Equifax says mortgage lenders pulled VantageScore 4.0 credit scores 230% more often between April and August 2026, and it is holding the price of that score at $1 through the end of 2028 β a commitment that tells lenders what the newly competitive market for mortgage credit scores is going to cost them.
The credit bureau released the adoption figures on Oct. 8 and, the same afternoon, launched a product designed to cut what lenders spend pulling scores they end up not using.
Close to 2,000 lenders and resellers received free VantageScore 4.0 scores alongside the paid legacy scores they were already buying between April and September 2026, according to Equifax. More than 165 lenders now use VantageScore 4.0 exclusively for certain loan types at the $1 price.
That shift followed a regulatory opening rather than a market one. VantageScore 4.0 became usable at scale after Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte cleared all Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lenders to use it, ending a limited rollout. The Federal Housing Administration will accept the score for eligible loans effective Jan. 1, 2027.
Paying for scores the loan never needed
The second announcement addresses a narrower, more practical irritation. Under Mortgage Score Select, announced Oct. 8, a lender or broker can pull an Equifax mortgage credit file with no score attached, or with one score of its choosing. Each file carries a single accompanying score, so it is unambiguous which score applies to which file. The lender can then take a second look at the same file within 24 hours for $1, plus the cost of whatever score it selects β or again with no score.
The product supports VantageScore 4.0, Classic FICO, and FICO Score 10T once that model is approved. Equifax says the arrangement also meets the secondary-market requirements certain investors impose on score use.
The logic is straightforward: a loan file that will not close does not need to carry the cost of a purchased score, and a file that proceeds can have the right score added at the point it actually matters. Lenders have been pressing on exactly this cost line, with United Wholesale Mortgage saying it would pull both FICO and VantageScore on every loan and default to the better score, and Rocket Mortgage making VantageScore its default.
Joel Rickman, Equifax’s general manager and senior vice president of U.S. mortgage and verification services, said the company is “deeply committed to supporting the mortgage industry and the consumers we serve,” adding that this is true “especially as we navigate the most difficult mortgage market in decades.”
What is the company’s claim and what is established
Several of the figures in the announcements are Equifax’s own estimates about its own products, and they should be read that way.
Equifax puts potential industry and consumer savings from the price differences among score providers at $1 billion. It says VantageScore 4.0 can lift originations by 20% and can score consumers with thin credit files, drawing on up to 24 months of trended data plus rental, utility and telecommunications payment histories β and it says the model adds no additional risk. None of those are independently audited results; they are the vendor’s characterization of its own model, offered while it competes for share.
Mark W. Begor, Equifax’s chief executive, credited the policy change directly, calling the decision by Pulte and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner to open VantageScore 4.0 across conventional and FHA-insured loans a move that “has advanced homebuying into a new era of credit scoring competition.”
Magesh Sarma, chief operating officer of AmeriSave Mortgage Corporation, said the lender added VantageScore 4.0 once lenders were able to choose their score model, “giving us more flexibility in how we evaluate applicants, while keeping the experience quick and easy.”
What it means at the loan level
For a loan officer, the change is less about which model scores a borrower and more about when the meter starts running. Credit costs are charged per pull, and not every application becomes a loan, so the ability to defer the score purchase until a file is going somewhere moves real money.
For borrowers with thin files, the stake is different and not yet measurable from these releases. Equifax argues alternative payment data widens approvals; what the announcements do not provide is any breakdown of how many loans were actually approved on a VantageScore 4.0 file that a legacy score would have declined. Until lenders or the agencies publish that, the expanded-access case rests on the vendor’s modeling rather than on origination outcomes.
The pricing commitment, at least, is specific: $1 per VantageScore 4.0 mortgage score through the end of 2028. Competitors now have a public number to price against, and lenders have one to plan against. More mortgage coverage is on our mortgage page.
