Credit Score for a Mortgage in Canada (2026): What 600, 680 and 760 Actually Buy You

Credit Score for a Mortgage in Canada (2026): What 600, 680 and 760 Actually Buy You

Short answer: For an insured mortgage with less than 20% down, CMHC requires at least one borrower or guarantor to have a credit score of 600 or higher. That is the insurance floor, not the prime-lending line. Most prime lenders price their best offers for files at 680 and above, and the lowest advertised rates assume a file well above that. A score of 760 or higher puts you in the excellent band Equifax publishes, but no score overrides the other three gates: income that fits the 39% and 44% debt service limits, a stress-test payment at the greater of your contract rate plus 2% or 5.25%, and a property the lender wants to lend against.

This guide maps what each band buys, where the score comes from, and what to fix in the 90 days before you apply. Dollar examples are labelled hypotheticals with the rate and balance printed next to them. This is education, not mortgage or credit advice, and your lender's own overlays decide your file.

The three numbers that run the file

Borrowers talk about "the score you need" as if one line exists. Three lines exist, and they do different jobs.

Score	What it does	What it does not do
600	Meets the CMHC creditworthiness floor for an insured mortgage: at least one borrower or guarantor at 600 or higher	Does not guarantee a prime lender will take the file, and does not set your rate
680	The range where prime lenders, the big banks, credit unions, and monoline lenders reached through brokers, price files normally instead of defensively	Does not waive the stress test or the debt service limits
760	The excellent band in Equifax's published ranges (760 to 900). Files here compete for the lowest advertised rates	Does not rescue weak income documentation, a bad property, or ratios over the limits

Equifax publishes these bands for its scores: 760 to 900 excellent, 725 to 759 very good, 660 to 724 good, 560 to 659 fair, and below 560 poor. TransUnion runs on the same 300 to 900 scale with its own formula, so your two numbers will differ, often by a few dozen points, because not every lender reports to both bureaus on the same cycle. FCAC lists the inputs both bureaus draw on: payment history, how much of your available credit you use, length of credit history, number of inquiries, and mix of credit products. The formulas themselves are not public.

The 600 floor comes from the CMHC Purchase fact sheet. The same sheet sets the frame the score sits inside: up to 95% loan-to-value on one- to two-unit homes and 90% on three- to four-unit homes, a purchase price or lending value below $1,500,000, gross debt service at or below 39% and total debt service at or below 44%, and ratios calculated at the greater of the contract rate plus 2% or 5.25%. If you need the ratio math rebuilt line by line, our GDS and TDS guide shows the worksheet lenders use, and our stress test guide shows why the qualifying payment is higher than the payment you will make.

Your score is two scores, and lenders read the report behind them

You do not have one score. You have an Equifax score and a TransUnion score, built from overlapping but not identical reports. A card that reports to one bureau, a collection reported to the other, or two different statement cycles is enough to separate them. Before you apply, pull both reports and read them as a lender reads them:

• Payment buckets. Lenders look past the three-digit number to the pattern: current, 30 days late, 60, 90, collections. A recent 30-day late in the last 12 months hurts a mortgage file more than the same late four years ago, because underwriters weight recency.
• Utilization at the statement date. The balance a bureau sees is usually the balance on the statement closing date, not the balance after you pay. A card paid in full every month can still report high utilization if the statement cuts while the balance is high.
• Thin file. Two years of history across two or more products in good standing is the shape lenders like to see. A 720 built on one six-month-old card reads thinner than a 700 built on five years of a card, a line of credit, and a paid-off car loan. The score is the same size. The file is not.
• Derogatory items. Bankruptcies, consumer proposals, judgments, and collections carry their own clocks that vary by bureau and province, and they can block a prime approval at a score that would otherwise pass. If one applies to you, the discharge date and the rebuild since it matter more than the number.

CMHC allows alternative ways to establish creditworthiness for borrowers without a credit history, and names newcomers to Canada and recent graduates as examples. Its newcomer guidance accepts an international credit report or a reference letter from the borrower's bank in their country of origin as supporting evidence. Our newcomer mortgage guide works through how that evidence package fits with the insurance rules, and our pre-approval guide shows where the credit pull sits in the approval sequence.

What a higher band is worth in dollars

Lenders do not publish a rate sheet keyed to your score, and any table that promises one is inventing it. Pricing moves in tiers in practice: prime best-rate, prime with a premium or extra conditions, alternative lender, private lender. The cost of dropping a tier shows up as a higher rate, a lender fee, a larger down payment requirement, or all three.

This labelled hypothetical shows the size of a one-point rate gap on the same loan, so you can price the incentive to fix a file before you apply:

• Loan: $500,000. Amortization: 25 years. Canadian semi-annual compounding.
• At a hypothetical 4.50%: payment $2,767 a month. Interest over the first 5 years: about $105,024.
• At a hypothetical 5.50%: payment $3,052 a month. Interest over the first 5 years: about $129,055.

Same house, same loan, $285 more a month and about $24,031 more interest over one five-year term, for one percentage point. Those rates are illustrations, not quotes. The point is the order of magnitude: the gap between lender tiers on a typical balance runs to tens of thousands of dollars over a term, which is why a 60- to 90-day repair window before applying beats a same-week application at a lower tier for most buyers who can wait.

Down payment is the second lever, and it interacts with the score. With 20% or more down, the mortgage is conventional and does not need default insurance, so the 600 insurer floor does not apply, but the lender's own score policy does, and prime lenders still screen for it. With less than 20% down, the insurer's floor and premium schedule apply. Our CMHC premium guide prices those premiums by down payment, and our insured vs insurable vs uninsurable explainer shows how the down payment, price cap, and amortization sort a file into its pricing bucket.

The fastest legitimate lever: utilization, timed to the statement

Payment history is the largest input and it changes slowly, because it is a record of what already happened. Utilization is the lever that can move within one or two statement cycles, because it is a snapshot of balances on the day the statement cuts.

Worked illustration, arithmetic only:

• One card, $10,000 limit, $4,000 reported balance: utilization 40%.
• Same card, $1,000 reported balance: utilization 10%.

Getting reported balances down does not require paying a card to zero and never using it. It requires the balance that lands on the statement to be low. In practice: pay before the statement closing date, not just before the due date; ask whether a mid-cycle payment will be reported; and spread spending so no single card sits near its limit in the weeks before a mortgage pull. Do not open a new card to dilute utilization right before a mortgage application. The inquiry and the new-account age work against you, and the limit may not report in time.

Two traps undo this work. The first is closing your oldest card after paying it off. Length of history is an input, and closing the oldest account shortens the visible record over time and cuts total available credit, which can raise utilization on what remains. Keep the oldest no-fee card open with a small recurring charge paid in full. The second is a balance-transfer shuffle that parks the balance on a new card days before applying. The old balance, the new balance, and the inquiry can all be visible at once.

The 90-day repair window

If your score sits near a tier edge, 600 from below, or just under 680, a fixed window of repair beats applying now. This sequence assumes no bankruptcy or proposal complication; those files need lender-specific advice first, because discharge timing rules vary.

Days 1 to 7: get the facts. Pull both bureau reports. List every account with its limit, statement date, and reported balance. Mark errors, accounts you do not recognize, paid collections still showing a balance, and duplicate debts. FCAC provides free copies of your credit report on request; the score itself may be a paid add-on or available through your bank. Dispute errors with each bureau that shows them. Bureaus investigate with the reporting lender, and corrections take weeks, which is why this starts on day one.

Days 8 to 45: drag utilization down and freeze new credit. Pay reported balances toward 10% of each limit where cash allows, timed before statement dates. Set every card and loan to at least automatic minimum payment so nothing can go 30 days late while you focus on balances. No new cards, no car loan, no furniture financing. Each hard inquiry is small on its own; a cluster right before a mortgage application reads as credit-seeking and can cost the points you just bought back.

Days 46 to 90: let two clean cycles post. You want two statement cycles showing low balances and on-time payments on both bureaus before the mortgage pull. Re-pull and confirm the balances and any dispute results actually landed. Then go to pre-approval with the document pack ready, so the approval window and the clean file overlap. Self-employed borrowers should run this window longer, because income verification already draws scrutiny; our self-employed mortgage guide covers the two-year documentation lenders average.

What not to pay for in this window: credit-repair services that promise to delete accurate late payments or guarantee a score. Accurate negative information ages off on the bureau's schedule; no service can lawfully remove it early, and the fee buys nothing the dispute process does not do free. Spend the money on balances instead, or keep it for the down payment.

If you are below 600, or the file is thin

Below 600, an insured prime mortgage is closed until the score recovers or a co-borrower or guarantor who meets the floor joins the file. CMHC's rule needs at least one borrower or guarantor at 600 or higher, which is why a parent guarantor sometimes appears in these files. That signature carries full liability for the debt; our co-borrower vs guarantor guide separates who owes what from who owns what before family signs anything.

The other routes price the risk instead of insuring it:

• Conventional purchase with 20% or more down through an alternative lender. Alternative and B lenders work below prime score bands, usually with lender fees and rates above prime, and usually requiring the larger down payment. Treat this as a bridge: confirm the exit, typically a refinance to a prime lender at renewal after the score and payment record improve, before you accept the fee.
• Private lending. Private lenders and mortgage investment corporations lend mainly on property value, down payment, and exit plan, at materially higher rates. On a purchase, this is a short-term tool with a dated exit, not a five-year plan. The rate gap in the hypothetical above widens fast at private pricing.
• Wait and rebuild. A secured card used lightly and paid in full, plus on-time payments on everything else, builds a scoreable record for a thin file in roughly six months and a stronger one in a year. For many sub-600 files this is the cheapest route by a wide margin, because it avoids alternative-lender fees entirely.

A larger down payment helps every route except one: it does not create insured eligibility below the 600 floor, because the floor attaches to the borrower, not the loan-to-value. Putting 15% down instead of 5% cuts the premium and the payment, but the file still needs a borrower or guarantor at 600 for insurance.

Inquiries, rate shopping, and the pre-approval pull

Checking your own score or report is a soft inquiry and does not affect your score. A lender or card issuer checking it to approve credit is a hard inquiry and can affect it, usually by a small amount for a short time. FCAC counts the number of inquiries among the score inputs, so the discipline is simple: do your rate shopping inside a short window through one broker or lender pull, rather than handing five lenders permission to pull across five weeks. Brokers pull once and shop the file across their lenders; that structure exists partly to protect your score.

Get pre-approved after the repair window, not before. A pre-approval at 640 that comes back with conditions or a decline gives you a dated hard inquiry and no usable rate hold. The same file at 680 after two clean cycles gives you the hold and the pricing tier you repaired for.

Frequently asked questions

What is the minimum credit score for a mortgage in Canada?

For an insured mortgage with less than 20% down, CMHC requires at least one borrower or guarantor to have a minimum credit score of 600. For a conventional mortgage with 20% or more down, there is no insurer floor, but each lender sets its own score policy, and prime lenders generally work from 680 and above for their normal pricing.

Is 680 a law or a lender rule?

A lender rule. The 600 figure is CMHC's insurance eligibility floor. The 680 range is where prime lenders price files normally in practice. Nothing in federal mortgage rules sets 680; individual lenders set overlays above the insurer floor, which is why one prime lender may approve a 650 file with conditions while another declines it.

Which bureau do mortgage lenders use, Equifax or TransUnion?

Both operate in Canada on a 300 to 900 scale, and lenders pull one or both depending on their systems and the file. Because reporting is not identical, the two scores differ. Pull both reports before you apply so the lender does not find a collection or error you have not seen.

How fast can utilization change my score?

Utilization is recalculated as new statements report, so paying a balance down before the statement closing date can change the reported utilization within one cycle and show in the score within one to two cycles. The number of points that produces depends on the whole file. This guide does not promise a point gain, because no one can compute your bureau formula; the direction and the timing are what you control.

Should I close old credit cards before applying for a mortgage?

No. Length of credit history is a score input, and closing your oldest card also removes its limit from your available credit, which can raise utilization on your remaining cards. Keep the oldest no-fee card open and lightly used. Closing a card with an annual fee you will never use again is a different decision; do it well outside the application window.

Can I get a mortgage with no credit history in Canada?

CMHC may consider alternative methods of establishing creditworthiness for borrowers without a credit history, such as newcomers to Canada or recent graduates. Its newcomer guidance accepts an international credit report or a reference letter from your home-country bank as supporting evidence. The lender still underwrites income, ratios, and the stress test in full.

Does checking my own credit score hurt it?

No. Checking your own report or score is a soft inquiry. FCAC provides free copies of your credit report on request; the score may come through your bank or a bureau service. Hard inquiries happen when a lender or issuer checks your file to approve credit you applied for.

Can a guarantor's score save a file under 600?

CMHC's rule is that at least one borrower or guarantor has a score of 600 or higher, so a qualifying guarantor can satisfy the insurance floor. The guarantor takes on liability for the mortgage debt without necessarily holding title. That is a legal commitment with tax and estate consequences, and it needs independent legal advice before anyone signs.

The repair is the rate

A mortgage file is priced as a stack: score band, ratio room, down payment, property. The score is the only layer you can improve in 90 days without more income or more cash, and the utilization part of it can move in two statement cycles. Pull both reports, fix what is wrong, drag reported balances down before statement dates, freeze new credit, then apply once, at the tier your repaired file earns. Applying first and repairing after costs you the inquiry and the lower-tier pricing for a full term.

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Sources and method: CMHC Purchase fact sheet (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation): insured eligibility including at least one borrower or guarantor with a minimum credit score of 600, 95% loan-to-value on one- to two-unit and 90% on three- to four-unit homes, purchase price below $1,500,000, gross debt service 39% and total debt service 44% maximums, and ratios calculated at the greater of the contract rate plus 2% or 5.25%. CMHC guidance on alternative creditworthiness for borrowers without a credit history and on newcomer evidence (international credit report, home-country bank reference letter). Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, Understanding Credit (Canada.ca): scores from 300 to 900, two bureaus (Equifax and TransUnion), score inputs covering payment history, use of available credit, length of history, inquiries, and mix of products, and free credit reports on request. Credit bands (760 to 900 excellent, 725 to 759 very good, 660 to 724 good, 560 to 659 fair, below 560 poor) are Equifax's published ranges as carried in Scotiabank's credit score explainer. Prime, alternative, and private lender tier descriptions reflect general Canadian market practice and vary by lender; they are not insurer rules. Payment figures ($2,767 at a hypothetical 4.50% and $3,052 at 5.50% on $500,000 over 25 years, about $105,024 vs $129,055 interest over five years) are labelled hypothetical illustrations using Canadian semi-annual compounding, not rate quotes. This article is educational and informational only and is not mortgage, credit, or financial advice. Lender and insurer policies change; confirm current requirements with CMHC and your lender or licensed mortgage broker before applying.