The future of your mortgage loan and the ownership of the home you have in mind depends on your three-digit credit score. Keep in mind that the minimum FICO credit score you need to get a mortgage loan is ultimately the decision of your individual lender.

Wells Fargo and Discover Card say they now provide free credit scores along with Barclaycard and First Bankcard — financial monitoring website, CreditKarma, touts that you can get your credit scores online in minutes — others now offering free scores include the online credit-educational sites Credit.com, Quizzle and CreditSesame.

FICO isn’t the only number used to determine your credit risk — the score that counts is the one your lender uses. There is no single credit score number — the compilers of the widely accepted FICO Credit Score allow lenders to customize their system, so different lenders produce different scores.

A good FICO score is one that exceeds 700. Any amount above that number is generally sufficient to qualify for the lowest available rates on most types of loans, but it is not a one way ticket to being able to take out extraordinarily large loans-your income will have a more significant effect on that.

Citi Free Credit Scores will provide free credit scores to their credit card customers and the bank will begin providing these scores on a monthly basis beginning in January, 2015.