What Credit Score Do Mortgage Lenders Use?

What credit score do mortgage lenders use?

For a lender, the question has become which model. Since April 2026 a conventional loan can be scored under Classic FICO or VantageScore 4.0, and the two are priced on different loan-level price adjustment grids. FICO Score 10T is the third approved model and will be accepted for GSE delivery at a date Fannie Mae has not yet set.

Most conventional loans are still scored under Classic FICO; VantageScore 4.0 has been accepted since April 2026 and was directed to all lenders on September 3, 2026; FICO 10T is approved but not yet accepted for GSE delivery.

Which credit score models do Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac accept?

One model per loan, and the same model for every borrower on it. There is a single credit score field in the delivery dataset, so a lender delivers one score, not both, and flags it: loans carrying VantageScore 4.0 are delivered with a Special Feature Code for Fannie Mae or an Investor Feature Identifier for Freddie Mac. Manually underwritten loans stay on Classic FICO with the existing minimum score requirements. Classic FICO is expected to be retired at some future date, but no date has been announced and the GSEs have said advance notice will come through the Selling Guides first.

Is VantageScore 4.0 accepted for a mortgage?

As of September 9, 2026 the direction is in the guides: Fannie Mae Lender Letter LL-2026-06 and Freddie Mac Bulletin 2026-H make VantageScore 4.0 available to all approved single-family lenders. Adoption is still concentrated: KBW reported VantageScore 4.0 at 5.6 percent of GSE originations in August, almost all of it from two lenders, with most lenders still pulling FICO on nearly every loan. The 9 percent figure VantageScore cites is a share of securitizations since May 1; the two numbers measure different things. FHA: announced, not effective. VA: yes. Non-QM: investor-specific.

Being eligible is not the same as being ready. The GSEs state plainly that a lender or technology provider that is not operationally ready may keep using Classic FICO under existing policy, and that readiness varies by provider. They also note that a correction changing the score model type after funding or purchase will not produce a price adjustment refund, which is a reason to settle the model choice before delivery rather than after.

Is FICO Score 10T accepted by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?

Lenders can already receive 10T today: FICO's Free Access Program provides FICO Score 10T alongside Classic FICO through dual processing at no additional fee from FICO for participating lenders, and more than 70 lenders had adopted it by late July 2026, mostly on non-conforming programs. VA accepts it. Credit Technologies can enable FICO 10T dual processing for end users FICO has approved.

Do mortgage lenders use all three credit bureaus?

Not the lowest of three; the middle of three. With two borrowers, the lower of the two middle scores.

The representative score works the same way under VantageScore 4.0 as under Classic FICO: the middle of the three bureau scores for each borrower, then the lowest of those across all borrowers on the loan. The GSEs have confirmed that the methodology is unchanged for the new model and that they will announce it if that changes. The historical data files the GSEs released use a different calculation and are a research dataset, not the delivery rule. A lender electing VantageScore 4.0 must order it from all three repositories.

How a tri-merge report is assembled and read is covered in our guide to tri-merge credit reports.

Is bi-merge happening?

Under the earlier design, a lender could select any two bureaus, the representative score would have been the average of the two, and a lender that obtained three reports would have had to deliver all three. Whether a new proposal would keep those rules is unknown. Our companion analysis walks through the evidence on both sides and who funded it.

Can a lender run both models and deliver the better one?

The practical question for an originator is which model, with which grid, produces the better outcome for a given file, and that is a pricing decision, not a scoring trick. Because a lender may choose the score it delivers, the GSEs face adverse selection: the originator knows both scores and the buyer sees one. Milliman identifies the 20-point tier offset as a partial offset to that, which is why a higher VantageScore does not translate into a lower price as often as the raw number suggests.

Does a higher VantageScore mean a better rate?

Pivot Financial modeled a 400,000 dollar, 30-year fixed loan at a 6.71 percent base rate against both grids. Below 30 percent loan-to-value it found essentially no difference. At 75 to 80 percent LTV with scores of 700 to 719, it found about 0.375 percentage points of additional price adjustment under VantageScore 4.0 for purchase and refinance loans at either GSE. The largest gap it modeled was on cash-out refinances at 70.01 to 75 percent LTV with scores of 680 to 699, at 1.125 percentage points. Pivot's CEO put the reason plainly: the models are materially different, and a 750 FICO is not a 750 VantageScore.

Milliman reached the same direction from historical data, comparing loans originated between 2013 and 2023 under the 20-point adjustment. It found VantageScore 4.0 produced a lower price adjustment about 25 percent of the time, the same price about 36 percent of the time, and a higher price about 40 percent of the time. Milliman's principal attributed the calibration partly to adverse selection: because a lender may choose which score to deliver, the 20-point adjustment offsets some of the advantage that choice creates. GSE sources told HousingWire they expect competition between the models to reduce costs over time and to reach borrowers with thin files through rent and trended data.

Both analyses are third-party models of published grids, not GSE statements, and neither is a prediction for a specific file. The practical step is unchanged: price the same borrower under both grids before choosing a model.

What do FHA, VA, USDA and non-QM programs accept?

Which score goes on the borrower's disclosures?

Reason codes differ by model, so a file scored under VantageScore 4.0 carries VantageScore reason codes. Adverse action notices follow the same rule. Credit Technologies' disclosure service delivers the notices for the model on the file.

Does rapid rescoring work on VantageScore 4.0 and FICO 10T?

A paid-down balance or a removed error moves the file under Classic FICO, VantageScore 4.0 and FICO 10T alike, though not by the same number of points, because the models weigh the same change differently.

Why does the same borrower score differently at each bureau?

That is why the tri-merge exists, and it is the center of the bi-merge debate: with two bureaus, a missing tradeline matters more, not less.

What has not changed

And the distance between an announcement and an implementation: VantageScore 4.0 was announced as accepted on July 8, 2025, the first loans were delivered May 1, 2026, and the model had 9 percent of securitizations by September 2026. Fourteen months from post to measurable share. Plan on that gap. One market-structure change to note: FHFA has said that GSE mortgage-backed securities, credit risk transfers and other securitized products will carry a VantageScore alongside the FICO score.

How to get VantageScore 4.0 or FICO Score 10T on your credit reports

Turning the model on is an account change, not a setting on a single report. Four things have to line up: the bureau subscriber codes have to be enabled to deliver VantageScore 4.0; the VantageScore 4.0 model has to be set under each bureau on the account alongside Classic FICO; the loan origination system has to support the model, which the GSEs say varies by provider; and for reissues, the lender should confirm with their GSE representatives that they are ready to receive VantageScore 4.0 in Desktop Underwriter or Loan Product Advisor. Once enabled, the scores are delivered alongside Classic FICO, and the Score Disclosure and Notice to Home Loan Applicant section of the report carries the VantageScore 4.0 scores and percentages automatically. Scores returned in the raw bureau files cannot be edited before or after submission.