What Is the Minimum Credit Score for a Mortgage?

Why speak to A Little Mortgage Advice with a low credit score?

Because a low score narrows the list of lenders, and knowing which ones are left is the job. Ten of our 185 Google reviewers say another broker or lender turned them down first.

Ryan Andrews had been told to wait two years before trying again. The mortgage came from a building society. Angela Little does the groundwork before any lender sees the file:

Reviews are individual experiences. Every case is different and approval is never guaranteed.

What are the credit score bands at Experian, Equifax and TransUnion in 2026?

The three credit reference agencies each use a different scale, and two of them have changed recently. Many guides haven't caught up. They still quote the old ones, which is why the same person can read a score of 550 as fine on one site and hopeless on another.

Bands checked on each agency’s own website on 27 September 2026.

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TransUnion announced its new 0 to 999 scale on 26 August 2026. It replaces the old 0 to 710 scale in stages, from late September 2026 to June 2027, so for a while you may see two TransUnion scores depending on which app you use. TransUnion says the change does not affect lender decisions, and the information on your report is not changing.

Not sure what's behind your score? The first conversation is free. Call 01268 387898

Can you get a mortgage with a 500, 550 or 600 credit score?

It depends which agency gave you the number, because the same score lands in different bands:

So "is 550 good enough?" has no single answer. The better question is what sits behind the number. A 550 caused by a thin file with nothing wrong on it is a different case from a 550 caused by a default last year, and they point at different lenders. People with scores in the lowest bands do end up getting a mortgage, usually with a specialist lender and sometimes with a high-street one once the file is set out properly.

Lenders are doing more of this kind of lending, not less. According to our UK bad credit mortgage statistics, UK lenders advanced £2.57 billion to credit-impaired borrowers in 2025, the highest annual total since 2008, and 0.85 per cent of UK mortgage lending went to borrowers with an impaired credit history in 2026 Q2, up from 0.38 per cent in 2023 Q1.

These are whole-period figures, so single quarters run above and below them: the share reached 1.02 per cent in 2025 Q2 and was 0.85 per cent in 2026 Q2.

What does that look like in practice?

Here is an illustration, not a real client. Two buyers each have a score of 550 and want to buy a £200,000 home with a £20,000 deposit.

Same number, two very different conversations. Every case is different and approval is never guaranteed.

What do lenders see that your credit score doesn't show?

Your whole report. Experian's own guide says lenders put your report together and give you a credit score of their own. What they read includes:

1. Every account, its balance and its limit.
2. Your payment history, month by month, including any late or missed payments.
3. Defaults and county court judgments (CCJs), with their dates, amounts and whether they are settled.
4. Searches: who has looked at your file, and when.
5. Financial links to anyone you share credit with.
6. Whether you are on the electoral register (the electoral roll) at your address.

That report, your income and outgoings, and your deposit are how lenders assess a mortgage application.

The ICO points out that lenders don't have to report to all three agencies, and each lender chooses which it uses. An entry can be on one report and missing from another, so it is worth checking all three.

Our pages on CCJs, defaults and missed payments cover how lenders treat each one.

Can you get a joint mortgage if one of you has a low score?

Often, yes, but a joint application means both credit reports get read, so one person's low score can't be left out of it. Lenders look at the file with the problem on it as closely as the clean one, and a recent default on either side can decide which lenders will look at you.

That leaves two routes. You can apply together with a lender that accepts the weaker file, or the person with the stronger file can apply alone if their income supports it, which is what our single income mortgages page covers. Applying together also creates a financial link between you, so each of your files can then affect the other.

Why is your credit score low?

An adverse credit history means your report shows credit that went wrong: late or missed payments, defaults, county court judgments or arrears. An insufficient credit history is different. It means there is too little on your file to score, with nothing bad on it, and it is often easier to put right.

Payment history is the biggest killer of credit scores. A missed payment, a default or a CCJ is a record that credit went wrong, and it weighs more than anything else on the file. A CCJ stays on the official register for six years unless you pay it in full within a month (GOV.UK), and defaults and late payments also stay on your report for six years.

Sometimes nothing has gone wrong at all. The common causes:

• A thin file: too little credit history for the agencies to score.
• Not being on the electoral register at your current address.
• A financial link to a partner or former partner whose credit is poor.
• High balances against your limits, even if every payment is on time.
• Several applications in a short space of time.
• A mistake. The ICO says to dispute it with the agency that holds it, and to complain to the ICO if the agency does not put it right.

Unlike a default, most of these can be put right. Our guide to improving your chances of a mortgage with bad credit sets out the order to do it in.

Should you fix your score first, or apply now?

It depends on what is dragging the score down and how much it would cost you to wait. One client came to us a year before buying:

Others don't need to wait. Craig Foster wrote that both applicants had adverse credit and expected to keep renting; they didn't have to. Knowing which of those two you are is the point of the first conversation, which is free. For how a low score and a lender's other checks fit together, see what lenders check when you have bad credit, and for the full picture our bad credit mortgages page.

If you're comparing brokers, see how to choose a bad credit mortgage broker.

Final thoughts from us

If you take one thing from this page, make it this:

• There is no minimum credit score for a mortgage in the UK.
• The same number can be Low at one agency and Good at another.
• Lenders read your whole report, your income and your deposit, and they score it their own way.
• A low score caused by a thin file is a very different case from one caused by a recent default.
• Lending to people with impaired credit reached £2.57 billion in 2025.
• Check all three reports before you apply, and don't apply anywhere until you know what they say.

Where these figures come from

• Experian credit score bands: Experian.
• Equifax credit score bands: Equifax.
• TransUnion's new score, 26 August 2026: TransUnion.
• Credit reference agencies and your file: ICO. Information Commissioner’s Office, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
• CCJs and your credit rating: GOV.UK. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
• Lending to impaired credit borrowers: our UK bad credit mortgage statistics, from the FCA and Bank of England Mortgage Lenders and Administrators Return.
• Reviews: our Google profile, verbatim, September 2026. They are individual experiences: every case is different and approval is never guaranteed.