For nearly two decades, one scoring model stood between American borrowers and a mortgage. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which buy a large share of the nation's home loans, required lenders to deliver a score from a single model known in the industry as Classic FICO. Lenders had no alternative because the buyers of their loans accepted none.
That arrangement is being taken apart. The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates the two companies, validated two newer models in October 2022: FICO 10T and VantageScore 4.0. The agency has since directed an interim phase in which approved lenders may choose between Classic FICO and VantageScore 4.0 on loans sold to Fannie and Freddie. In April 2026 the Federal Housing Administration accepted both newer models for FHA-insured mortgages.
What separates the new models from the old one is what they are allowed to look at. According to the FHFA, they capture payment histories Classic FICO ignores — rent, utilities, and telecom — wherever that information has been reported. They also read behavior as a trend over time rather than as a single snapshot.
The practical effect lands on people whose financial lives never produced much conventional credit. A borrower who has rented reliably for a decade and never carried a credit card has, under the old model, almost nothing to show. Under the newer ones that history can count, provided somebody reported it.
Adoption is uneven and will stay that way for a while, because lenders choose. For a borrower, what counts now depends partly on where the application lands.
Rick Good spent ten years in the newspaper business, including with The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) and The Greenville News (Greenville, SC). He co-wrote, with Melinda Coleman, Rutledge to Riley: Governors of South Carolina, 1776–Present (Published by The Greenville News), and is the author of Mind Games Trivia #1 (Amazon). He has recently spent 15 years creating original trivia content through Sounds Good Mobile Entertainment and continues that with his new company, SGME Software. He edits The Smart Reader’s money, real estate, and business coverage.
