Credit Score Showing 0 After 1 Year

[N and J 88]

Forgive my ignorance, but what does count towards credit history? I primarily thought that having phone bills, credit card bills, car payments, house payments etc would count towards a credit history/score.

You can go to credit Karma and get an about score for yourself. Normally phone bills, electric bills, things like that are not reported to credit agencies unless you ae late or don't pay. The only thing that will truly bring up your credit score is when someone gives you credit (like credit cards, loans, mortgages) and you pay it on time. As your limits on cards are increased your score will go up as well. In June you should have an increase by Capital One. If you have had a credit card with Cap 1 since January you should have a credit score. Check Credit Karma or use Capital One's credit tracker. Good luck. I have a decent credit score it has taken me 2 years to built it up to where it is now.

[Roy&Chanel 109]

Over here in Atlanta, I spoke to my bankers at CHASE and was told that it takes one full year to get reflected on credit scores. Currently for me, I am not even qualified for any cards in Atlanta, because I'm jobless even though theres savings, needless to say I was having a HUGE hard time when I came here opening bank accounts, it just recently got better after I got my greencard. I'm using my husband and my cousin's credit score to rent apartments in Atlanta. I noticed it isn't that easy as some other states for foreigners like us to get driving license, bank accounts, credit cards,etc.

We were required to hit a certain credit score and monthly salary of exceeding 3.5k or above to be able to rent an apartment in Atlanta city. Not sure about the apartment you're going to stay in. But that happens to ours in Atlanta.

The apartment management, they used equifax to check on ours.

Try calling the number at the back of your credit card to enquire? Good luck and welcome to Atlanta!!!

Edited April 20, 2016 by Roy&Chanel

[jostermacedo 54]

I'm not working yet (but have savings and some income from rent on my former country) and I was able to get CCs with Chase, Amex and Discover and I'm in the US for only 8 months. Do you still have a bank account at your former country? I do have, and my bank (HSBC in Brazil) helped me a lot in the US, giving my first credit card and reporting to the credit bureaus.

Over here in Atlanta, I spoke to my bankers at CHASE and was told that it takes one full year to get reflected on credit scores. Currently for me, I am not even qualified for any cards in Atlanta, because I'm jobless even though theres savings, needless to say I was having a HUGE hard time when I came here opening bank accounts, it just recently got better after I got my greencard. I'm using my husband and my cousin's credit score to rent apartments in Atlanta. I noticed it isn't that easy as some other states for foreigners like us to get driving license, bank accounts, credit cards,etc.

We were required to hit a certain credit score and monthly salary of exceeding 3.5k or above to be able to rent an apartment in Atlanta city. Not sure about the apartment you're going to stay in. But that happens to ours in Atlanta.

The apartment management, they used equifax to check on ours.

Try calling the number at the back of your credit card to enquire? Good luck and welcome to Atlanta!!!

[E and R 8]

For utilities such as gas and electric it isn't reported to credit agencies unless there are delinquencies so you don't want them on your record. If you are using a social security number then you should have a history with your credit card with that. My guess is that they may have your number incorrect. In any case by law anyone that denies anything for credit by law has to disclose to you the documentation used to make the determination for credit. Sounds like you already found out that there was no history. You could contact the bank. CreditKarma is a valid site to use for determining what is being reported for your credit score. The fact that you have a history with them indicates that the issue is with the apartment. Maybe they had the number wrong? Also, there are 3 major credit reporting agencies here. Equifax, Trasperion and Transunion. It is amazing at how different these three can report your score based on the same criteria. It may have been one of the three that is not as up to date with credit scores that was used.

[Transborderwife 4,666]

Just a warning about credit karma, I've known many who's scores have been severely off in both directions. Not always accurate.

[Roy&Chanel 109]

I'm not working yet (but have savings and some income from rent on my former country) and I was able to get CCs with Chase, Amex and Discover and I'm in the US for only 8 months. Do you still have a bank account at your former country? I do have, and my bank (HSBC in Brazil) helped me a lot in the US, giving my first credit card and reporting to the credit bureaus.

I believe its the state differences. I do have credit cards, bank accounts in my country, but Chase bank, bofa, wells fargo, do not accept overseas bank records here, tried it. I was not able to create my own checking accounts, was advised to get a job first.

So i'm currently looking for one, hopefully I can get one soon because our apartment will be due soon and they are charging us extremely high rates for renewal. We are looking to move near the Business District for more job opportunities.

Edited April 20, 2016 by Roy&Chanel

[rutabaga 209]

I was wondering if I could get some insight on this.

I'm moving from Colorado to Atlanta with my husband (came on K-1 visa, married, adjusting status, have green card interview on May 11th) and we're here for 1 week to look for an apartment. Today we found the perfect place for us, so we applied for it. They needed documentation of my immigration status, which is fine, but what concerned us was that my credit score showed up as 0 on their report.

I moved exactly 1 year ago tomorrow, I've been paying a Verizon phone bill since May 2015 every month, all payments have been on time. I also have a Capital One Platinum Mastercard since January with a $500 credit limit. All payments made on time, I've utilized 30% of my credit limit as suggested by multiple sources.

On Credit Karma (I know this isn't an official credit union service) it says that my credit score is 665(ish), so I'm really confused why when the apartment complex checked my score it came out as 0.

Any ideas?

It came out as 0 as your score hasn't been generated yet. Like many before have said, your phone bills and other utilities don't report to your credit report. What does, however, is that Capital One CC you opened up and after about six or seven months of it reporting to your credit report (it reports every month around the time you get your statement), the credit bureaus will generate a credit score for you so expect to start having a non-zero credit score around August.

P.S. I recommend this forum as a wealth of information about how credit works in the US.

P.S. 2: The algorithm Credit Karma uses (Vantage Score 3.0 I believe) may have generated a score for you already, but the score your apartment complex obtained was probably calculated using a FICO algorithm (I think FICO 08 is still lthe most common) which needs more input (i.e., at least 6 months of data) to generate a score for you.

P.S. 3: A good way to get your FICO score for free is to open a credit card which gives you an updated FICO score once a month, some of these are the Walmart card (Store & Mastercard both, the store one should be relatively easy to get), Discover, some if not all Amex cards, and my Bank of America Cash Rewards cards started offering one as well relatively recently among others.

Edited April 20, 2016 by rutabaga

[templeton 120]

Despite what the odd person always seems to say on here, it's well proven that being added as an authorized user to an existing credit card with good history is a perfect way to get your own credit rating established very quickly. That card's history transfers to you. My credit rating went from 0 to 720 within 6 months just by having my wife add me as a user to her AMEX account. Soon I was approved for my own cards. In just over a year, I'm on the new mortgage and car lease.

Unfortunately the credit rating system is used for a lot in the US - not just for lending, but jobs, rentals, etc. - so making a plan should be a priority for every couple even before their spouse (or spouse-to-be) arrives.

[IfoemaUS 25]

The credit check service that the apartment complex uses may not show your accurate score. I am a Realtor / property manager and I get "score not available" or 0 score on reports quite often.

The services we use also do not access full credit reports. Most reports I see only show the negative items and not the accounts in good standing.

Open a "no annual fee" card that gives you your credit score every month. More accurate than anything other service except for getting your information directly from Equifax, Transunion and Experian.

This is correct....they may be using a 3rd party service and not direct from the bureaus.

[teanet 20]

If your husband has good credit score, can he add you to all the accounts? My husband added me to his accounts when I got my ssn and I live in US for two and half years and my credit score is 776.

[rutabaga 209]

Despite what the odd person always seems to say on here, it's well proven that being added as an authorized user to an existing credit card with good history is a perfect way to get your own credit rating established very quickly. That card's history transfers to you. My credit rating went from 0 to 720 within 6 months just by having my wife add me as a user to her AMEX account. Soon I was approved for my own cards. In just over a year, I'm on the new mortgage and car lease.

Unfortunately the credit rating system is used for a lot in the US - not just for lending, but jobs, rentals, etc. - so making a plan should be a priority for every couple even before their spouse (or spouse-to-be) arrives.

Right, being added as an authorized user will definitely help with establishing credit and the credit score itself if the card's history is good (since all the bad data points from it show as well). It's just that banks sometimes tend to disregard the AU history (it shows on the credit report whether you're the sole owner, joint owner or just an authorized user on an account), especially when an application is evaluated manually, in their decisions on whether to extend new credit etc.

But yes, being added as an authorized user is a good way to jump start one's credit score, but not as valuable in the long run if one doesn't use that push to open accounts of their own (like you have--good job on that).

[-Shana- 152]

Over here in Atlanta, I spoke to my bankers at CHASE and was told that it takes one full year to get reflected on credit scores. Currently for me, I am not even qualified for any cards in Atlanta, because I'm jobless even though theres savings, needless to say I was having a HUGE hard time when I came here opening bank accounts, it just recently got better after I got my greencard. I'm using my husband and my cousin's credit score to rent apartments in Atlanta. I noticed it isn't that easy as some other states for foreigners like us to get driving license, bank accounts, credit cards,etc.

We were required to hit a certain credit score and monthly salary of exceeding 3.5k or above to be able to rent an apartment in Atlanta city. Not sure about the apartment you're going to stay in. But that happens to ours in Atlanta.

The apartment management, they used equifax to check on ours.

Try calling the number at the back of your credit card to enquire? Good luck and welcome to Atlanta!!!

I was hearing about how difficult it was with driving licences in Atlanta, something about you have to renew them every year? Is that still true? I have a Colorado driving licence so I hope that helps when we move.

We're finding certain apartment complexes talked about the 3x the monthly rent, we've thankfully saved up a decent amount of money in the past year so we've been able to rely on that for the current apartment we're moving into. We were looking at an Alexan apartment building, the brand new ones that are everywhere; for savings they wanted 3x the amount of a years lease...which was ridiculous.

I think I just haven't had my CC long enough by the sounds of it!

Thank you for your welcome, we really like it here so far! Most of our time has been apartment hunting but we love the cute little neighborhoods like Virginia Highlands, LFP and Decatur

[-Shana- 152]

For utilities such as gas and electric it isn't reported to credit agencies unless there are delinquencies so you don't want them on your record. If you are using a social security number then you should have a history with your credit card with that. My guess is that they may have your number incorrect. In any case by law anyone that denies anything for credit by law has to disclose to you the documentation used to make the determination for credit. Sounds like you already found out that there was no history. You could contact the bank. CreditKarma is a valid site to use for determining what is being reported for your credit score. The fact that you have a history with them indicates that the issue is with the apartment. Maybe they had the number wrong? Also, there are 3 major credit reporting agencies here. Equifax, Trasperion and Transunion. It is amazing at how different these three can report your score based on the same criteria. It may have been one of the three that is not as up to date with credit scores that was used.

They had the right number, it was read back to me correctly. I think it was the length I've had my CC/the agency they used to get my report.

Despite what the odd person always seems to say on here, it's well proven that being added as an authorized user to an existing credit card with good history is a perfect way to get your own credit rating established very quickly. That card's history transfers to you. My credit rating went from 0 to 720 within 6 months just by having my wife add me as a user to her AMEX account. Soon I was approved for my own cards. In just over a year, I'm on the new mortgage and car lease.

Unfortunately the credit rating system is used for a lot in the US - not just for lending, but jobs, rentals, etc. - so making a plan should be a priority for every couple even before their spouse (or spouse-to-be) arrives.

If your husband has good credit score, can he add you to all the accounts? My husband added me to his accounts when I got my ssn and I live in US for two and half years and my credit score is 776.

Right, being added as an authorized user will definitely help with establishing credit and the credit score itself if the card's history is good (since all the bad data points from it show as well). It's just that banks sometimes tend to disregard the AU history (it shows on the credit report whether you're the sole owner, joint owner or just an authorized user on an account), especially when an application is evaluated manually, in their decisions on whether to extend new credit etc.

But yes, being added as an authorized user is a good way to jump start one's credit score, but not as valuable in the long run if one doesn't use that push to open accounts of their own (like you have--good job on that).

Something to consider, thanks for the advice!

[Amhara 460]

This is correct....they may be using a 3rd party service and not direct from the bureaus.

Right, being added as an authorized user will definitely help with establishing credit and the credit score itself if the card's history is good (since all the bad data points from it show as well). It's just that banks sometimes tend to disregard the AU history (it shows on the credit report whether you're the sole owner, joint owner or just an authorized user on an account), especially when an application is evaluated manually, in their decisions on whether to extend new credit etc.

But yes, being added as an authorized user is a good way to jump start one's credit score, but not as valuable in the long run if one doesn't use that push to open accounts of their own (like you have--good job on that).

to both these comments.

I am not surprised that Atalantan apartments have a high standard. I lived in ATL for only about six months during the time when US had the big mortgage crisis and I stayed in a small city south of where you are looking at called Hillendale. From my experience, Atlanta had a lot of economic challenges, but a lot of potential too. It seems you are choosing high class apartments, which tend to segregate their clientele by financial means. In order to provide a higher style of living, they require their tenets have a higher income level.

We are going to be searching for a new place in a few more months too. Finding a new place can be stressful and can take quite a bit of effort! I just want to reassure you that you can find great options without those requirements. I'm sure you two will find something great and safe and cozy. Have fun! I hate to hear that you two will be moving during the summer into Hot-lanta!!

[Adil & Jeanne 296]

My husband's has a credit history after only 7 months / he bought a motorcycle / ony 6 months at his new job

he is on the house / i added him to my credit card and he had been on checking account since 2010 even though he never arrived till 09/2016

call and get your own credit report from any of the 3 big ones / the first report is free