You might have an idea of what your credit score is, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you know what credit score lenders will see when you apply for a mortgage. That’s because you don’t just have one credit score—you have dozens, and it’s up to each lender which one they want to look at.
Most lenders will look at your FICO score when deciding whether to give you a loan (rather than your VantageScore credit score), but they might be using a different FICO scoring model than the one you’re using to check your credit.
Most mortgage lenders use one of three FICO models specially designed for the mortgage industry:
FICO Score 2, or Experian/Fair Isaac Risk Model v2
FICO Score 4, or TransUnion FICO Risk Score 04
FICO Score 5, or Equifax Beacon 5
Unlike standard FICO scores, which range from 300 to 850, FICO mortgage scores (and other industry-specific FICO scores) range from 250 to 900, and they differ slightly in terms of how your credit score is calculated.
The good news is that you don’t have to understand the differences between your credit scores in detail to clean up your credit so you can buy a house. Your credit scores are strongly correlated with each other, and improving one will generally improve them all.