What changed in credit scoring in 2025 and 2026, with dates

If you read a headline in the last year saying credit scores “changed,” you probably came away thinking your score works differently now. For almost everyone, it doesn’t. The FICO 8 score your card issuer shows you is calculated the same way it was in 2024.

What changed is which scores certain lenders are allowed to use, mostly for mortgages, plus a handful of new score products and one court ruling. The dates matter, because a lot of articles still describe these changes as “coming soon” when some are live and one hasn’t started yet. Every date below comes from the agency or company that made the change.

The timeline, in order

Conventional mortgages: VantageScore 4.0 is live, FICO 10T is not

FHFA, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, first announced on July 8, 2025 that lenders could use either VantageScore 4.0 or Classic FICO, still delivered on a three-bureau (tri-merge) report. In practice it rolled out slowly. A limited rollout began April 22, 2026, and on September 9, 2026 the two companies removed the prior-approval requirement so any approved lender can use VantageScore 4.0.

Fannie Mae’s Lender Letter LL-2026-06 adds three details that matter to a borrower:

• The lender picks the model, and “the same credit score model must be used for all borrowers on a single loan.” You can’t hand over your VantageScore while your co-borrower uses FICO.
• The lender has to request VantageScore 4.0 from each of the three bureaus, so the middle-score logic still applies. Our middle score rule explainer walks through it.
• Manually underwritten loans must still use Classic FICO only.

Classic FICO here means the old mortgage versions: FICO Score 2 from Experian, FICO Score 5 from Equifax and FICO Score 4 from TransUnion. FHFA says it has set no retirement date for them and will give advance notice before any change.

FICO 10T, which looks at trended data (how your balances moved over roughly the past two years), is approved but, in FHFA’s words, “not currently eligible for delivery.” Fannie and Freddie published historical FICO 10T data on July 1, 2026, which is groundwork for a launch that hasn’t happened. If a loan officer tells you your conventional loan will be priced on FICO 10T today, ask them to show you where.

Pricing: same score, same adjustment, either model

Until September 30, 2026, Fannie Mae ran separate price-adjustment grids for VantageScore 4.0. The reissued matrix covers “Classic FICO or VantageScore 4.0” in one table. A 745 on either model lands in the same 740 to 759 row.

The two models still won’t give you the same number. They are built differently and weigh the same report differently, so one file can land in different rows depending on the model. Which one helps you depends on your file, and nobody can tell you in advance without pulling both. Our FICO vs. VantageScore comparison covers where they tend to diverge.

FHA: announced in April, rules start January 1, 2027

The April 22, 2026 joint announcement said FHA would accept VantageScore 4.0 and FICO 10T. HUD formalized it in Mortgagee Letter 2026-11, dated October 8, 2026, which takes effect for case numbers assigned on or after January 1, 2027. Until then, FHA loans run on Classic FICO.

The new method is more involved than “pick a score,” and one piece of it can work against you:

1. For each score model the lender submits, take the middle of three scores (or the lower of two, or the only one).
2. Your “Borrower-Level Score” is the lowest of those model scores.
3. The loan’s Minimum Decision Credit Score is the lowest Borrower-Level Score among all borrowers.

Example. Say a lender submits both Classic FICO and VantageScore 4.0 for you. Your three Classic FICO scores are 571, 588 and 604, so the middle is 588. Your three VantageScore 4.0 scores are 590, 596 and 612, so the middle is 596. Your Borrower-Level Score is the lower of 588 and 596, which is 588. If your co-borrower’s comes out at 579, the loan’s decision score is 579, below the 580 line.

The thresholds themselves did not move. Below 500 is ineligible, 580 and up allows maximum financing, and 500 to 579 caps the loan at 90% of the home’s value. FHA still requires a tri-merge report. Lenders can, and often do, set higher minimums of their own.

Fannie Mae dropped its 620 floor, but lenders didn’t have to

For casefiles created on or after November 16, 2025, Desktop Underwriter no longer applies a 620 minimum score for one borrower or a 620 minimum average median score for more than one. Fannie Mae replaced it with “a minimum credit risk standard” inside DU’s own risk assessment.

That’s narrower than it sounds. A 590 borrower doesn’t automatically get approved; DU now weighs the whole file instead of stopping at a single number. Lenders are free to keep a 620 overlay of their own. If you’re below 620, ask a lender directly whether they apply their own minimum on DU loans. Freddie Mac’s rules are separate, and we haven’t confirmed a matching change there.

New FICO products: BNPL scores, UltraFICO and a pricing shift

BNPL scores. On June 23, 2025, FICO announced FICO Score 10 BNPL and FICO Score 10 T BNPL, which treat buy now, pay later loans as credit data and group separate BNPL loans together for some calculations. FICO said they’d be available in fall 2025, offered alongside existing versions at no extra fee. Whether your lender uses one is the lender’s choice, and FICO hasn’t said how many do. A BNPL score can only count BNPL loans that were reported to a bureau in the first place; see buy now, pay later and your credit.

UltraFICO. FICO made a next-generation UltraFICO Score generally available on May 20, 2026. It combines a FICO Score with bank account cash-flow data you permit a lender to see, through Plaid. FICO’s announcement doesn’t mention mortgages. A lender has to offer it and you have to opt in. Your regular score is untouched. More in Experian Boost, UltraFICO and alternative data.

Mortgage Direct License Program. Announced October 1, 2025, this lets mortgage credit report resellers calculate FICO Scores themselves instead of buying them through the bureaus. FICO’s stated price is $4.95 per score plus a $33 fee per borrower per score when a loan funds, or a flat $10 per score. This changes what lenders pay for scores, which can show up in your credit report fee. It doesn’t change how your score is calculated.

Medical debt and free reports

The CFPB finalized a rule on January 7, 2025 that would have banned medical bills from credit reports used by lenders. On July 11, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas vacated it in Cornerstone Credit Union League v. CFPB, finding the rule exceeded the Bureau’s authority under the FCRA. By then the CFPB itself had joined the plaintiffs in asking the court to throw the rule out. The CFPB now marks the rule “for reference only.” The bureaus’ own voluntary limits on medical collections, and a patchwork of state laws, are what’s left. Our medical debt guide tracks those.

One thing that didn’t change: free weekly reports. Equifax, Experian and TransUnion announced on September 18, 2023 that weekly access at AnnualCreditReport.com was permanently extended, and the FTC’s consumer guidance says the same.

What to do with this

1. If you’re buying a home in the next six months, ask each lender which score model it uses (Classic FICO or VantageScore 4.0) and whether it has a minimum score above the agency minimum.
2. If you’re using FHA and your case number will be assigned on or after January 1, 2027, ask whether the lender plans to submit more than one model, since the lowest one counts.
3. Pull all three reports before you apply. A mistake on one bureau can move your middle score on either model.
4. Ignore anyone selling a “new scoring loophole.” The models changed which lenders can use them, not what helps a score: on-time payments, low card balances and time.