Credit Score Showing 0 After 1 Year

[D N Medellin COL 75]

Our experience - After we were married for 2 months I got my wife listed as a co-buyer on a new truck purchase. It was a big hassle with Ford credit and I paid extra interest to have her listed as she had NO CREDIT HISTORY.

Fast forward 3.5 years - she has a credit rating of just north of 800 FICO, listed as co-buyer on 3 vehicle and has 3 credit cards her own, all current and every payment on time. Banks love her much more than me as her credit score has outpaced mine! Go figure.

[Amhara 460]

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

However you must pay for your credit score unless you subscribe to a service that provides it through their subscription fee or through their membership arrangement. You can get a free credit report of your credit history for free each year.

[IcezMan_IcezLady 582]

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

^^ Good info. That explains why my score keeps jumping up and down even though I have being paying all my bills on time and no recent inquiry on my credit.

However you must pay for your credit score unless you subscribe to a service that provides it through their subscription fee or through their membership arrangement. You can get a free credit report of your credit history for free each year.

may not be free for people from other states. It is the law in Texas, to be able to access your credit score FREE one time every year.

[Transborderwife 4,666]

^^ Good info. That explains why my score keeps jumping up and down even though I have being paying all my bills on time and no recent inquiry on my credit.

may not be free for people from other states. It is the law in Texas, to be able to access your credit score FREE one time every year.

Yep, my Dh went to buy a car recently. His credit karma score was about 30-40pts lower than his actual score when he financed the vehicle. Same day too.

[IcezMan_IcezLady 582]

Yep, my Dh went to buy a car recently. His credit karma score was about 30-40pts lower than his actual score when he financed the vehicle. Same day too.

If you check your FICO score too, it is different from score on credit Karma.

[-Shana- 152]

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!!

Yeah, the place we were looking at that wanted 3x a years rent in savings was brand spanking new. Just opened 2 months ago. A little high brow for our standards after the excitement of the place died down. The apartment complex we applied to has been open for longer, has more of a family vibe to it, which explains their policy of allowing us to have 12 months worth of rent in savings to be approved.

We're here in Atlanta for the film industry, which is booming right now. We passed 2 film sets driving around the other day, we're very excited to be apart of it! Fingers crossed it all works out for us, we've been saving for a year for this move.

Thanks for the reassurance, I appreciate it. The agent who dealt with us was an immigrant too and seemed very confident we'd be absolutely fine. Another concern I'm having is that my work permit expires in July, I've applied for another one, but my green card interview is on May 11th too. I submitted all letters that proved this (except the second work permit NOA1 since I don't have it yet) so I hope that's enough. Haha...oh boy...not looking forward to the humidity. We lived in Japan for 2 years where it's nice a humid there but I'm sure it's something else in Georgia!

Edited April 20, 2016 by -Shana-

[rutabaga 209]

If you check your FICO score too, it is different from score on credit Karma.

The thing is that there are many algorithms to calculate a score and different providers provide different ones. Even when it comes to FICO scores (the most used ones) they come in many different flavors (FICO 04, FICO 08, bank card enhanced, auto enhanced...) and different lenders use different versions to make their decisions.

Most credit cards that provide a free FICO score are providing the FICO 08 score for example. Credit Karma shows you your Vantage Score 3.0 which the company that makes it claims is used by lenders, but I've yet to see some actual proof of someone being granted or denied credit based on their VS 3.0 score. That is not to say that CK is useless, far from it, Credit Karma is a great way to monitor your Trans Union and Equifax credit reports for changes and see what's actually reported on them (but you can pretty much disregard the score).

If you want to get the plethora of your FICO scores, you can purchase them directly from the company that makes the FICO algorithm, but the only way to know for sure which exact FICO version a lender is using is to apply for credit and see what comes back (also, banks sometimes have their own internal algorithms to tweak the scores they buy from different providers).

[sarah86 8]

my husband was able to finance a car a year into our marriage, all on his own with a very good rate, and we just pulled out a somewhat hefty loan just this week, again all on his own. My credit is horrible, the score isn't bad, but the history is another story, so I don't attach my name anywhere on the applications except as in email format, (when they ask for an email I give them mine as its my full name @blahblah.com so I'm on there but not technically ) or an authoirzed user once he gets approved, as to not affect the approval process. Im not even on the apartment lease cause although he is the main person renting, I was afraid they would also do a credit check on me and not approve it so i kept my name off the paperwork just to be safe.

We started off with capital one credit cards as it is a company that easily approves applications, even if its at a low limit. One was a secured, which they approve no questions asked since you have to deposit money in there to spend, and the other was a regular card with I believe 500 or 1000 limit which is now up to 2500.

so yea its not really about the score as it should be more about the history, cause like i said my score isn't tooooo bad but my history sucks. They really shouldn't make decisions based on your score. I would print out a full history and just make copies and take it with you to whomever may need it.

[TabeaK 517]

You should get an actual Fico score within 6 months of an account being open. I piggy backed onto my husbands score as authorized user on his card and after a month of being here took out a secured card from Wells Fargo where I have recently increased the limit. I use it for everything and will try to get another non-secured card in my name once I find a job. My Credit Karma score started working about a month after having opened a credit card - haven't checked the FICO yet.

[rutabaga 209]

^^ Good info. That explains why my score keeps jumping up and down even though I have being paying all my bills on time and no recent inquiry on my credit.

One reason why your credit score would be jumping up and down even when you pay your CC bills on time is that one component of pretty much every scoring model is both per account utilization of credit as well as overall utilization of credit. So if one month your statement shows that you've put $500 on a credit card with a limit of $1500 that's a credit utilization of 33% whereas if next month your statement shows that you've put $1000 on that same card, your utilization will be 66% and your credit score will drop. It doesn't matter here whether you pay your CC bill in full every month or not, the score evaluates your current usage of credit as shown by your statement (your CC company reports the total amount due from your statement, the minimum payment due, and your card's limit to the credit bureaus every month, among other things) and so the score can fluctuate even during the month--essentially, every time there's a change in your credit report, your score is recalculated.

The trick to maximize your score (when you need to, it's kind of useless to do it all the time) is to make sure that all of your credit card statements but one show a zero balance (you do that by paying for all the charges before your monthly statement is generated so that the statement shows no payment due) and to have the one that does report usage, report usage between 1% and 10% of the card limit (one card needs to show usage since you're, score-wise, penalized for both using "too much" credit and not using it at all).

Edited April 20, 2016 by rutabaga

[Roy&Chanel 109]

Yeah, the place we were looking at that wanted 3x a years rent in savings was brand spanking new. Just opened 2 months ago. A little high brow for our standards after the excitement of the place died down. The apartment complex we applied to has been open for longer, has more of a family vibe to it, which explains their policy of allowing us to have 12 months worth of rent in savings to be approved.

We're here in Atlanta for the film industry, which is booming right now. We passed 2 film sets driving around the other day, we're very excited to be apart of it! Fingers crossed it all works out for us, we've been saving for a year for this move.

Thanks for the reassurance, I appreciate it. The agent who dealt with us was an immigrant too and seemed very confident we'd be absolutely fine. Another concern I'm having is that my work permit expires in July, I've applied for another one, but my green card interview is on May 11th too. I submitted all letters that proved this (except the second work permit NOA1 since I don't have it yet) so I hope that's enough. Haha...oh boy...not looking forward to the humidity. We lived in Japan for 2 years where it's nice a humid there but I'm sure it's something else in Georgia!

We are also looking for apartment as our contract will end around October and we are required to provide 60 days of notice. We live 15 minutes away from Atlanta city and our rental is only 100 dollars less than Alexan Lenox which is ridiculous. I offered a year of rental to multiple apartments and was rejected too when I first applied even explaining to apartments I did not have credit score and am a new immigrant, we had no choice but to ask my cousin for help. I am worrying that it will be a problem again when we move, don't really want to bother my relatives. I'm looking to move in the city for more job opportunities and transport accessible, getting my DL soon. You only need to renew your DL every 5 years, probably pay a small fee for change of address, shouldn't be a problem for you

The weather is messed up here, day time it's around 29 degs C, and a drop of 10 degs C at 16-18 degs at night.

You can feel the HOTLANTA heat now.

Oh yesh about the film industry, Fast and Furious was here for filming last month. It is booming right now. Good luck and all the best!

[Hypnos 6,576]

may not be free for people from other states. It is the law in Texas, to be able to access your credit score FREE one time every year.

You are mistaken. The Fair Credit Reporting Act is a federal law, and therefore applies in all 50 states. Under the FCRA, everyone is entitled to a free copy of their credit report once a year at every agency. There are also provisos to let you get it free under other circumstances, such as being subject to an "adverse action" or seeking employment.

Edited April 20, 2016 by Hypnos

[-Shana- 152]

We are also looking for apartment as our contract will end around October and we are required to provide 60 days of notice. We live 15 minutes away from Atlanta city and our rental is only 100 dollars less than Alexan Lenox which is ridiculous. I offered a year of rental to multiple apartments and was rejected too when I first applied even explaining to apartments I did not have credit score and am a new immigrant, we had no choice but to ask my cousin for help. I am worrying that it will be a problem again when we move, don't really want to bother my relatives. I'm looking to move in the city for more job opportunities and transport accessible, getting my DL soon. You only need to renew your DL every 5 years, probably pay a small fee for change of address, shouldn't be a problem for you

The weather is messed up here, day time it's around 29 degs C, and a drop of 10 degs C at 16-18 degs at night.

You can feel the HOTLANTA heat now.

Oh yesh about the film industry, Fast and Furious was here for filming last month. It is booming right now. Good luck and all the best!

If it makes you feel better we just got approved!! So happy! Good luck with your search Edited April 20, 2016 by -Shana-

[ryna 132]

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.

Yep... I added my wife to some of my existing CC accounts as an authorized user. I already had our house but we bought a 2nd car together in her 1st year here. Within no time, she had a better credit score than I did after a 20+ year credit history (both 800+ FICO, but still higher!)

[Thesmiths2016 117]

So great to read this topic, I've been thinking the same thing myself for when we make the big move after my greencard comes through. So although this wasn't my topic, thanks to all who contributed for helping out others without even realising it :-)