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 since October 1, 2026 the two are priced on the same loan-level price adjustment grid. 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. Rocket Mortgage has said it will make VantageScore 4.0 its preferred model for eligible loans during the fourth quarter of 2026; its broker channel, Rocket Pro, will keep offering both models.

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 identified the 20-point offset, in force from September 9 through September 30, as a partial counterweight to that; both GSEs removed it on October 1, 2026.

Both underwriting systems are built for a report that carries both. Fannie Mae's Desktop Underwriter shows the scores and the representative score for each model found on the report, and Loan Delivery checks the delivered scores against the model the lender picked, using Special Feature Code 067 to mark VantageScore 4.0. Freddie Mac's Loan Product Advisor shows each borrower's scores for each model and stops a loan that mixes models across borrowers. Two limits apply. At Fannie Mae, only loans underwritten in DU can use VantageScore 4.0. At Freddie Mac, a loan that receives a Caution risk class must use Classic FICO and the manual underwriting requirements; if only VantageScore 4.0 was ordered, the file has to be pulled again.

Does a higher VantageScore mean a better rate?

The models still produce different numbers for the same borrower, and a lender delivers one per loan, so the lender's choice of model can now change the price directly. Lenders have reported the difference often favors VantageScore 4.0: Rocket Mortgage said it helped more of its clients qualify, and United Wholesale Mortgage said about one in four borrowers in its pipeline received a more advantageous result with it. Those are lender statements, not GSE data, and a different score does not by itself make a borrower eligible.

The earlier analyses on this page described the two-grid pricing in force through September 30. Pivot Financial and Milliman each found that pricing produced a higher price adjustment under VantageScore 4.0 more often than a lower one, and Milliman described the 20-point offset as partly offsetting the advantage a lender gains by choosing which score to deliver. With the offset removed, that choice carries its full effect on price. The GSEs have not said whether anything will replace it.

Two cautions apply. From October 19, 2026, mortgage-backed security disclosures show which model priced each loan, and lenders at HousingWire's Mortgage Banking Summit said it is unclear how investors will price any perceived risk difference between FICO-scored and VantageScore-scored loans; equal price adjustments at the GSEs do not guarantee an equal price when the loan is sold. Pivot Financial's analysis of about 22.8 million matched Freddie Mac loans estimates that roughly 69 percent of historical VantageScore borrowers would land in a better pricing tier under the single grid.

The practical step changes with it: price the borrower under both models where the lender can deliver either, keeping in mind that each loan is delivered under one model, every borrower on it is scored the same way, manually underwritten loans stay on Classic FICO, and a model change after funding earns no price adjustment refund.

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: beginning October 19, 2026, with October 2026 issued securities, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed security disclosures add the Fannie Score, the Freddie Score and a pricing indicator showing whether Classic FICO or VantageScore 4.0 priced each loan. Both GSEs state their own scores are not used in loan pricing.

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.