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Conventional Loan Guide

Conventional Credit Scores: The 620 Floor and How Pricing Really Works

The Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac minimum is 620. What your score actually does to a conventional loan is bigger than that one number, and worth understanding before you apply.

By Niko Kramer, Mortgage Loan Officer, Satori Mortgage, NMLS #2180891

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The short answer

The general minimum credit score for a conventional loan is 620, per the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Selling Guides. But conventional pricing is risk-based: through loan-level price adjustments (LLPAs), a higher score and a lower loan-to-value ratio generally price better. Lenders also apply their own overlays above the 620 floor, and full underwriting decides the file. All loans are subject to credit approval.

What credit score do you need for a conventional loan?

The general minimum is a 620 representative credit score, per the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Selling Guides. That's the floor for conventional conforming loans in most cases.

Here's what that floor is and isn't. It's a program eligibility line: below it, the GSE box generally closes. It is not an approval, and it is not the score most conventional borrowers actually carry. Meeting 620 starts the underwriting conversation; it doesn't end it. Your income, debt-to-income ratio, assets, and payment history all get weighed alongside the score, and the lender funding the loan can hold its own line above the GSE minimum, which I'll unpack below. The score requirement is also only one piece of the picture; the rest of the eligibility stack, income, DTI, and reserves, lives in the conventional loan requirements guide.

How does your credit score affect your rate and PMI?

Twice, and that's the part most articles skip. On a conventional loan, your credit score shapes both your loan pricing, through the GSEs' loan-level price adjustments, and your private mortgage insurance cost, which is credit-tiered by the MI providers, per the CFPB.

The first lever is the LLPA grid, explained in the next section: a stronger score generally lands your loan in better-priced cells, all else equal. The second lever kicks in whenever your loan-to-value ratio is above 80%: PMI varies by credit score and LTV (and MI provider), so the same down payment can carry a meaningfully different premium at different score tiers. That's a real difference between conventional and FHA: FHA's mortgage insurance barely moves with your score, while conventional rewards stronger credit on both levers at once. The full PMI picture, what drives the cost and the Homeowners Protection Act rules that end it at 80% and 78% LTV, lives in the conventional PMI guide, so I won't duplicate it here.

What are LLPAs (risk-based pricing)?

Loan-level price adjustments are how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac price risk on conventional loans: published grids of pricing adjustments keyed to your credit score crossed with your loan-to-value ratio, plus factors like occupancy and property type, per the Fannie Mae Selling Guide.

Picture a spreadsheet. Credit score ranges run down one axis, LTV bands run across the other, and each cell holds an adjustment that feeds into the pricing of your loan. Higher score and lower LTV generally means a friendlier cell; lower score and higher LTV generally means a costlier one. Other loan features, like an investment property or a cash-out refinance, add their own adjustments on top. I'm deliberately not quoting any of the numbers in that grid here: the GSEs revise them, lenders layer their own pricing on top, and any figure I printed would be wrong for your file anyway. What matters is the concept: conventional pricing isn't one rate with a yes-or-no gate at 620. It's a continuum, and where your file sits on it is knowable before you commit.

What your credit score touches How it generally works
Eligibility The GSE general minimum is 620, per the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Selling Guides; a floor, not an approval
Loan pricing (LLPAs) The GSE grids key adjustments to score and LTV; higher score with lower LTV generally prices better, all else equal
PMI cost When LTV is above 80%, MI providers tier the premium by score and LTV, per the CFPB; stronger credit generally pays less
Lender overlays Individual lenders may require more than the GSE floor; overlays are lender policy, not a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac rule, and they vary shop to shop
Credit score roles on a conventional loan as of 2026, educational, not an offer or a quote. Sources: Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac Selling Guides; CFPB. No specific rates, adjustments, or premiums are shown because all of them depend on the full file.

Is 620 the rule everywhere, or do lenders ask for more?

The 620 floor is the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guideline. Individual lenders are free to require more, and many do. A requirement a lender adds above the program rule is called an overlay, and overlays are lender policy, never a GSE rule.

This distinction does real work. "Fannie and Freddie allow 620" and "this lender approves at 620" are two different sentences, and confusing them is how borrowers end up believing a single decline means the answer is no everywhere. It doesn't. The same file can be declined at one lender's overlay and funded at another lender whose credit box follows the guideline more closely, with nothing about you changing in between. Overlays are exactly why I shop 100+ lenders instead of forcing your file through one shop's box. When someone tells you 620 "won't work," the right question is: won't work where?

What if your credit score is below 620?

Then a conventional conforming loan generally isn't available today, and I'd rather tell you that straight than let you burn a credit pull finding out. The two productive paths: a program with lower floors, or a plan to move the score.

On the first path, FHA's credit floors sit below conventional's, per HUD Handbook 4000.1, with their own down payment tiers and trade-offs; the FHA credit score guide walks the real rules, including the overlay reality that applies there too. On the second path, the levers underwriters actually weigh are unglamorous and effective: on-time payments stacking up month after month, balances paid down on revolving accounts, no new credit applications while you work the plan, and errors disputed off the report. Sometimes a score sits closer to the line than the borrower assumes, and a few months of targeted work changes which programs, and which pricing cells, are on the table. What I won't do is promise approval at any score, because nobody honest can. What I will do is read your actual file, tell you where it stands today, and map the realistic timeline if the answer is "not yet." One more honest flag: if your score is fine but documenting self-employment income is the real obstacle, that's a different problem with its own toolbox, covered on the self-employed lending page.

Conventional credit score FAQ

The general minimum is a 620 representative credit score, per the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Selling Guides. That number is a floor, not an approval: lenders commonly apply their own higher overlays, and full underwriting of income, debt, assets, and payment history always applies. All conventional loans are subject to credit approval, and not all applicants will qualify.

Conventional pricing is risk-based through loan-level price adjustments (LLPAs): the GSEs publish a grid keyed to credit score and loan-to-value, and a higher score with a lower LTV generally lands in better-priced cells. Your score also tiers private mortgage insurance, which applies when LTV is above 80%, per the CFPB. The exact numbers depend on your full file, so the honest answer is a quote priced on it.

New to conventional loans? Start with the complete conventional loan guide.

Wondering where your score actually lands you?

Don't pre-reject yourself, and don't take one lender's overlay as the final word. Talk it through with Niko Kramer, Mortgage Loan Officer at Satori Mortgage. I'll give you an honest read on where your file sits against the GSE guideline and real lender overlays, what your score tier means for pricing and PMI on your actual numbers, and a realistic plan if now isn't the moment.

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Sources

Last updated: June 10, 2026

Important conventional loan disclosures

  • Conventional loans are subject to credit approval. Not all applicants will qualify. This is not a commitment to lend.
  • Private mortgage insurance (PMI) is generally required when the down payment is less than 20% and may be cancelled under the Homeowners Protection Act once eligibility requirements are met.
  • Niko Kramer, Mortgage Loan Officer, Satori Mortgage, NMLS #2180891. Equal Housing Opportunity. See the footer for company licensing and full disclosures.

This page is educational and not an offer to lend, a commitment to make a loan, or a promise of approval at any credit score. The 620 figure is the general Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac minimum, not an approval; lender overlays vary, and no specific rate, price adjustment, or PMI premium is quoted because all of them depend on the full file. Not all applicants will qualify. Guidelines may change without notice. All loans are subject to credit and property approval.

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