What Credit Score Do You Need for a Mortgage? The Honest UK Answer

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There is no minimum credit score for a UK mortgage. No lender publishes one, because no lender uses the number you see. Your Experian, Equifax, TransUnion or ClearScore score is a consumer product. Your mortgage lender never receives it. It builds its own score from the raw data on your credit file.

That is the honest answer, and it is hard to find on the pages ranking for this question. Three of the top six results are credit reference agencies selling score monitoring. Each has a commercial reason to keep you watching a number that does not decide anything.

Written by Jake Stott, Knox Mortgages. Published 4 September 2026. Last reviewed 4 September 2026.

Do mortgage lenders see your Experian or ClearScore score?

No. A UK mortgage lender does not receive the score shown in your Experian app, your ClearScore dashboard or your banking app. Those scores are calculated by the credit reference agency for you, the consumer. They are an interpretation, not a shared rating.

The lender receives the underlying credit file: accounts, balances, month by month payment history, credit searches, public records, electoral roll registration and financial associations. It runs that through its own model, alongside data the agencies never hold, such as your income, deposit, employment type and existing relationship with that bank. Two lenders reading the identical file on the same afternoon regularly reach opposite decisions.

Why did all three credit agencies change their scoring scales in the last year?

Because the scores are consumer products, and products get redesigned. All three main UK credit reference agencies have rewritten or are rewriting their scale within roughly twelve months.

Agency	Current scale	Bands	Recent change
Experian	0 to 1250	Excellent 1121 to 1250, Very Good 1001 to 1120, Good 861 to 1000, Fair 641 to 860, Low 0 to 640	Replaced the 0 to 999 scale, phased from autumn 2025. The old score can still appear in banking apps.
Equifax	0 to 1000	Excellent 811 to 1000, Very Good 671 to 810, Good 531 to 670, Fair 439 to 530, Poor 0 to 438	Replaced the 0 to 700 scale and added a new “very good” band.
TransUnion	0 to 710, moving to 0 to 999	New scale: Excellent 786 to 999, Good 653 to 785, Fair 563 to 652, Low 488 to 562, Very Low 0 to 487	Rollout began September 2026 and runs to June 2027.

Now hold two facts side by side. Experian’s own site states its score runs from 0 to 1250, while a broker guide ranking on page one of this search still says Experian is “out of 999” and Equifax “out of 700”. Experian also confirms you may see the old 0 to 999 number in your banking app while the 1250 version sits in your Experian account.

So the same person can see two different Experian scores in two apps on the same day. Their creditworthiness did not change, and neither did how any lender assesses them. That is what the number is worth as a mortgage threshold.

What is a lender’s internal scorecard, and what does it weigh?

A lender’s scorecard is a private model predicting how likely you are to default on that specific product. Every lender builds its own and publishes none of it. The inputs typically include:

Raw credit file data, not the consumer score: payment history, account ages, balances, utilisation, recent searches and adverse markers.
Application data the agencies never see: income, employment type and length of service, deposit size and source, existing commitments.
Internal account conduct if you already bank with them. Overdraft use and returned direct debits carry real weight with your own bank.
Policy rules outside the scorecard, which are pass or fail gates. A lender can score you strongly and still decline for an unsatisfied default or a probationary period.
The lender’s current risk appetite. Criteria move with funding costs and lending targets, so the same case can pass in March and fail in September at the same lender.

That last point is the one nobody tells you. Some of the decision has nothing to do with you.

What does a mortgage lender actually read on your credit file?

Adverse credit is not one thing, and the age of an event usually matters more than the event itself. A satisfied default from four years ago is routine. The same default from four months ago is a specialist lending case.

Marker	Time on file	Realistic effect on a mortgage
Late or missed payment	6 years	One isolated late payment over 12 months old is often ignored. A recent pattern on a mortgage or loan is far worse than one on a mobile contract.
Default	6 years from the default date	Satisfied and over 3 years old works with several high street and mid tier lenders. Recent or unsatisfied means a specialist lender and a larger deposit.
CCJ	6 years from judgment. Removed entirely if paid in full within one month, otherwise marked satisfied	Weighted more heavily than a default. Unsatisfied CCJs are a hard decline for most mainstream lenders.
IVA	6 years from approval, longer if not completed	Normally needs the arrangement completed and a deposit of at least 20% to 25%.
Bankruptcy	6 years from the start date	Discharged and over 3 years is realistic with specialist lenders. Under 3 years usually needs 25% or more deposit.
Debt management plan	Reported through the individual accounts	Active plans limit options sharply. Most lenders want it settled, ideally for 12 months or more.
Payday loans	6 years	Repaid on time and still a problem with a minority of lenders. Recent use reads as cash flow stress.

If any of these apply, read our guides on bad credit mortgages, mortgages with a CCJ, how long bankruptcy lasts and debt relief orders.

Why is there no minimum credit score for a mortgage?

Because lenders sit in tiers with genuinely different appetites, and each sets its own gates.

High street lenders automate most decisions and want a clean recent file. Anything recent or serious fails the automated gate with no human seeing the case.
Mid tier and building society lenders underwrite more cases manually and will read the story behind an event, which is where a well presented case earns a decision a computer would have refused.
Specialist lenders price adverse credit deliberately, accepting recent defaults, satisfied CCJs, completed IVAs and discharged bankruptcies, and charging for it.

This is why “declined by one lender, accepted by another” is a weekly occurrence rather than a sales line. A decline tells you that you failed one lender’s rules on one day. It tells you nothing about the market. That is also the practical difference between using a broker and going direct to a bank: a bank can only offer you its own criteria.

Two applicants, one score, opposite answers

Both show an Experian score of 880, which Experian classes as “good”.

Applicant A. Buying at £250,000 with a £50,000 deposit, so 80% loan to value. Household income £62,000, employed, three years in post. One missed credit card payment 26 months ago, no defaults, utilisation around 15%. Borrowing £200,000 at 3.2 times income. Outcome: accepted by a high street lender at a mainstream rate.

Applicant B. Buying at £250,000 with a £12,500 deposit, so 95% loan to value. Household income £48,000, seven weeks into a new job. A £900 default registered five months ago, unsatisfied. Two credit cards near their limits. Borrowing £237,500 at 4.9 times income. Outcome: declined by the same lender, with the realistic route a specialist who will want considerably more than £12,500 down.

Same score, opposite outcomes. The score was never the variable. Our guides on how much you can borrow and how lenders calculate affordability show where you sit.

What actually decides your mortgage application?

Deposit and loan to value. Your deposit does more to widen your options than any credit repair work you can complete in six months.

Deposit	Loan to value	What it buys you
5%	95%	Smallest lender pool, highest rates, effectively a clean file requirement.
10%	90%	Wide mainstream choice. Minor historic blips usually survivable.
15% to 20%	80% to 85%	Better pricing, and specialist lenders open up for moderate adverse credit.
25% or more	75% or less	Best pricing, and the level specialist lenders want for recent or severe adverse credit.

See our guide to how much deposit you need.

Affordability. Most lenders work to roughly 4.5 times income as standard. Since the Financial Policy Committee relaxed the flow limit on high loan to income lending in 2025, several major lenders now offer up to 5.5 times as standard, with 6 times available to specific higher earning profiles. Every case is still stress tested against a higher notional rate. Bank Rate has been held at 3.75% since 30 July 2026, with the next Monetary Policy Committee decision due 17 September 2026.

Employment type. Probationary periods, contract work, recent self employment and variable income all change which lenders will look at you, independently of your credit file. If you work for yourself, see our guides for self employed first time buyers and sole trader mortgages.

What does a declined mortgage application cost you?

Most lenders run a soft search at Decision in Principle stage, leaving no footprint visible to other lenders. A minority run a hard search even then, so confirm first. A full application is always a hard search, visible to every lender for twelve months. Several in quick succession read as someone shopping desperately, and can push a borderline case into a decline it would otherwise have survived.

One point that gets missed. With adverse credit the rate premium is usually 1% to 4% above equivalent high street pricing, and recent or unsatisfied defaults commonly price around 6.5% to 8.5%. But the binding constraint is normally the loan to value cap, not the rate. A specialist lender capping you at 75% when you have a 10% deposit does not make your mortgage expensive. It makes it impossible until the deposit grows.

So is your credit score useless?

Not useless, just badly misunderstood. It is a reasonable proxy for the health of your file, and the cheapest way to spot problems before a lender does: an account that is not yours, a settled default still showing unsatisfied, a financial association with an ex partner, a missing electoral roll registration.

What it cannot do is tell you whether you will get a mortgage, from whom, or at what rate. Treat it as a smoke alarm, not a scoreboard. Our guide on how to improve your credit score for a mortgage covers what to do and in what order.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get a mortgage with a 600 credit score in the UK?

The question cannot be answered as asked, because 600 means different things by scale. On Experian’s 0 to 1250 it is “low”, on Equifax’s 0 to 1000 it is “good”, on TransUnion’s new 0 to 999 it is “fair”. Scores like 550, 580 and 723 are American FICO thresholds and mean nothing for a UK mortgage.

What is the minimum credit score for a mortgage in the UK?

There is none. No UK lender publishes a minimum consumer credit score, because lenders do not use the consumer score. Any page quoting a specific minimum is describing a credit reference agency’s product band, not a lending threshold.

Can I get a mortgage with a default?

Yes, frequently. A satisfied default over three years old is accepted by several high street and mid tier lenders. A recent or unsatisfied default usually needs a specialist lender, a deposit of 15% to 25% and a rate premium. Defaults drop off six years after the default date.

Can I get a mortgage with a CCJ?

Yes, but timing matters more than the amount. A CCJ paid in full within one month of judgment can be removed from the register entirely. Otherwise it stays six years, marked satisfied once paid. Unsatisfied CCJs are declined by most mainstream lenders.

Does checking my own credit score hurt my mortgage application?

No. Checking your own report is a soft search and is invisible to lenders. Only hard searches from credit applications leave a visible footprint. Check all three agencies before applying, because they hold different data and lenders search different combinations of them.

Does a Decision in Principle affect my credit score?

Usually not. Most lenders run a soft search at Decision in Principle stage, which leaves no visible footprint. A minority run a hard search, so ask before you proceed. The full application that follows is always a hard search.

Which credit reference agency do mortgage lenders use?

It varies by lender and changes over time. Most major lenders search at least two of Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, and some search all three. Your options are not set by whichever single score you happen to monitor.

Can I get a mortgage with no credit history at all?

Yes, though the lender pool is narrower. A thin file is not a bad file. Register on the electoral roll, hold a UK current account and build six to twelve months of visible conduct on a small credit line. Several lenders assess thin file applicants manually.

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