TransUnion follows Experian, Equifax with VantageScore incentive

TransUnion is the latest company to make a move in the credit score war between VantageScore and Fair Isaac Corp.’s FICO score, following partners Experian and Equifax.

Transunion will offer VantageScore 4.0, a credit scoring model, for $4 in 2026. Experian will provide it for free to its clients indefinitely and Equifax will charge $4.50 through the end of 2027.

“Our approach reaffirms TransUnion’s commitment to expanding affordable mortgage credit by delivering best-in-class credit information combined with easy-to-use tools for consumers and lenders,” TransUnion President and CEO Chris Cartwright said in a press release Friday.

Now, lenders can use VantageScore to include trended and alternative data at the beginning stages of a mortgage application, which will allow 33 million credit-invisible consumers to be scored and millions more to gain access to homeownership, the release said.

“Trended and alternative credit data provides the most complete picture of consumers, and TransUnion’s new approach unlocks this vital data in the mortgage lending industry, benefitting homebuyers, lenders and investors,” said Satyan Merchant, senior vice president and mortgage business leader at TransUnion.

TransUnion will also offer multi-year pricing for credit report and VantageScore 4.0 to help lenders forecast and manage their business and a free VantageScore 4.0 simulator. This is all available through the company’s new TrulQ analytics platform, the release said.

The major credit bureaus’ moves come as a response to FICO’s new program model announced earlier this month, which lets mortgage resellers bypass the three companies and receive scores directly to avoid additional markup fees. The new program allows resellers to purchase scores for $4.95, the same price it bills credit bureaus, and costs an additional $33 if the loan is closed and avoids reissuance charges lenders previously paid. 

But after credit-bureau markups, the average cost is about $10 per score, which is why TransUnion’s release emphasized its “significant discount to the FICO score,” which “burdened” the industry.

The public feud between the credit score providers heated up in July, when Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte announced that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will allow lenders to use VantageScore 4.0 when submitting loans to them, instead of just FICO’s. Pulte said in an X post that this would increase competition in the credit score ecosystem.