Credit expert compares FICO and VantageScore to Coke and Pepsi in credit scoring.

Your credit score may vary depending on where you check it, whether it's through an online platform, your banking app, or another method.

The two primary credit scoring systems used by most lenders to assess credit management are VantageScore and FICO, despite the existence of multiple credit scores.

"John Ulzheimer, a credit expert who previously worked for FICO and Experian, advises CNBC Make it to consider those like Coke and Pepsi. He suggests that there are FICO-branded scores and VantageScore-branded ones."

Each company uses a different method to determine your score.

The VantageScore model uses these categories to calculate your credit score:

• Extremely influential: Balance and available credit, total credit usage
• Highly influential: Credit mix and experience
• Moderately influential: Payment history
• Less influential: New accounts opened and length of credit history

The three major credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion, established VantageScore in 2006. This credit scoring model is utilized by various financial and non-financial institutions for lending products such as credit cards, auto loans, mortgages, and tenant screenings, as stated on the company's website.

VantageScore utilizes your rental and utility payments to construct your credit report and can determine your score after your credit account has been operational for at least one month, as stated on their website.

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While FICO credit scores are more commonly used by lenders, they have been around for over 25 years. In fact, 90% of the top lenders in the U.S. use FICO scores to assess a borrower's credit risk. Additionally, your credit history needs to be at least six months long for FICO to generate your score.

While FICO scores are utilized by lenders when applying for credit, a mortgage, or an auto loan, FICO assigns varying importance to the factors it uses to determine credit scores.

• Payment history: 35%
• Amounts owed: 30%
• Length of credit history: 15%
• Credit mix: 10%
• New credit: 10%

To improve and sustain a good credit score, according to Matt Schulz, LendingTree's chief credit analyst, it is essential to follow three crucial steps.

1. Consistently paying your bills on time
2. Keeping your balances as low as possible
3. Avoiding applying for too much credit too often

Consistently doing these things for years will ensure that your credit remains stable, according to Schulz.

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