Do I not have a credit score?

Question

Today I tried to access my credit report for the first time from the three major agencies using annualcreditreport.com.

When accessed through Experian, it gave me a generic error that my report wasn't available online and told me to request it via paper mail.

On Transunion, it seemed to have the correct information about me and said it had records of my existence since 2011 (a year after I graduated high school). However the report that Transunion showed me had no actual score on it, just my name and address. On the "Score" tab of the page, it was completely blank, not a single word. There was no activity on the report either.

Finally Equifax gave me a similar error as Experian telling me to mail a request in by paper mail with their application and proofs of ID.

All three agencies received the same name, SSN and address.

So the question is, do I have a credit score at all? I have never made any large purchase (house, car, etc.), have never taken out a loan for school, and have never owned a credit card (I do everything through cash, check or debit). Should I be worried?

Answer 1

Generally, if you have a loan, you have a credit score. But since you have never had a loan before, then it is likely that you do not have a credit score. You should not be worried if you aren't planning on applying for credit and/or loans. If you are wanting to purchase a house, car, or even just having a credit card, you should work on obtaining a secure loan so then you can establish history.

Most of the time you have to pay to view your credit score. By law, you can obtain a free copy of your credit report, which it sounds like you have at annualcreditreport.com, which only shows your payment history, but in order to view your credit score, you generally have to pay for it.

Answer 2

I'm the contrarian in the crowd. I think credit scores and debt are the closest thing to evil incarnate.

You're in good company. The absence of a credit score simply means the agencies have insufficient data in their behavioral model to determine how profitable your business would be to the bank. The higher your score, the more likely the bank is to make a profit from your loan.

IMHO, you're better off building up cash and investment reserves than a credit history. With sufficient reserves, you will be able to shop around for a bank that will give you a good rate, if you ever do need a loan. You'll be surprised at how quickly you get in a position where you don't need a loan if you save and invest wisely.

I used to have a (high) credit score, and I was miserable about it because there were always bills due. I gave up debt 14 years ago, paid the last debt 7 years ago, and have never. been happier. Raising kids without debt (or credit score) is much more fun than with debt.

Update: "Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban is famously blunt. So, when Inc. asked him in a 2017 interview to share his best money advice, the star of ABC's "Shark Tank" and the owner of the Dallas Mavericks didn't mince words. "From my dad," he said. "Don't use credit cards.""

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/26/mark-cuban-dont-use-credit-cards.html

Answer 3

You can't get your credit score for free, just the report with the information the score is based on.

If you got credit reports through annualcreditreport.com, the Score tab would typically contain an advertisement for purchasing your score. If you have an ad-blocker enabled, that might be blocked, explaining the blank page. Try turning off any browser extensions that alter how pages are shown.

The accounts page/tab/section should show something like "0 open accounts" or similar, to indicate that it is loading data.

Your lack of credit history probably does mean you don't have a credit score, so it's probably not worth paying anything to find that out. The focus should be on the accuracy of the underlying report, since you can do something about that.

Should I be worried?

I'd say no on that.

You'll have an easier time getting credit (and better terms) in the future if you start now with some account, even if it's a secured credit card you don't use much, because the age of the oldest and average accounts are factors in credit scoring models.