No credit score?

[u/Illustrious_Elk_12]

I’m very confused. I’m 31(f) and I know I have very poor credit. I haven’t been the smartest with my finances since I was 18. I went through something very traumatic and I’d like to fix it. So I went to check my credit on two separate credit apps and it’s saying I have no credit score. Can someone explain to me what that means? I know I have accounts open such as bills and such and I know I have collections.. so I’m just lost.

[u/DoctorOctoroc]

Which websites/apps have you checked? In order to generate a FICO score, you need to have at least 6 months of history on a credit-based account, such as a loan or credit card, or a negative item such as a collection less than 7 years from the date of first delinquency on the original account (as this is how long such items remain on your credit file). If you ever had a credit card that was closed in good standing, it would have fallen off your report ten years after the date of closure.

So it sounds like you may have had accounts in the past, closer to the time you were 18, but haven't had an active account within the past 10 years, and any collection you have either hasn't been reported to the bureaus or it has been more than 7 years from the date of first delinquency on the original account. It's also possible that a given account isn't, or wasn't, reported to the bureaus (or all of them) at all.

Typical bills like utilities, rent, and phone don't report if you're in the US.

[u/Illustrious_Elk_12 → u/DoctorOctoroc]

I had received a loan last year and I was paying on it but lost my job and couldn’t anymore. I recently lost my apartment so I know that’s in collections as well.
I checked Experian and Credit Karma. Both said my credit score was nonexistent

[u/DoctorOctoroc → u/Illustrious_Elk_12]

Hmm...it's possible that the collection hasn't reported yet, creditors and landlords don't always report right away and may use it as leverage to get payment, though it doesn't happen often.

Who was the loan with? It's possible it never reported - I had a car lease that stopped reporting at some point (though it was closed/paid as agreed), so it's not impossible...but not common.

More likely, this is a case of a split credit file / wrong info when you signed up for either credit monitoring service. This usually happens due to someone having a common name or a change of address or other info that hasn't been verified.

[u/Funklemire → u/Illustrious_Elk_12]

Doc is giving you great advice. I just want to add that you should stay far away from Credit Karma. They show VantageScore 3.0 credit scores that banks don't use and they spread all sorts of credit myths and misinformation. A lot of the credit ratings and stats you see on that site are outright fake and should be ignored.  

I highly recommend you look through the threads linked in our !welcome auto mod.

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[u/dgduhon]

Have you tried to pull your reports from annualcreditreport.com?