agencies — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — announced Tuesday that they're introducing "VantageScore" to banks, mortgage lenders and credit card companies immediately. The new scores will be available to consumers after the lender rollout, probably later this year.

The new system's scoring tops out at 990, rather than the previous 850, which will confuse both the public and the lenders, I'm sure.

Experian said the new scores will be grouped on "the familiar academic scale." Experian gave these groupings, with A and B being the best potential borrowers and D and F being the weakest:

A — 901-990

B — 801-900

C — 701-800

D — 601-700

F — 501-600

Dissecting new credit scoring [SFGate]