Ask John: The Highest Credit Score

John,
I got my credit score last week and it's a 905. That seemed really high. I have a friend who works at a bank and he said he's never heard of a score that high before. Have you ever seen a score this high?

Paul
Cleveland, Tennessee

Hello Paul – Your 905 is likely to your VantageScore credit score. VantageScore was developed by a company called VantageScore Solutions, which is a joint venture of the three national credit reporting agencies. They built it as a competing score to the FICO® credit score, which is built by the Fair Isaac Corporation.

VantageScore has been around since March of 2006 and hasn't made much headway into the lending environment, so my guess is you purchased your VantageScore online from Annualcreditreport.com. The good news for you is that a 905 is a pretty good VantageScore. Mine is 931, so I got you by 26 points. While it isn't the same credit scoring model, it's very likely that your FICO scores are pretty solid as well.

There are a variety of credit scores that are sold to lenders and consumers. Here's a list of some of the more commonly known scores and who is behind each of them.

The FICO score developed by Fair Isaac – Depending on the bureau, the FICO score may be referred to as BEACON, EMPIRICA, FICO Risk Score Classic, and the Experian/Fair Isaac Risk Score.

The VantageScore developed by VantageScore Solutions – As described above.

TransRisk developed by TransUnion – It is commercially available to lenders and is sold by TU to consumers.

PLUS Score developed by Experian – Experian sells this score to consumers via their litany of consumer websites. It is not available to lenders.

There are many more scores that lenders use that you've never heard of and will likely never run into. Most of the large banks use a variety of other custom credit (and non-credit) scores to make their decisions. They don't sell any or disclose any of them to consumers.

The best advice I have for you is to do your research before you go out and buy any scores online. Some of the scores you can buy are used by lenders; some are not. Some of the scores you can buy are a good indicator of your credit risk; some are not.

If you don't want to spend any money but you still want to know what your score may look like, I suggest heading over to our Credit Score Estimtaor. It's free, and you don't have to enter any of your personal information or a credit card number.

Please keep your comments coming. I can be reached at CreditExperts@credit.com

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