Which credit score does a personal loan lender use - FICO or VantageScore?

FICO dominates: FICO (Fair Isaac Corporation) has been the dominant credit scoring model in the U.S. for 30+ years. FICO 8, released in 2009, is still the most widely deployed version for personal loan underwriting. FICO 9 (2014) and FICO 10 (2020) are used by some lenders but penetration is lower for consumer credit products.

VantageScore: Created by the three major bureaus (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) in 2006, VantageScore is the primary competitor to FICO. VantageScore 3.0 and 4.0 are commonly used by credit monitoring apps (Credit Karma, Credit Sesame show VantageScore 3.0 by default). Some personal lenders use VantageScore, though fewer than use FICO.

Why this matters: FICO and VantageScore weight factors slightly differently and may produce different scores for the same person. A consumer with a 680 VantageScore might have a 650 FICO, or a 700 FICO. The free score from your bank or credit monitoring app is often VantageScore, not FICO. This is why people sometimes experience 'approval at lower scores than expected' or 'denial despite a high monitored score.'

How to find out which score a lender uses: You can ask directly ('Which credit scoring model do you use for personal loan applications?'). Some lenders will tell you; others consider it proprietary. Major lenders: Experian offers free FICO Score 8 in their app. myFICO.com sells FICO scores from all three bureaus. After you apply, the adverse action notice (if denied) tells you which score was used and its value.

Alternative underwriting: Upstart explicitly uses its own AI model with non-traditional variables beyond credit scores. Some credit unions do manual underwriting that does not rely heavily on any single score model.