Mortgage credit report costs could jump 50% in 2026

Credit report prices for mortgage lenders will increase by up to 50% in 2026, despite regulatory efforts to boost competition and recent pricing shifts by some players, resellers told HousingWire. It will mark the fourth consecutive year of higher costs. 

The increase is tied to credit reports that originate with FICO information and flow through the three major credit bureaus — Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. This is because resellers are not yet offering a new direct program launched by FICO in October, and because VantageScore 4.0 that was accepted by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is not yet operational.

“When you evaluate the combined effect of the FICO increases, the bureau-level adjustments and the industrywide impact, it results in approximately a 43% total increase over the 2025 price on average,” said Don Clement, assistant vice president of strategic partnerships at CIC Credit. 

Clement said CIC is trying to maintain its margins at 2025 levels to help partners.

“Because we are going to try to keep our profit margins the same as they were in 2025 and not increase them, we are going to be in a better position to offer lower pricing,” he added.

In a statement given to HousingWire, a FICO spokesperson said the company only sets the royalty price. If lenders experience higher credit costs in 2026, “it will be a result of the bureaus increasing costs of the credit file data (regardless of what they call it or their attempts to characterize their data fees) to compensate for the lost revenue they previously received as distributors of the FICO Score.” 

“The credit bureaus were charging on average a 100% markup on the FICO product, an increase not seen in any other market. It should be noted, they could do this because of the lack of competition in credit reports in the conforming mortgage market,” the spokesperson said. 

Experian and Equifax did not immediately respond to HousingWire’s requests for comment.

A spokesperson for TransUnion issued a statement that pointed to the bureau’s decision in October to cut pricing.

“We recently announced VantageScore 4.0 for mortgage at $4, representing a competitive option to FICO’s recently announced 100% price hike to $10,” the statement read. “To enable lender choice, TransUnion will also provide free VantageScore 4.0 for mortgage to customers that purchase a FICO score from TransUnion through the end of 2026.”

Bob Broeksmit, president of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), released a statement on Friday in which the trade group slammed the price hikes.

“Once again, the national credit bureaus are abusing their government-granted oligopoly by gouging consumers — a predictable outcome in a flawed, outdated, and anticompetitive system where lenders are required to buy specific, increasingly-expensive credit reporting data from each of the three credit bureaus,” Broeksmit said.

“MBA has long led the call to fix this broken model and shined a light on the role that regulations and the government play in these steep, unjustified price hikes that ultimately hurt housing affordability.”

Credit report strategies

Xactus sent pricing letters to mortgage lenders on Thursday and is now “in feedback mode,” according to President Shelley Leonard. “It’s going up almost 50% — it’s in that 45% to 50% range, which is a challenge,” she said.

Leonard said price hikes have been steep for years but are now coinciding with several industry changes — including FICO’s new model, the trigger leads ban to take effect in March 2026 and expectations for the acceptance of VantageScore 4.0. Leonard noted that margins for Xactus are also being compressed by the increases.

Meanwhile, the company is helping clients develop strategies that include optimizing workflows by initially ordering through only one bureau, then ordering from the remaining bureaus later in the underwriting process to obtain a tri-merge report once lenders have more certainty about the borrower.

Some lenders are also exploring the upfront collection of fees from consumers.

Playing the waiting game

Executives say that Fannie Mae‘s and Freddie Mac’s acceptance of VantageScore 4.0 as an alternative to Classic FICO is not yet operational and may take time.

In the meantime, the three credit bureaus — which jointly own VantageScore — have announced discounts for lenders using VantageScore 4.0. In some cases, they are offering it for free if the lender is also purchasing a FICO score. TransUnion, Experian and Equifax each made moves. 

“Based on the pricing we’ve seen from the bureaus for Vantage when you’re not ordering a FICO, it’s about half the cost of a FICO score,” Leonard said.

In the case of FICO, its royalty pricing has been shifting for several years. In 2023, the company introduced a tiered wholesale pricing structure ranging from $0.60 to $2.75 per score, which caused the final costs for some lenders to surge by as much as 400%.

In 2024, FICO returned to a fixed royalty of $3.50 per score, applying the same rate for both soft and hard pulls. The 2025 wholesale price was $4.95 per score.

In October, in anticipation of VantageScore 4.0’s acceptance, FICO launched a direct program allowing resellers to calculate and distribute scores themselves. But resellers say they cannot yet offer it, and some are skeptical about its financial benefits.

The traditional per-score model charges a $10-per-score fee to tri-merge resellers, which FICO says reflects the average price previously charged by the credit bureaus. Under the new “performance model,” lenders pay a $4.95 royalty fee per score plus a $33 fee per borrower, per score on funded loans — a structure designed for lenders with high fallout rates.

Executives say the new model was intended to reduce costs, but additional bureau fees, usage charges, compliance assessments and technical expenses are pushing total costs higher.

FICO’s spokesperson said the company kept the score cost flat — or cut it by more than half — for tri-merge resellers from 2025 to 2026.

“In 2025, tri-merge resellers paid on average $10 per FICO Score. In 2026, tri-merge resellers participating in the FICO direct license program will pay $10 per FICO Score, or they can elect to cut this price by more than half and pay $4.95 under our performance model. In addition, the $4.95 for our performance model includes secondary use of the score for origination, which is estimated to be an additional 18% or more cost savings,” the spokesperson added.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with comments from TransUnion and the MBA.