What credit score do mortgage lenders use?
Which FICO Score Generation Do Mortgage Lenders Use?
The best-known credit scores are going to fall under either the FICO or VantageScore brands. There are multiple generations of each score brand, as every few years, the score developers create newer versions. So, for example, there’s a VantageScore 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0.
In most lending environments outside of mortgages, it’s hard to know which specific credit score a lender will use to evaluate your application. And, even if you knew your lender used a FICO Score or a VantageScore credit score, you still would not know which generation of the score it is using.
For example, you may apply for an auto loan with one lender that checks your FICO Auto Score 8 based on your Experian credit report. Yet, if you apply for financing with a different auto lender, it may opt to check your VantageScore 3.0 score based on TransUnion data.
The only way to know for sure is to ask the lender which credit report and which credit score version it plans to check, but that isn’t a guarantee that they’ll tell you.
The mortgage industry is different. Because of the aforementioned FHFA mandate, mortgage lenders must use the following versions of FICO’s scoring models:
FICO Model
Description
FICO 9 Newest version. Not widely used.
FICO 8 Most common. Used for Auto and Bankcard lending.
FICO 5 Used by mortgage lenders. Built on data from Equifax.
FICO 4 Used by mortgage lenders. Built on data from
