A missing credit score is not a bad credit score, and FHA treats the two very differently. If you have paid rent, utilities and a phone bill for years without ever borrowing, FHA can build your credit history from those payments instead. The loan is still eligible for maximum financing. It just has to be underwritten by a person.
For a borrower without a credit score, the lender either orders a Non-Traditional Mortgage Credit Report from a credit reporting company, or builds your credit history itself by verifying each reference independently.
Either way, each reference has to show the same things a normal tradeline would: the creditor, when the account opened, the current status, the required monthly payment, the balance, and a 12-month payment history. The report is not allowed to say "satisfactory" or "acceptable" - it has to show the actual record.
When a lender verifies a reference itself, it must use the provider's published address or phone number rather than contact details you supply, and get 12 months of cancelled checks or equivalent proof showing when you paid. For rent, a reference from a rental management company can stand in for the cancelled checks - unless you rent from a family member.
You need three credit references, and at least one must come from this list:
Rental housing payments, independently verified if you are a renter.
Your telephone service payment history.
Gas, electricity, water, television or internet service - if not already included in your rent.
If the lender cannot get all three from that list, FHA allows other recurring payments to fill the gap, including insurance premiums that are not payroll deducted, child care paid to a business, school tuition, retail store cards, rent-to-own payments, an automobile lease, the uninsured part of medical bills, a personal loan with written terms backed by cancelled checks, or a 12-month history of regular savings deposits made at least quarterly without overdrafts.
A no-score file must be underwritten manually. Two consequences follow. First, the ratio ceiling is 31/43 and cannot be stretched by compensating factors, the way it can for someone with a 580 score - the full ladder is on manual underwriting. Second, qualifying income can only come from borrowers who will live in the property and are obligated on the mortgage, so a non-occupant co-borrower's income cannot be used.
If you are applying with someone who does have a score, the rules for whose score counts - and the case where having no score actually helps - are on which score counts.
Source: HUD Handbook 4000.1, II.A.5.a.ii(B) Non-traditional and Insufficient Credit (Manual), II.A.2.b.i and II.A.5.d.viii (Update 17, issued 11/26/2025). Read the section in full before relying on it; FHA policy is set by HUD and changes, and individual lenders may require more. Not a commitment to lend.
Five minutes on the phone beats five weeks of guessing. We will compare your situation against actual lender requirements - not advertised ones - and give you a straight answer either way. Already been turned down over your score? See MortgageDeclined.com.