@Anonymous wrote:Hello. I am new to this forum. I'm pretty sure I have no credit. I was living in England and France from 2000 until 2007 and since returning four years ago have been renting a house and using my ATM/Visa from Wells Fargo for everything. I have bought two cars since I've been back but have paid cash for both. Before I went abroad I had some student loans which were not quite paid off so I paid them off in 2002 it looks like.
I did file for bankrupcy in 2001 before marrying my husband because I didn't want him to have to assume my credit card debt from college (less than 10K.) This is nowhere on my credit report so must have fallen off.
My husband and I bought a house in France in 2002 and renovated taking numerous loans to complete it and recently sold it (one year ago) repaying all the loans in full with the sale, and a perfect paymeny history but this does not reflect on a US credit report. They do not actually have Credit Reports in France at least they didn't when I was living there.
I tried to run a free yearly credit report on myself just today and it looks more or less blank. Two agencies Experian and Equifax were unable to validate my request using the questions. Equifax in fact asked 4 questions that had absolutely no relationship to me, and Experian asked only two out of four questions that were valid. Trans Union on the other hand asked four questions that related to me and provided me with a free report and here is what it said:
The only reporting on it is two items listed under satisfactory accounts. One is certainly my old student loans which lists as paid as of 2002 with a zero balance. The other says credit card (no memory of this) CHASE opened 1999 and closed in 2003. Zero balance. Remarks are purchased by another lender. This was possibly an old apple computer loan or maybe in fact a credit card I had long ago. Then there's something under the Student Loan saying last 31 months paid OK with a bunch of little green OK boxes. I'm curious why these two old bits of information are even on there if it's all suppose to fall away as time passes. Or is it just the bad stuff that falls away? And isn't this last one in fact bad as it shows "purchased by another lender". Does that imply something negative?
Here are my questions (and thanks in advance for any and all help.)
- Do I need to follow up with these other agencies and mail in paper with a photo ID etc? Or is one agency reporting enough?
- What can I do to improve my pretty much nonexistent credit (I understand from reading that I may need to open an actual credit card, my husband has a AMEX would they give me a card as well? Or some lesser entity? How many cards do I need? I really don't like ahaving credit cards and would prefer to just keep them in a file somewhere and use them only to build my credit if needed. Who would give me a credit card? Do I really want one?
- It worries me a bit that I am 40 years old and have this empty credit. If I had a score, which I'm assuming I don't, would it be a regular score? I did the estimator for FICO and reprted as never having had a credit card as having Zero is not an option. Would my score actual be a good score?
Excuse the rambling. I will start using the shorthand in my next post. I am familiar with it so please feel free to use it in any replies. I am eager to get my credit looking like a 40 year woman should so any and all help from those of you who know your way aound this stuff so well would be greatly appreciated. I am a quick study so send me all the links and advice you are able!
Thanks again!
Hi! Welcome to the forum.
First, old but positive debt histories stay on your report for 10 years by custom. There is no law that defines when they drop off but the reporting agencies drop them at ten years.
Since you have a few very old but positive entries you will be able to start buidling credit faster than a total newbie. With a clean record you will have little trouble quickly building credit. By far the fastest way to build credit if you have a little spare cash is to open a couple of secured credit cards. You are their ideal customer so I'd go with the ones that have the lowest annual fee. I was in almost the same boat and opened a Citi and Wells Fargo CC. They unsecured automatically after 18 months and your's should also. Credit unions are also good places to open both checking and savings. You probably should start with whatever you are using now and see what they have. You could also start off with unsecured cards but it will be hard to get better terms or credit limit than can be achieved with secured cards. Unsecured cards also will require info about your income/job status. Whatever you do do not pay late as that kills your credit when you are just starting off.
Search on "secured credit cards" in the rebuilder part of this forum and you will get an idea of the options.
I meant to mention that your name and current address and stuff gets updated automatically by the creditor when you apply for credit so you shouldn't have much trouble getting reports after you have a credit line reporting.
And what "p" said in the interim.
@Anonymous wrote:One more thing...
It might be relevant that I do have money in the bank (WF to be specific) and if that makes me more likely to get a secured card then great. I infer from my readings here on myFico that the CL on these cards DOES NOT MATTER in which case I would go for the 300$ cards. Could I apply for 2 or 3 at the same bank or is there an intrinsic necessity to diversify among lenders when building your credit. And if so, will other banks accept me as readily for a secured card as my own bank where my money is? I'm kinda thinking the answer to this is YES.
Questions in regard to spending. Does it really matter how much you spend? I would default to spending little and none on these cards. Buying a slurpy every other month type thing (roughly quoted from a post by hauling I think.) But if you think it would do me any good at all to really revolve this credit I could EASILY spend $300 or 600 dollars a week in increments of $300's and just pay it down as soon as it posts (especially this time of year.) I'm guessing the answer is NO and the amount spent I'm sure is appreciated by the issuing company's bottom line but by no by any particular individual who can affect my credit score. If I'm wrong please let me know.
In regards to Department store cards: Would I actually qualify for one at this here point? I also get incessant offers from Airline credit cards (probably due to the fact that as a consequence of living and starting a family abroad I need to buy more plane ticket than the average Joe.) Would I qualify for those? I don't want them unless they would make a significant difference in my credit rating. I'm guessing the answer here is no.
Super! No time to edit this post. Homework time with my little rugrats!
Thank you everyone so much! Really love this forum. It seems sometimes nobody knows anything about this stuff! Thrilled at the expertise of the people who post here!
Neither your CLs nor your spending affect your FICO score but the balances when posted each month do. However, they only affect your score that month. For the maximum score on a thin file use all your cards but have them report a zero balance except for one with a small (< 4% of CL) balance. You get dinged if they all report zero and you get dinged if the balance is over about 5%. This is particularly true on a thin, new file. Don't worry too much about it until a couple months before you get new credit.
However, even though CLs don't affect FICO scores they do affect some FAKO scores (who cares) and they do afect how big an increase in CLs you will see in the future. High CLs beget higher CLs. In my case I maxed out what they allowed on secured cards and wound up with 37k CLs combined on my two cards, WF and Citi within 18 months of starting. And I started with baddies and still had most of them when the cards unsecured. You should see better results.*
*Citi used to have secured cards up to 25k but they dropped it to 5k. WF allows up to 10k.
Oh, and if you already bank at WF and don't have negatives on your CR you are their perfect secured card customer!