Your lender can now pick which credit score model prices your mortgage. Whether that changes your fees isn't decided yet
Since April 2026, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac let approved lenders choose, loan by loan, between Classic FICO and VantageScore 4.0. An actuarial analysis says that choice isn't pricing-neutral — and FHFA's own director says the fee question is still unresolved.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's credit-score model change isn't just a future rollout anymore — since April 2026, it's a live "lender choice" policy, and that choice has a pricing consequence regulators haven't fully resolved.
What actually changed in April
On April 22, 2026, FHFA and HUD jointly announced that the Federal Housing Administration would permit VantageScore 4.0 and FICO 10T for FHA-insured mortgage underwriting, while Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac moved forward on the same two models for conventional loans. Per Mortgage Professional America's coverage, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac began accepting VantageScore 4.0 immediately, while HUD said FHA would accept the new models "soon," without committing to a firm date at the time. ABA Banking Journal's coverage of the same announcement called it a milestone in the agencies' broader modernization push.
The mechanism behind that rollout is what FHFA calls "lender choice": per Mortgage Professional America's reporting on FHFA Director Bill Pulte's remarks, roughly 21 of the nation's largest lenders are participating in what Pulte described as more than a pilot, and Freddie Mac had already completed an initial operational test accepting $10 million worth of VantageScore-scored loans.
Why "lender choice" isn't pricing-neutral
Letting a lender pick between two different scoring models for the same borrower sounds like a convenience feature. An actuarial analysis from Milliman frames it differently: "This announcement introduces behavioral considerations to mortgage pricing and a potential bias. If not addressed, this could lead to mortgage credit providers taking on greater risk within a credit score range and receiving lower risk-based fees for guaranteed mortgages."
In other words, VantageScore 4.0 and Classic FICO don't necessarily produce the same number for the same borrower, because they weigh different inputs — VantageScore's own material says its 4.0 model factors in rent, utility payments, and trended data (how an account behaved over time) where legacy FICO models don't, a claim from the model vendor itself, not an independent audit. If a lender could route every loan to whichever model produces the friendlier score, the loan-level price adjustment (LLPA) — the risk-based fee grid Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac use to price a loan by credit score and down payment — would keep charging as if the two scores meant the same thing, even when they don't. Milliman calls the fix "actuarial equivalence": adjusting the grids so that, across a pool of loans, the fees collected reflect the actual shift in default risk, not just the nominal score.
Per Mortgage Professional America, Pulte confirmed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are building "new separate pricing guides for VantageScore loans to accurately reflect the way the different models work" — meaning the grids themselves are being reworked, not just relabeled.
The part that isn't settled: will fees actually go down
Separate pricing guides are one thing; whether they add up to a lower bill for borrowers is another; and that part is still open. Per the same Mortgage Professional America report, when asked directly about reducing loan-level price adjustments, Pulte said "we haven't made any decisions there yet" — no commitment on the affordability reforms some mortgage brokers have pushed for.
That hasn't stopped the model vendor and a credit bureau from publishing their own estimates. VantageScore's own analysis, credited to a firm called Deep Future Analytics, claims "more than $930 million in cost savings during the first year of implementation" and roughly $115–$132 saved per completed mortgage application. Separately, TransUnion's own March 2026 announcement set its VantageScore 4.0 mortgage-origination pricing at 99 cents per score and projected "more than $900 million in potential savings for lenders and consumers." Both of those figures are real, published claims — and both come from parties with a direct financial stake in VantageScore 4.0's adoption, not an independent audit. They're also mostly about the cost of pulling the score itself, which is paid by the lender, not the separate question of what LLPA fee ultimately lands on your loan.
What this means if you're shopping for a mortgage today
Nothing changes automatically for your specific loan. Per FHFA's own guidance, your lender chooses which model to pull — and per Milliman's analysis, the fee grid attached to that choice is still being recalibrated. If you're actively applying, ask your loan officer directly which model they're using and whether it affects your quoted rate or fees; that's the only way to know what applies to your file, since the vendor and bureau savings estimates describe the industry in aggregate, not any individual borrower's bill.
What this isn't
This is a summary of what FHFA, HUD, an actuarial analysis, and the credit-reporting industry have each said publicly about the lender-choice policy and its pricing consequences — not mortgage or financial advice, and not a claim about what your specific loan will cost. The savings figures cited above are the model vendor's and a credit bureau's own estimates, not numbers ClearValue Money has independently verified.
Where this fits
This continues our look at the VantageScore 4.0 / FICO 10T mortgage credit-scoring change: that piece covered what changed and when; this one covers the pricing mechanism — LLPAs — that determines whether the change actually shows up in what you pay, and why an actuarial firm says that isn't automatic.
Frequently asked
Can my lender really pick whichever credit score model makes my mortgage look better?
Per FHFA's own published guidance, an approved lender chooses which model — Classic FICO or VantageScore 4.0 — to use for a given loan, and lenders may use different models across different loans. But the Enterprises will not accept two different model scores on the same loan, so it isn't 'whichever number is best' on a single file — it's the lender's choice of which model to pull in the first place.
What is a loan-level price adjustment (LLPA), in plain terms?
An LLPA is a risk-based fee Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac add to a conventional loan's price based on factors like credit score and down payment — lower scores and thinner down payments generally carry higher LLPAs, which show up as a higher rate or upfront cost. The mechanism itself (the grid of fees by score band) predates this rollout; what's new is that two different scoring models now feed into it.
Does using VantageScore 4.0 mean my mortgage will cost less?
Not automatically, and not yet decided either way. VantageScore and TransUnion have each published their own analyses claiming hundreds of millions of dollars in aggregate savings — but those are the model vendor and a credit bureau describing the benefit of their own product, not an independent finding, and the savings they cite are mostly about the cost of pulling the score itself, not a change to your LLPA fee. On the LLPA question specifically, per Mortgage Professional America's reporting, FHFA Director Bill Pulte said as of that report no decision had been made on lowering loan-level price adjustments for VantageScore-scored loans.
Why does it matter which model my lender uses if my credit history hasn't changed?
Because the two models don't weigh the same inputs the same way — VantageScore's own material says its 4.0 model factors in rent and utility payment history where FICO's legacy models don't (the vendor's own claim, not independently audited). An actuarial analysis from Milliman found that letting lenders choose the model, without adjusting the pricing grid, could let a lender take on more risk within a given score band while paying the same risk-based fee — which is exactly why Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are working on separate pricing grids for each model.
Sources
The named, dated public references below back the points made above. Rules and guidance change; confirm the current version with the source before you rely on it.
- Federal Housing Finance Agency — Homebuying Advances into New Era of Credit Score Competition (April 22, 2026)
- ABA Banking Journal — HUD, FHFA roll out plans for new credit scoring in mortgages — American Bankers Association
- Mortgage Professional America — FHFA to accept VantageScore loans immediately; HUD to accept new scores 'soon' — Mortgage Professional America (KM Business Information)
- Milliman — Assessing the impact of 'lender choice' on loan-level price adjustments — Milliman (actuarial consultancy)
- TransUnion — TransUnion Announces 99-Cent Mortgage Pricing for VantageScore 4.0 (March 9, 2026) — TransUnion (credit bureau's own announcement)
- VantageScore — New Updated Analysis Finds Nearly $1 Billion in Mortgage Cost Savings from FHFA's Mortgage Credit Score Competition Decision — VantageScore Solutions LLC (model vendor's own claim)
- VantageScore — VantageScore 4.0 to Make Mortgage Approval Easy for Millions — VantageScore Solutions LLC (model vendor's own claim)
The standard behind this
Everything here traces back to one published editorial standard — how we source, score, and disclose across the family.
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