The credit score that decides your mortgage is no longer a single number from a single company. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac now accept VantageScore 4.0 alongside Classic FICO, the FHA has begun its own implementation, and the model a lender chooses can produce a different score from the same credit file.
For anyone who runs a rewards strategy and is also thinking about a house, this changes the order of operations.
What actually changed
The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced on July 8, 2025 that VantageScore 4.0 was immediately acceptable for loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In April 2026 the FHFA Director and the HUD Secretary jointly announced implementation across Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHA.
Two models are approved for delivery today: Classic FICO and VantageScore 4.0.
The detail most coverage gets wrong
You will read that lenders must now deliver both FICO 10T and VantageScore 4.0 with every loan. That was the design announced in 2022. It is not what applies today.
The FHFA's current guidance is that approved lenders choose between Classic FICO and VantageScore 4.0, and that the Enterprises will not accept scores from multiple models on a given loan at delivery. FICO 10T remains approved but is not yet adopted for active use. The Enterprises expect to publish historical FICO 10T scores in Summer 2026 and to adopt scores from that model later.
So the practical answer to "which score will my lender pull" is: one of two, and the lender picks.
Separately, the bi-merge option, which lets a lender use two of the three national credit bureaus rather than all three, remains available alongside traditional tri-merge reporting.
Why the two models can disagree about you
Classic FICO is an old model. VantageScore 4.0 is a 2017 model, and it treats several things differently in ways that matter to people who use credit heavily and deliberately.
Trended data. VantageScore 4.0 was the first tri-bureau model to use it, looking at the direction of your balances over up to 30 months rather than the snapshot on your last statement. Someone who charges heavily for rewards and pays in full every month looks different under a trended model than under a snapshot model, and generally better.
Rent and utilities. VantageScore 4.0 counts rental and utility tradelines when they are furnished to the bureau. Classic FICO does not use them at all. If you have a thin file, that is the single biggest difference between the two.
Medical collections. VantageScore 4.0 ignores unpaid medical collections under $500. Classic FICO treats them the same as any other collection.
Paid collections. VantageScore 4.0 ignores collections once they are paid. Classic FICO does not.
None of this makes one model correct. It makes the number lender-dependent, which is the part worth internalising.
What this means if you are chasing welcome bonuses
The old advice was to stop opening cards roughly six months before a mortgage application. That advice still holds, and the reason is unchanged: new accounts lower your average age of accounts and each application leaves an inquiry.
What has changed is the payoff for the other half of the strategy. Under a trended model, a long record of paying statement balances in full is visible as a pattern rather than as a single good month. That rewards exactly the behaviour a points strategy requires anyway.
Two practical moves:
- Ask which model your lender uses before you apply. It is a fair question and the answer is not confidential. If you have a thin file with strong rent history, a VantageScore 4.0 lender may serve you better.
- Do not chase a card in the six months before an application. Whichever model gets pulled, a fresh inquiry and a new account both count against you.
Our guide to credit inquiries covers how long each one actually matters, and why your credit score drops explains the rest of the mechanics. If a mortgage is the goal, applying through a credit union is worth reading alongside this.
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