Homebuyers face higher credit check costs — here’s why fees are rising now

Homebuyers credit check costs explained: For many homebuyers, closing costs already feel overwhelming. Now, there’s another expense drawing attention is the fee lenders pay to check a borrower’s credit.

Homebuyers Hit With Rising Credit Check Fees in 2026

While credit report charges usually amount to just tens or hundreds of dollars, they’ve climbed sharply in recent years. Costs in 2026 could rise an average of 40% to 50%, according to a December letter from the Mortgage Bankers Association to the Federal Housing Finance Authority, as reported by CNBC.

Why Tri-Merge Credit Reports Are Getting More Expensive

As per the report, the main issue is the “tri-merge” credit report requirement. Lenders who plan to sell mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac must pull reports from the three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. These reports include credit scores typically ranging from 300 to 850.


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Mortgage Bankers Association Urges Single Credit Report Option

The Mortgage Bankers Association has asked the FHFA to allow lenders to rely on a single credit report instead of three for borrowers with scores of 700 or higher. In 2024, the average credit score for first-time buyers was 734, and for repeat buyers it was 775, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, meaning many borrowers could potentially qualify under such a change.

Loan officer Al Bingham called the rising cost of tri-merge reports “nuts,” pointing to one example that showed a 40.4% year-over-year increase, from $33.50 to $47.05 in 2026 for an individual applicant, as per the CNBC report. Because lenders typically pull credit twice, once at application and again before closing, that amount can double. For couples, it can quadruple.

How Much Do Credit Report Fees Add to Closing Costs

However, credit report fees remain a small slice of overall closing costs, which generally range from 3% to 6% of the loan amount. On a $350,000 mortgage, that equals $7,000 to $21,000, in addition to any down payment.

Some experts question whether cutting back to a single report makes sense. John Ulzheimer, president of The Ulzheimer Group, said, “I get it that they want to save [on that expense], but to me that is an immaterial cost when you look at the cost of making a bad decision on a mortgage loan,” adding, “I think most risk managers would likely tell you … that they’d never turn away more information to make a decision,” as quoted by CNBC.

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Who Is Responsible for Higher FICO and Credit Report Prices

There’s also disagreement over who is responsible for higher prices. The Consumer Data Industry Association said FICO has steadily increased pricing. The Mortgage Bankers Association said both credit-reporting companies and FICO share responsibility.

A FICO spokesperson told CNBC that the company does not control how its score is priced by others or the cost of credit reports. FICO noted that its 2025 royalty of $4.95 per score marks its fourth increase in the mortgage industry since 1989.

Meanwhile, the FHFA said it is “studying a variety of options to fix the housing market," as quoted by CNBC.

VantageScore 4.0 and FICO 10T: What Homebuyers Should Know

Other scoring changes are in motion as well. The FHFA has approved the use of VantageScore 4.0, a model that considers alternative data such as rent and utility payments, but it has not yet been deployed. The agency has also approved FICO 10T, which looks at patterns in credit usage over time, though lenders cannot yet use it for mortgages sold to Fannie and Freddie.

FAQs

Why are homebuyers paying more for credit checks?
Because the cost of required tri-merge credit reports has risen sharply in recent years.

What is a tri-merge credit report?
It combines credit data from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion into one report.