Crapitol One advertises Credit Wise system, but doesn't use it to determine credit!

[joshuagraham]

My Credit Wise score zoomed up (just paid off a bunch of CC debt), so I decided to try and get Crap1 to increase the limit on my Quicksilver account - it has the best overall features in terms of cash back and no foreign use fee, although the limit is only $1K. So I apply for an increase, but was declined. It turns out that Crap1 uses Equifax, and not Credit Wise. It would seem to me that this is a case of deceptive advertising by Crap1 as it doesn't even use the system it claims has great use.

[justbroke]

Yeah, a bunch of those things like CreditWise use the non-FICO score known as the Vantage 3.0 score. For most things, that score is useless when it comes to lending. It is to give you a general idea of credit health. From what I can tell, Capitol One uses an older FICO score known as FICO Score 4 based on Transunion data (for Florida). It's a mortgage score used for just about every mortgage.

Mortgage scores, if you don't know, use the middle score of these three; FICO Score 2 (Experian), FICO Score 4 (Transunion), and FICO Score 5 (Equifax).

A Vantage 3.0 score, from CreditWise, could still be based on the same credit bureau (e.g., Equifax in your case). It's just that it's not a FICO score, and most banks use FICO scores nearly exclusively (FICO 8, FICO 9, FICO Bankcard, FICO Autoscore, and a myriad of older scores including, but not limited to FICO 2, FICO 4, FICO 5, etc)

[joshuagraham]

Yeah, a bunch of those things like CreditWise use the non-FICO score known as the Vantage 3.0 score. For most things, that score is useless when it comes to lending. It is to give you a general idea of credit health. From what I can tell, Capitol One uses an older FICO score known as FICO Score 4 based on Transunion data (for Florida). It's a mortgage score used for just about every mortgage.

Mortgage scores, if you don't know, use the middle score of these three; FICO Score 2 (Experian), FICO Score 4 (Transunion), and FICO Score 5 (Equifax).

A Vantage 3.0 score, from CreditWise, could still be based on the same credit bureau (e.g., Equifax in your case). It's just that it's not a FICO score, and most banks use FICO scores nearly exclusively (FICO 8, FICO 9, FICO Bankcard, FICO Autoscore, and a myriad of older scores including, but not limited to FICO 2, FICO 4, FICO 5, etc)

My point is that Crap1 shouldn't be advertising it as such; it is deceptive marketing.

[justbroke]

I don't think it's deceptive. They don't say that it's a FICO score at all. The Vantage score has been around for quite some time (15 years) and was actually created by the bureaus themselves. Not everyone wanted to rely on Fair Isaac. There are actually a "few" (and I mean just a handful) of creditors that use the Vantage 3.0 (and Vantage 4.0) score for credit-based decisions. The SBA actually uses Vantage 3.0 based on the Experian credit bureau.

The fact is that even with a plethora of different scoring models (Vantage, FICO's 27+ different scoring models,

Right now, there are lenders that use everything from FICO 2 to FICO 9, enhanced versions, and a few with Vantage. Then you'll have lenders that use their own internal scoring model.

It's not one-size fits all and there's no way to tell, without applying or looking at historical facts, which scoring model a particular lender uses for which type of credit.

[shipo]

My point is that Crap1 shouldn't be advertising it as such; it is deceptive marketing.

As far as I know, CapOne does not advertise they use Vantage scores for their underwriting decisions; all they do is provide a free score and a look at your credit report. The fact is, Vantage scores, while basically irrelevant when it comes to obtaining credit, do in fact give you a ballpark idea of where your credit profile stands. The 28 different FICO scores on the other hand, come from the Fair Issac company and they do cost money. The only lenders who give out any FICO scores for free are Discover and PenFed, and in both cases, they only provide 1 of the 28 scores.

Regarding CapOne CLIs, it has been widely reported you need to let a new card age at least 3 months before requesting a CLI, and once a CLI has been granted, you need to wait at least 6 more months before requesting another CLI. It has also been widely reported they are fairly liberal when it comes to granting new credit to those with blemishes on their records, but they are rather conservative when it comes to CLIs. I opened my CapOne Quicksilver card last December and asked for a CLI in May; they gave me a whopping $300.