Hi Cakefairy, to formulate a FICO score you have to have open positive tradelines reporting (at least 2 or 3 if I recall correclty) for approx 6 months. Someone might be able to confirm that here shortly. Owing nothing is a VERY good thing!!! But not using credit is a bad thing when you need credit. You can use credit and still not owe anything, that's making credit work for you. You're going to have open a secured credit card more than likely. Something I've seen mentioned on this site is actually opening a secured personal loan with your bank and then using that money to open a secured credit card. Using the same money to open two new lines of credit. Just an idea. Being added as an authorized user on someone's else's credit accounts can also help jumpstart the credit building process. Have to have credit to get credit unfortunately.
When it comes time to actaully obtain a score, you also won't be able to buy a score from Experian.. They don't sell FICO scores to the public. You can buy Transunion and Equifax FICO scores here. The scores that offered directly from TU, EQ, and EX aren't FICO scores. EQ does sell a FICO score on their site, but they don't make it easy to find it. Just remember if it doesn't say FICO, then the score is pretty much useless.
