FICO will hold the wholesale price of its mortgage credit score at $10 for lenders that commit to it through a new Preferred Program, the company announced after the market closed Oct. 23. In the first trading session after the announcement, Fair Isaac shares closed Oct. 26 at $707.11, down 13.3% from the Oct. 23 close of $815.31, after trading as low as $671.19 during the day.
Under the offer, lenders and brokers enrolled in what FICO calls its Preferred Program will pay a wholesale price of $10 through participating tri-merge resellers β the firms that assemble the three-bureau credit reports used in mortgage underwriting. The $10 buys a bundle of two scores: the Classic FICO Score, which FICO says has served as the industry standard for mortgage lending for nearly three decades, and FICO Score 10T, the company’s newer model, which incorporates trended credit bureau data and rental payment information.
FICO described the offer as “flat year-over-year pricing.” The release says it will be available “to lenders who have committed to FICO” through participating resellers. It does not spell out what that commitment requires, what lenders who do not enroll will pay, or when the program takes effect, and it directs lenders to a FICO email address for details.
What FICO said
“By holding our price at $10 for lenders in our Preferred Program and including both Classic FICO Score and FICO Score 10T, we’re ensuring lenders have access to the trusted and predictive tools they need to assess risk with confidence,” said Will Lansing, FICO’s CEO. “Better risk decisions strengthen the mortgage market and help lenders responsibly expand access to credit, helping more Americans achieve the dream of homeownership.”
The company’s release calls the Classic FICO Score “the most trusted credit score across the mortgage ecosystem” and FICO Score 10T “the most predictive credit score available to the mortgage industry.” Those are FICO’s own characterizations; its competitors make similar claims for their models.
A price that doubled once already
The $10 figure is itself the product of a sharp increase. When FICO laid out its 2026 mortgage pricing in October 2025, Equifax said in a statement dated Oct. 2, 2025 that FICO had “more than doubled its previously disclosed pricing for 2026, raising prices from $4.95 to $10,” a move Equifax estimated could raise mortgage score costs across the industry by about $100 million. Equifax called it a “monopoly-like 2x price increase.”
Holding at that level, rather than raising it again, comes after a year in which federal regulators opened the mortgage market to a competing score. Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte opened VantageScore 4.0 to every Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lender in September, and the two enterprises moved to a single pricing grid that treats VantageScore and Classic FICO alike. Large lenders followed quickly: Rocket Mortgage said it would make VantageScore its default model on eligible loans in the fourth quarter, and UWM said it would pull both scores on every loan and use the better one.
The price gap is wide. Equifax said Oct. 8 that it will hold VantageScore 4.0 mortgage pricing at $1 through the end of 2028, and TransUnion has extended 99-cent VantageScore 4.0 mortgage pricing through December 2028.
Why the commitment matters
On our reading, the most consequential word in the release is “committed.” A $10 bundled price is not a price cut, but tying it to lenders that commit to FICO gives the company a way to defend volume as lenders weigh using cheaper VantageScore for some or all loans. The release does not say whether enrolled lenders may also pull competing scores, and FICO has not published the program’s terms.
For borrowers and agents, the direct effect of a few dollars per score is likely small next to total closing costs. The larger question is whether competition among score providers continues to push down what lenders pay β and, by extension, what lenders pass through β as FHA prepares to accept VantageScore 4.0 beginning Jan. 1, 2027.
FICO has already been reshaping itself as that competition intensifies. In an Oct. 6 securities filing, the company disclosed plans to eliminate about 15% of its positions, a restructuring it said would integrate AI-driven product development. More coverage is in RealtyWire’s Mortgage section.
