See how your rate and payment compare once you know your numbers
Try the Mortgage Calculator →The credit score sitting on your banking app's dashboard almost certainly isn't the one your mortgage lender is going to pull. That mismatch catches a lot of buyers off guard — they check their score before house hunting, see a number in the high 700s, and then the lender comes back with something ten or twenty points lower. Neither number is wrong. They're just measuring different things, with different scoring models, built for different purposes.
Here's exactly which score lenders actually use, why it differs from what you see day-to-day, and what the real minimums and pricing breaks look like.
Most free credit monitoring — your bank's app, Credit Karma, Experian's own consumer app — shows a newer scoring model: usually FICO Score 8 or FICO Score 9, or a competing model called VantageScore. These are useful for tracking your credit health generally, but they are not what mortgage underwriting uses.
Mortgage lenders are required by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guidelines to pull older, bureau-specific FICO models instead:
These older models weigh certain factors — like collections, credit mix, and older derogatory marks — differently than the newer consumer-facing versions. That's the real source of the gap people notice: it's not that the lender is using "worse" data, it's a different formula applied to the same credit history.
Since the three bureaus often report slightly different scores (different furnishers report to different bureaus, and not always on the same schedule), lenders don't use an average. Instead:
For one applicant, lenders use the middle of the three bureau scores — not the highest, not the lowest, and not an average of all three.
So if your three mortgage-specific scores come back as 712, 705, and 698, your qualifying score is 705 — the middle one.
For a joint application with two borrowers, most conventional lenders take each person's middle score, then use the lower of the two applicants' middle scores to qualify and price the loan. That means one partner's weaker credit profile really can pull down the rate the whole household qualifies for — worth knowing before you apply together.
| Loan Type | Typical Minimum Score | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Conventional | 620+ | Set by Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac guidelines |
| FHA | 580 (3.5% down) | 500-579 allowed with 10% down |
| USDA | 640+ | Varies by lender overlay |
| VA | No official floor | Most lenders set their own minimum, often 580-620 |
These are program minimums, not guarantees of approval — individual lenders can and do layer their own stricter requirements ("overlays") on top of these baseline numbers.
On conventional loans, your credit score doesn't just decide whether you qualify — it directly moves your rate and your private mortgage insurance cost through what's called risk-based (loan-level) pricing. Lenders apply pricing adjustments in tiers, roughly grouped in 20-point bands from the high 500s up through 740+, with each step up typically unlocking a better rate and cheaper PMI.
Once you know your numbers, see what they mean for your payment
Mortgage Calculator → Home Affordability Calculator →Most free apps show a newer consumer FICO model, like FICO 8 or 9, or a VantageScore. Mortgage lenders pull older, bureau-specific FICO models instead — FICO Score 2, 4, or 5 — which score things like collections and credit mix differently, so the numbers rarely match.
For a single applicant, lenders typically use the middle of the three bureau scores, not the average. For a joint application, most conventional lenders use the lower of the two applicants' middle scores.
It depends on the loan type: conventional loans typically need 620+, FHA loans allow 580 for 3.5% down (or 500-579 with 10% down), USDA loans generally want 640+, and VA loans have no official minimum, though most lenders set their own floor around 580-620.
Yes. Conventional lenders use risk-based pricing tied directly to your credit score tier — higher scores get better rates and lower private mortgage insurance costs, with the pricing difference often showing up in multiple tiers between the high-600s and mid-700s and up.