Fair Isaac Corporation's FICO score is a very widely used measure of an individual's ability to repay debt. But other types of credit scores are also available, including those that focus on certain aspects of a credit report.
For example, an auto-loan FICO more heavily weights an individual's history with auto loans (whether they're paid on time, for instance), although it also reports traditional credit information. Another special credit score relates to insurance. The insurance score uses information found in a credit report but weights it differently. Note that it is not based on an individual's insurance claims, however.
A new credit score was created by the three credit reporting bureaus in late 2006. Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian created VantageScore as a substitute for the FICO score. Both are based on an individual's credit report, although VantageScore uses a score ranging from 501 to 900 (higher scores are best) and has a letter grade from A to F (the lowest). A FICO score ranges from 300 to 850.
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