Fannie Mae told its approved mortgage lenders in Lender Letter LL-2026-06, dated Sept. 9, that VantageScore 4.0 is now available to all of them. The letter announces “the expanded availability of VantageScore 4.0 to all Fannie Mae-approved lenders,” which puts a second credit-score model next to Classic FICO in the company’s loan-delivery system. The operative text sits in a downloadable PDF, so the public record supports a narrower story than the headline might suggest.
What Lender Letter LL-2026-06 confirms and what its summary page omits
Fannie Mae’s web page for the letter carries the number, the Sept. 9 date and the one-line description of the change. It lists no effective date, no credit-score threshold and no mention of pricing, and it points readers to the PDF for the operating detail. Fannie Mae’s selling policy communications index lists the same letter under the same title.
That gap matters because the questions with a dollar attached are exactly the ones a summary cannot answer. Whether a lender may deliver a loan scored on VantageScore alone, and whether any price adjustment follows from the model a lender picks, are matters for the letter itself. None of the pages read for this article states a pricing effect, and none is asserted here.
FHFA’s timeline from a 2022 validation to a September 2026 opening
The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, puts the letter at the end of a multiyear sequence on its credit scores page. The agency dates the validation of both VantageScore 4.0 and FICO 10T to Oct. 24, 2022, a limited rollout to April 22, 2026, and the release of historical credit-score data for both models to July 1, 2026. The Sept. 9 step, in FHFA’s words, “expanded the availability of VantageScore 4.0 to all approved lenders, removing the requirement for prior written approval.”
Before that date, then, a lender needed Fannie Mae’s written sign-off to use the model. After it, the approval step is gone. FHFA states that “Lenders may continue to use Classic FICO credit scores or use VantageScore 4.0,” so the change adds a choice for lenders rather than replacing the older score.
FHA INFO 2026-21 sets a separate Jan. 1, 2027 date for insured loans
A day after Fannie Mae’s letter, the Federal Housing Administration moved on its own track. The FHA INFO index shows FHA INFO 2026-21, dated Sept. 10 and titled “FHA Announces Implementation Date and Issues Preparedness Guide for Alternative Credit Score Models.” It states that “FHA is announcing an implementation date of January 1, 2027, and issuing a preparedness guide for mortgagees and other stakeholders regarding the addition of these models.”
The models in question there are VantageScore 4.0 and FICO Score 10T, added alongside Classic FICO for FHA-insured mortgages. The two announcements cover different sets of loans. Fannie Mae’s letter reaches lenders that sell it conventional loans, while the HUD notice governs mortgages carrying FHA insurance, and the January date belongs only to the second group. The same HUD index lists a preparedness guide for mortgagees and virtual office hours, both aimed at the preparation period before the date.
Why one borrower can carry several credit scores
The change lands on a fact many older borrowers have never had reason to check. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau explains that “you do not have just ‘one’ credit score,” and that a score “may differ depending on the scoring model,” the source of the data “and even the day when it was calculated.” A lender’s choice of model is therefore a choice among numbers that can differ for the same person.
For a retiree refinancing or buying on a fixed income, the score used in the file is one of the inputs the lender weighs. The CFPB’s credit score explainer stops short of saying which model a given lender selects, and the Fannie Mae page does not say which lenders will act first.
The open questions in a summary-only record
The letter is addressed to lenders, not borrowers, so a homebuyer would never receive it. Any effect would surface through a lender’s own disclosures about which score sits in the loan file, and the sources read do not describe those.
Three things remain unsettled by the public pages. The first is whether the letter permits a loan to be delivered with VantageScore 4.0 alone. The second is whether any pricing rule attaches to the choice. The third is when individual lenders will begin offering the model to borrowers, since the letter opens availability but does not compel any lender to use it.
What FHFA does state is that Classic FICO “is expected to be retired at a future date, but no retirement date has been announced,” and that “FHFA and the Enterprises will provide advance notice before any change to the eligibility of Classic FICO takes effect.”
Property-tax relief that runs on a renewal schedule
Property-tax relief for older homeowners and renters comes in more than one form, and each form keeps its own application and renewal schedule. The kit is written for retirees who want those separate programs in one place.
The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit is an 11-page kit that lays out the 5 kinds of property-tax relief and includes an application log and renewal calendar for tracking the next date.
Tap here to open the property-tax application log and renewal calendar →
This article was produced with AI assistance and checked against the primary sources linked above.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
