Strange Problem

[Celder1]

I am wondering if someone can help me.  I have been out of debt for 10 years, paid cash for cars, Military and overseas at times so no Rent or Utility bills since 2008.  I also have not had any credit cards (didn;t need them and don;t like them!).  I have been checking once a year on Freecredit report.com and my score has been there and has been going up since I stopped using credit (740 as of October of last year).  I am about to purchase a house that I will need a mortgage for and when I tried to get preapproved for the loan, the loan officer told me I had a ZERO FICO score.  Now I am understandably upset about this--I thought things were fine and now I am looking a a long term process to rebuild a credit score that I thought was solid.  I know I need to either get a credit card or 2, a loan, and some revolving credit --I have plenty of money in the bank and I have been living within my means for many years so I am not worried about getting them--My question really comes down to where will my score start out once I get these accounts and get a credit history current?  Will I start as if I have never had credit (500ish) or will once I get these accounts and get a history reestablished I will start out up at the 700+ range that I was when my credit history expired?

[namvet]

My guess is since you have no credit activity in over 10 years, you will have start over and establish 2 or 3 credit accounts.  Sorry for the bad news but that's the way the credit system works-use it or it goes away. 

[Anonymous]

If you start over on your CR...worst case scenario you open a CC with one of the federal CUs and in 6 months your score is in the low 700s. If you were ever an Amex customer you could be back dated if you reopned with them. That'd probably put you in the mid 700s immediately.

[RobertEG]

Forgetting FICO scoring for the time being, the first question I would have is what accounts remain in your credit file with the CRAs.

That information will form the basis for your score once FICO resumes scoring.

If the accounts you stopped using were simply closed rather than deleted in their entirety by the creditor, they should still be in your credit file for up to 10 years or so after closure.  Their age, for example, will form the basis for your oldest and average age of accounts.  Your payment history for those still included should, if not used for 7 years or more, be pristene.  I would speculate that having at least one or two open revolving would be essential.  Maybe a prior creditor will re-activate a closed revolving account?

I certainly dont see your situation as startting over.

I would go to annualcreditreport.com and get your free annual credit reports from each CRA.

[Anonymous]

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@Celder1 wrote:

I am wondering if someone can help me.  I have been out of debt for 10 years, paid cash for cars, Military and overseas at times so no Rent or Utility bills since 2008.  I also have not had any credit cards (didn;t need them and don;t like them!). 

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Did you ever have a credit card, or just not in the last 10 years? If you've ever had a credit card, is there any chance it was an Amex card?

The reason I ask is that Amex will backdate new credit and charge cards to your original relationship year -- meaning if you had a card in 1985, closed it in 2000 and opend a new one in 2012, Amex would say that new CC was opened in 1985.

EDIT: Accidentially put the wrong date for the backdate in the original.

[crunching_numbers]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Celder1 wrote:

I am wondering if someone can help me.  I have been out of debt for 10 years, paid cash for cars, Military and overseas at times so no Rent or Utility bills since 2008.  I also have not had any credit cards (didn;t need them and don;t like them!). 

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Did you ever have a credit card, or just not in the last 10 years? If you've ever had a credit card, is there any chance it was an Amex card?

The reason I ask is that Amex will backdate new credit and charge cards to your original relationship year -- meaning if you had a card in 1985, closed it in 2000 and opend a new one in 2012, Amex would say that new CC was opened in 2012.

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That was a typo by stan_the_man. What he meant to say was the new card would show opened in 1985.

[Anonymous]

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@crunching_numbers wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Celder1 wrote:

I am wondering if someone can help me.  I have been out of debt for 10 years, paid cash for cars, Military and overseas at times so no Rent or Utility bills since 2008.  I also have not had any credit cards (didn;t need them and don;t like them!). 

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Did you ever have a credit card, or just not in the last 10 years? If you've ever had a credit card, is there any chance it was an Amex card?

The reason I ask is that Amex will backdate new credit and charge cards to your original relationship year -- meaning if you had a card in 1985, closed it in 2000 and opend a new one in 2012, Amex would say that new CC was opened in 2012.

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That was a typo by stan_the_man. What he meant to say was the new card would show opened in 1985.

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Dang. I always get the backdating stuff right. Going back to edit my post.

[Celder1]

Thanks for all the great responses!  I have had an AMEX card (circa 1997)-but it was the military travel card, so I am not sure whether they will reopen than one...An update to my situation--I have been authorized for a secured credit card form my bank, I have set up a CD, to start a CD Installment loan from my bank, I also got authorized for a low balance unsecured card.  The best thing is that I shopped around a bit, and I went to a bank in my home town, sent him all of my financials, and he is pretty gung-ho to give me a manually underwritten mortgage--I have lots of family in the area if I get too short, and we have been close family friends for years--he KNOWS he is going to get paid--one way or another (Thank you Mr Banker, can I give you $100,000 in interest over the next 30 years-pretty please?)   The best result of that is that even with just a mortgage, my credit score should come back and be stronger than ever when I get a couple of years of mortgage payments under my belt!

[Anonymous]

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@Celder1 wrote:

Thanks for all the great responses!  I have had an AMEX card (circa 1997)-but it was the military travel card

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I think they'd backdate whatever new card you'd apply for to 1997.

I hope one of the AMEX experts can chime in here to give you a little more assurance.

[Anonymous]

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@Celder1 wrote:

Thanks for all the great responses!  I have had an AMEX card (circa 1997)-but it was the military travel card, so I am not sure whether they will reopen than one...An update to my situation--I have been authorized for a secured credit card form my bank, I have set up a CD, to start a CD Installment loan from my bank, I also got authorized for a low balance unsecured card.  The best thing is that I shopped around a bit, and I went to a bank in my home town, sent him all of my financials, and he is pretty gung-ho to give me a manually underwritten mortgage--I have lots of family in the area if I get too short, and we have been close family friends for years--he KNOWS he is going to get paid--one way or another (Thank you Mr Banker, can I give you $100,000 in interest over the next 30 years-pretty please?)   The best result of that is that even with just a mortgage, my credit score should come back and be stronger than ever when I get a couple of years of mortgage payments under my belt!

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Was this a government purchase card?