Why your FICO score is lower than Credit Karma

You check Credit Karma and see 720. You apply for a car loan and the dealer says 671.

Nobody lied to you. You looked at two different products.

The short version

Credit Karma shows you VantageScore 3.0, built from your TransUnion and Equifax files. Most lenders buy some version of FICO. Both run 300 to 850, both read the same underlying credit reports, and both weigh what they find differently.

A gap of 20 to 50 points in either direction is routine. Bigger gaps show up on files that are thin, recently damaged, or carrying a collection.

Which FICO, though

There is no single FICO score, which is where most of the remaining confusion lives.

FICO 8 is the general workhorse, common for credit cards and personal loans.

FICO 9 treats paid collections more kindly and handles medical debt differently, but adoption has been slow.

Classic FICO for mortgages is a set of older models, one per bureau: FICO Score 2 at Experian, FICO Score 4 at TransUnion, FICO Score 5 at Equifax. They are decades old and they are what the mortgage market ran on for years.

Auto and card industry scores run 250 to 900 rather than 300 to 850, weighted toward how you have handled that specific kind of credit. A dealer quoting a number outside the familiar range is not making it up.

So “my FICO score” is already ambiguous before a lender enters the picture.

What changed for mortgages in 2026

This is the part most articles have not caught up with, and it matters if you are buying a house.

For loans sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, three models are now approved: Classic FICO, VantageScore 4.0, and FICO Score 10T.

VantageScore 4.0 became eligible for conventional delivery in April 2026, and in September 2026 the Federal Housing Finance Agency directed that all lenders be approved to use it. That is a genuine change. The old line that VantageScore is a consumer toy that no lender uses is no longer accurate.

FICO 10T is approved but not yet accepted for delivery to Fannie or Freddie. It exists on the list, it is not yet in the pipeline.

Classic FICO is still accepted everywhere, and it remains what most mortgage lenders actually pull today.

One thing that has not changed: conventional loans still require a tri-merge, a report from all three bureaus. FHFA said in September 2026 it is seriously weighing a two-bureau report, but no rule has been issued. Treat the bi-merge as a proposal, not a fact.

The middle score rule

Mortgage lenders pull all three bureaus, which gives three scores. They do not average them.

They take the middle one. On a joint application, they take the middle score of each borrower and then use the lower of those two.

So the useful question is not “what is my score.” It is “what is my middle score, and what is my partner’s.” One weak bureau file drags the whole application, which is why pulling all three reports matters rather than checking one.

So is Credit Karma useless?

No, and this is where people overcorrect.

What it is good for: spotting errors, watching for new accounts you did not open, tracking whether your file is moving in the right direction, and checking your actual report contents for free. Directionally, if your VantageScore is climbing, your FICO almost certainly is too.

What it is bad for: predicting what a lender will see. Do not walk into a dealership expecting the number on your phone.

There is no conversion table. People search for one constantly and it does not exist, because the size of the gap depends on the shape of your particular file.

Where to see the score a lender might actually pull

• Your card issuer. Many print a real FICO score on the statement or in the app, free. Check which model it is, because it is usually FICO 8.
• myFICO, which sells the mortgage-relevant Classic FICO scores directly. It costs money and it is the only consumer-facing source for those specific models.
• Your lender, during preapproval. This is the only number that actually decides your rate.

What to do with all this

The scores diverge, but the behaviour that improves them does not. Every model rewards the same things: paying on time, keeping card balances low against their limits, not opening several accounts at once, and letting old accounts age.

Work on the file and every score follows, whichever one a lender happens to pull. If you are inside a year of a mortgage, it is worth seeing the Classic FICO numbers specifically, because those are the ones with your interest rate attached.

Last verified

September 19, 2026. Mortgage scoring model status reflects FHFA announcements current to that date, including the September 3, 2026 direction on VantageScore 4.0. This area is moving, so confirm before relying on it.