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What credit score do I actually need for a home loan?
Bayley Clarke · Mortgage broker on the road · Last checked 24 August 2026 · 4 min read
The short answer
It's less about the score, and more about what your credit file actually shows. If you've got an outstanding default, or you're missing repayments on a personal loan or a car loan and that's coming through on your credit report, of course that's going to affect your ability to borrow. The bank can't see you as someone who pays on time.
But a low number on its own isn't the problem. I've helped people with a score in the 400s. They hadn't missed repayments, they'd never defaulted, they'd just made too many enquiries in one month. It didn't stop them. Most of this page is about telling those two situations apart.
The 60 second version. The rest of this page is the detail underneath it.
The number is a summary. The file is the story.
Your credit score is one number sitting on top of a pile of information: the credit accounts you hold, your repayment history on each of them, any defaults, and every enquiry that's been made on your file. When you apply for a home loan, the lender doesn't stop at the number. It reads the file underneath it.
That's why two people with the same score can get completely different answers. One has a clean file with a dented number. The other has a respectable number sitting on top of missed repayments. The score treats them as similar. A lender doesn't.
So the real question isn't what score do I need. It's what does my file say about how I handle repayments. That's the thing being judged, and it's the thing worth knowing before you apply, not after.
A score in the 400s, and it was fine
This is the real story behind the video. I've helped people with a credit score in the 400s, which sounds like game over if you think the number is the test. It wasn't. They hadn't been missing repayments. They'd never been defaulted. They'd just made too many enquiries in one month, and the score copped it.
Every time you apply for credit, an enquiry lands on your file. A run of them in a short window drags the number down, even if you've never paid a single thing late. But when a lender opens the file, what it sees is clean repayment history and one busy month. That reads very differently to a genuine repayment problem.
So if your score is low and you know your history is clean, don't stress about it. It generally doesn't stop you.
What actually worries a lender
A home loan is a promise to make repayments, every month, for a very long time. The one thing a lender wants your file to show is that you already keep that kind of promise. Which is why the entries that hurt have nothing to do with the number itself.
| What's showing on your file | What it usually means for a home loan |
|---|---|
| Low score, clean history, a burst of enquiries | Generally fine. It doesn't stop you. Don't stress about it |
| Missed repayments on a personal loan or car loan, coming through on the report | This is the real problem. It affects your ability to borrow, and it's worth tidying up before you apply |
| An outstanding default | Talk to someone before you go near an application. This is the one to fix first, not explain after |
None of that is a moral judgment. Cars break, jobs end, life happens. But the file is how a lender meets you, and it reads the file cold. The job is making sure what it reads is dealt with before an assessor sees it.
The first move: read your own file
If your repayment history is genuinely bad, you want to talk to someone and get that fixed up first, before you apply for a home loan. Not after a decline, before the application. An application that bounces doesn't just cost you a month, it puts another enquiry on the very file you're trying to protect.
But most people worrying about their credit score are guessing. They've seen a number in an app somewhere and built a whole story around it, without ever reading the report the number came from. The useful first move is checking what your credit report actually looks like, which I can do for you. Ten minutes with the actual file beats months of worrying about a number.
The honest bit: sometimes the answer is not yet
Here's the part that costs me. If your file shows repayments being missed right now, the right advice usually isn't a clever lender pick. It's wait. Get the repayments back on track, deal with anything outstanding, and come back when the file shows a solid stretch of clean history. That advice earns me nothing today, and I'd still rather give it than lodge an application I don't believe in, because a decline helps nobody and your file wears it.
The flip side is just as honest: if your history is clean, you don't need to pay anyone to repair your credit or chase a prettier number before you apply. A dented score on a clean file usually isn't the barrier people think it is.
Want to know what your file actually says?
Give me half an hour. I'll go through your credit report with you, tell you whether the score matters in your case, and give you a straight answer: apply now, or tidy up first. If the answer is wait, I'll say wait, and I'll tell you exactly what needs to change before we go again.
A conversation, not an application. Nothing gets lodged until you've seen what I see.
Next question
Why was I rejected, and does the bank have to tell me?When the answer was no and nobody will say why.
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