Credit score for mortgage applications: what lenders check and what stays on your file

What credit score do I need for a mortgage?

There is no credit score for mortgage approval that applies across the UK, because there is no single credit score. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which enforces data protection law, explains why in its guidance Credit explained, dated September 2019. Each lender has its own credit scoring system and decides its own pass mark, so you may be refused by one lender but accepted by another.

So no number guarantees a mortgage and no number rules one out. Nor is there a minimum credit score for mortgage lending: the Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) mortgage rules set none, and the ICO says lenders do not have to give you details of how their scoring works.

What a lender scores is the record and the application, not the number you see. The ICO says a lender may give points to information on your application form and on your credit reference file, and that credit reference agencies do not hold blacklists or tell a lender whether to offer you credit. An FCA consultation paper of February 2026 adds that lenders tend not to rely just on scores generated by the agencies, and build their own models.

Credit score and credit report: what each one is

The ICO names the three main consumer credit reference agencies in the UK as Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. An agency needs the FCA's permission to provide credit references, and the ICO oversees how personal data is used. The ICO says data protection law does not require a lender to report to all three, so an account can appear on one file and be missing from another.

On 25 February 2026 the FCA proposed that a lender sharing credit information with one designated agency would have to share it with them all. The consultation closed on 1 May 2026, and when this guide was checked on 10 November 2026 the FCA's page said it was considering the responses, so this is a proposal and not a rule in force.

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

There is no shared definition of a good credit score for a mortgage, or of a decent credit score in the UK. A figure from an agency is that agency's own calculation from its own file: a guide to how your record may look, not a lender's decision.

A mortgage also depends on things a credit score does not measure: your income, your spending and debts, your deposit and the home itself. Those tests are covered in the guide to mortgage affordability, and the how much you could borrow calculator gives an illustration from your own figures. It is an illustration, not advice.

The mortgage credit check: what a lender sees

A mortgage credit check is a search of your file at one or more credit reference agencies. The FCA's mortgage rules require a lender to assess whether you will be able to pay the sums due, and to take reasonable steps to find your actual outstanding commitments, such as loans and credit cards. Its guidance gives a credit reference agency search as one way of checking the commitments you declare.

The ICO's 2019 guidance sets out what a credit reference file holds:

• Your credit accounts. Whether each account is open, settled or in default, and whether you have been making the correct payments on time.
• Public records. Court judgments, bankruptcy and individual voluntary arrangements.
• The electoral roll. Whether you are registered at the addresses you have given.
• Searches. The name of each organisation that has looked at your file, the date and the type of search.
• Financial associations. The name of anyone you hold a joint account with or have applied for credit with.

A lender puts the report beside the rest of the application, as the guide to how to get a mortgage sets out. The deposit matters too: the guide to loan-to-value explains why, and the mortgage rates comparison shows what lenders publish at each level.

Soft and hard searches

The ICO's guidance separates searches made when you apply for credit from quotation searches, which do not show that you have applied. GOV.UK's home buying guide, written for England and Wales and last updated in 2019, calls these hard enquiries and soft enquiries; hard search and soft search mean the same.

Does a mortgage in principle affect your credit score?

It depends on the search the lender runs. GOV.UK's guide says most lenders carry out a credit search for a decision in principle, some with a soft enquiry and others a hard one, and suggests finding out which. A full mortgage application is an application for credit, so that search is recorded. The guide to the mortgage in principle sets out what that document proves and how long it lasts.

The ICO says searches on your file should not have a negative impact on your credit history, but that lots of searches in a short space of time can imply you are having problems getting credit, which can itself affect a lender's decision.

How long things stay on your credit file

The periods below are from the ICO's guidance of September 2019, checked against GOV.UK and the Insolvency Service. The ICO's website says its credit guidance is under review, so the periods are as the 2019 guidance gives them.

Some points about the table:

• Missed payments. These are part of the record of the account. A default normally arises, the ICO says, when an account is three to six months in arrears.
• CCJs. The GOV.UK guidance is about judgments in England and Wales, which are kept on the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines.
• Scotland and Northern Ireland. GOV.UK says the law on court judgments for debt is different in Scotland. The ICO's guidance, which calls Scottish judgments decrees, gives the same six years and the same one-month rule for decrees and for Northern Ireland judgments.
• Bankruptcy. The Insolvency Service's guide covers England and Wales; Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own procedures. It says discharge normally comes after 12 months, but the entry can stay on your credit file for six years after the order. The official receiver does not tell the agencies when your bankruptcy ends, so you may need to ask them to update their records.
• Accurate entries stay. The ICO says information that has been accurately recorded normally cannot be removed until its period ends.

The electoral roll and financial associations

GOV.UK says the full version of the electoral register can be used to check applications for loans or credit. Opting out of the open register, the version anyone can buy, does not remove you from the full one.

The ICO says a lender may look at the electoral roll to check the addresses on your application, and that you may have difficulty getting credit if you are entitled to vote but are not registered.

A joint account or a joint application for credit creates a financial association, and the other person's name then shows on your file. The ICO says a lender looking at your file can then see financial information in that person's name as well, so on a joint mortgage application both records count.

• Living at the same address does not create a link. Only joint credit does, or in some situations acting as a guarantor, which the guide to the guarantor mortgage explains.
• The link does not end by itself. When a joint account is closed, you can write to the agencies and ask for a disassociation.

How to check your credit report, and how often

The ICO says you have the right to ask any of the agencies for a copy of the information it holds about your financial standing, free of charge. No one is obliged to take an agency's monthly subscription, it says: the phrase to look for on the agency's website is "statutory report". The agency has one month to respond, and may ask for proof of your name and address first.

How often should you check your credit score or report? No rule sets an interval. Asking for your own report is a request for your own information, not an application for credit.

Errors, disputes and the notice of correction

If something on your file is wrong:

1. Find who is responsible for the entry. As a general rule, the ICO says, an entry that carries a company's name is that company's responsibility, and the agency cannot amend it without the company's permission.
2. Contact the lender or the agency. The ICO's 2019 guidance says it may be quicker to go to the lender directly. The lender has one month to respond, and in certain circumstances can take up to two more. An agency must tell you within 28 days whether it has removed the entry, amended it or taken no action.
3. Add a notice of correction. This is a statement of up to 200 words that you write. The ICO's 2019 guidance says it will be seen by anyone who looks at the entry and should be considered if you apply for credit.
4. Complain to the ICO if an obvious inaccuracy is not corrected. The ICO does not decide financial disputes, such as whether you owed the money.

If a lender turns you down, the ICO says you can ask it to explain the main reason, and to tell you which credit reference agency it used.

How to improve your credit score for a mortgage

No step guarantees a higher score, or a mortgage, and none of the sources here says how far or how fast a score will move. What the ICO's guidance does say is which parts of the record lenders look at:

• Payments made on time. A history of paying on time is, in the ICO's words, likely to help you get further credit.
• Correct information. The ICO says you may be able to improve your credit score by correcting anything that is wrong on your file.
• Searches. Lots of searches in a short time can suggest you are having problems getting credit.

Existing debts also count whatever your score, because the FCA's rules treat their payments as committed spending in the lender's affordability assessment. The mortgage calculator shows what a loan would cost each month at different rates and terms, as an illustration.

The credit record is looked at again whenever you apply again. A new lender checks it when you move your mortgage, as the guide to remortgaging explains, and the remortgage calculator gives an illustration of the cost of switching after the fees. Lenders generally treat taking your deal to a new home as a new application too, as the guide to porting a mortgage sets out.

Whether a particular entry on your file will matter to a particular lender is a question for a qualified, regulated mortgage adviser. The mortgages hub gathers the mortgage guides, the calculators and the lenders' published rates.

Buying a new build: when your credit record matters

The rules are the same for a new-build home, but the time between applying and completing can be longer.

• At reservation. Some builders ask to see a mortgage in principle. Whether getting one leaves a recorded search depends on the lender, as described above.
• Between the mortgage offer and completion. The FCA's rules allow a lender to make its offer conditional on there being no material change in your circumstances before completion, and give further secured borrowing as an example. Whether and how a lender checks again is its own practice.
• Buying off plan. If a mortgage offer runs out before the home is finished and you have to apply again, that is a new application, with a new search of your file as it then stands.

The guide to new-build mortgages explains mortgage offers on homes still being built and the lenders' checks on the home itself.