Which credit score do lenders need?

Hi Lance, If you are applying for a loan by yourself, the middle credit score will be the one that is used. If you are applying for the loan jointly with someone else, the lower of the 2 middle credit scores is the one that will be used.

The best way to find out your scores is to work with a local mortgage pro. From experience if you get your scores through a free service or pay service, when a lender runs your credit they are different. as a rule every lender will use the middle of your three scores as one of the determining factors on what rate you get.

Typically the lowest credit score I have seen lenders I work with accepting is 580. With that comes other restrictions and overlays - depending if it is a refinance or purchase. As previously stated, pulling your credit from a free source will not give you accurate credit scores being they are not pulling a mortgage specific credit report, which defers from a consumer report where different credit algorithms are used to calculate what is typically higher scores.

For the purposes of a Home Mortgage Loan, lenders look at all three Credit scores (Transunion, Experian and Equifax) and use the middle for scoring purposes. Keep in mind that not all creditors report to all three however which explains why there could be a big difference between them. Even though we only use the middle "score", we do consider the activity on all three.