620 Credit Score Now Required By Virtually All Lenders

Yesterday, an announcement was made by the last lender (that we know of at least) in the US who used to not require a minimum credit score on FHA loans that a minimum 620 credit score is now required on all Maryland FHA streamline refinance loans. The major announcement came from Taylor Bean & Whittaker that they were moving their minimum credit score requirement to 620 for all Maryland FHA streamline mortgage refinances.

Details Of The Announcement of New Credit Score Requirements For FHA Streamline Refinance Loans

FHA Streamlines (credit and non-credit qualifying) and VA IRRRL’s with Credit Scores below 620 must be LOCKED prior to July 13, 2009 AND must CLOSE (Note Date) no later than September 15, 2009, and must be delivered to TBW within 10 days after closing Loans in this category locked on and after July 13, 2009 will require a minimum FICO of 620.

Clients will be required to obtain a 3 Repository credit report and utilize the standard method of determining qualifying FICO. Any Conventional, FHA (including Streamline Refinance), or VA (including IRRRL) loan that exceeds $417,000 with a Credit Scores below 660 must be LOCKED prior to July 13, 2009 AND must CLOSE (Note Date) no later than September 15, 2009, and must be delivered to TBW within 10 days after closing Loans in this category locked on and after July 13, 2009 will require a minimum FICO of 660.

Clients will be required to obtain a 3 Repository credit report and utilize the standard method of determining qualifying FICO. In addition, any previously announced minimum Credit Score requirements that TB&W has put into place, that did not have a specified Closing date, will be required to be LOCKED prior to July 13, 2009 AND must CLOSE (Note Date) no later than September 15, 2009, and must be delivered within 10 days after closing. Therefore, any loan, regardless of whether it may be locked, registered or approved, that has a qualifying credit score below 620 (with the exception of those loans that have specified higher FICO requirements) must CLOSE (Note Date) no later than September 15, 2009.

TB&W will continue to allow non-traditional credit for those borrowers with no useable credit for the loan programs that allow the use of such credit in accordance with published guidelines. TB&W is fully aware that these limitations may result in the inability for a particular loan to meet these specified deadlines. TB&W will work as diligently as possible to accommodate all loans in the pipeline. We will be unable to grant any extensions or exceptions to these requirements.

Maryland FHA Streamline Refinance: What This Means

Although FHA guidelines don’t require a minimum credit score, pretty much all lenders now require that you have at least a 620 score for the Maryland FHA streamline refinance loan program. TB&W was the last major US lender who was not requiring that you had at least a 620 minimum credit score in order to participate in the Maryland FHA streamline refinance program. It is possible that there are still smaller lenders who can offer the Maryland FHA refinance streamline loan with no minimum credit score requirement, but don’t expect it to be easy to find them.