Is it possible to have nothing on your credit report after having loans or CC's?

[jdbkiang]

Out of curiosity, what happens if you close all loans and credit cards? Will you revert back to "no credit" or will your history continue to stay on your credit report and you will continue to have a credit score?

[Anonymous]

Closed accounts typically stay on your reports for 10 years.  If you closed all of your accounts and didn't open any for a decade, in theory all of your accounts would be gone in 10 year, so there would be nothing left to your file and therefore no way to generate a credit score.

[Anonymous]

BBS is absolutely right about what would happen to your reports.  As touches your FICO scores, there are two requirements:

    (1) One account at least six months old (closed or open)

    (2) One account that has reported in the last six months

If each closed account stopped reporting once the creditor reported it as closed (i.e. no further updates to the bureaus) then #2 would fail to be met at month 7 or possibly 8 and you'd lose your FICO scores.

[jdbkiang]

So I’m understanding that your credit report will still show those accounts, but I won’t have a FICO score? Are they separate?

[Anonymous]

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@jdbkiang wrote:
So I’m understanding that your credit report will still show those accounts, but I won’t have a FICO score? Are they separate?

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A FICO score is the result of a computer program taking all the data on the report and turning it into a single 3-digit number (typically between 300 and 850).

A person cannot have a FICO score with nothing on the report, but he can have something on the report and no FICO score.  (I gave you two criteria that have to be met before a FICO model will give you a score.)

So during the first six months after the accounts are closed, you will have a FICO score.  Then for another 9.5 years you will have no score but will have all those closed accounts on the report.  Then after that (assuming that the accounts all fall off at year 10, which is very likely) your reports will have no accounts on them.

[jdbkiang]

I see! Perfect. Thank you for the clear explanation.

[pinkandgrey]

The accounts will stay on your report for something like 7-10 years. It would take a LOOOOONG time to get back to a no-credit situation. I can't imagine that it would look good either... 

[RobertEG]

Also, be aware that once you close an account, the creditor may choose to discontinue any further maintenance of the account by then reporting its voluntary deletion in toto.  That removes any need to monitor for possible updates or to investigate any possible disputes filed by a consumer regarding prior reporting on the account.

While the CRAs will delete after the account has been closed for approx 10 years, that does not ensure that the creditor wont decide to delete at any time, and thus remove the account from your report and from scoring.

[jdbkiang]

I see. Thank you all for the very helpful answers!

[jdbkiang]

Bonus question!

If I understood correctly, after 6 months of no activity, scores disappear, but everything still stays on the report, right?

So 1. What happens if you have had late payments or other delinquencies before? I assume they still stay on the report, but if you no longer have a score, will lenders be able to see that?

And 2. If after 6 months of no activity and your scores disappear, you get another line of credit, will everything resurface?