My credit seems good. What should I do before I apply for a mortgage?

Confirm it on the scores your lender uses

The score in your app is usually a different model, and sometimes from fewer bureaus, than the one a mortgage lender pulls. Good credit there usually means good credit on the mortgage models too. The number can still differ, and the number decides your pricing tier.

A lender’s soft check confirms your scores without affecting them. What it shows depends on the check your loan officer offers. A three-bureau soft check returns Classic FICO and VantageScore 4.0 from each bureau, including the middle score most loans are priced on. A one-bureau soft check returns a single VantageScore. The lender receives the report, and you receive the score disclosure with each score and the factors behind it. Our guide to which score counts shows how the models differ.

Read all three reports

Your reports are free from all three bureaus at AnnualCreditReport.com. Read each one separately, because many apps show only two.

• Do you recognize every account?
• Are the balances, limits and payment statuses right?
• Is anything shown as open that you closed or paid?

If you find an error, you can dispute it yourself, free, with the bureau. Doing it before you apply keeps an open dispute out of your underwriting.

Know where you sit, not just how high

Lenders price conventional loans in score tiers. A good score can sit one or two points under the next tier, where a small change is worth something, or well inside one, where it is not. Our guide to what your score is worth shows where the tiers fall.

Keep the file steady

From a few months before you apply until your loan closes:

1. Do not open new credit. A new card or loan adds an inquiry and a new account, and your lender may ask about both.
2. Ask before you close an account. Closing a card removes its limit and can raise the share of your limits in use.
3. Ask before you pay an old collection or dispute an account. Under the model most lenders use, paying an old collection can lower a score. Our guide to old collections explains why.
4. Keep payments on time and balances steady. Your lender may check your credit again before closing.
5. Shop lenders within about two weeks. Mortgage inquiries made close together count as one.

What good credit does not settle

Your score is one part of the application. Your lender also looks at your income, your other debts, your savings and down payment, the home and its appraisal, and the program’s rules. Those decide the loan along with your credit.