The three major credit bureaus – Equifax, Experian and TransUnion – aren’t deciding whether you qualify for a mortgage or what interest rate to offer – your lender makes those decisions.
Because lenders use credit scores to gauge how likely you are to repay your loan on time, they get to set credit score requirements. Every lender is going to have a slightly different definition of a “bad,” “fair,” “good” and “excellent” credit score.
Generally, you need a score of 620 or higher to qualify for a conventional mortgage and a score of 740 or higher to get the most favorable interest rates. Based on this, lenders may view anything under 580 to be a “bad” credit score.