People who have no credit history are known as credit invisible. Credit invisibility is typically due to the lack of credit accounts or the result of not using credit for a long period of time, resulting in information being removed from your credit history. With no credit history, there is nothing that can be used to calculate a credit score.
Your credit reports record your history of borrowing money and repaying debts, and a credit score is calculated using data recorded in one of your credit reports. The common reason for credit invisibility is the lack of any credit report, meaning you have no credit accounts in your name. This is common among young people over the age of 18 (the youngest age at which you can legally borrow money) who haven’t yet applied for or obtained any loans or credit, but it also can affect older individuals who’ve never had credit in their own names and recent immigrants of all ages.
It’s possible to be credit visible if you have credit reports but not able to have a credit score calculated because they reflect no use of borrowed money or debt payments in the past six months. This occurs most commonly among retirees who may have paid off their mortgages and other debts, and have no open loans or active credit cards for an extended stretch of time.
How Long Does It Take to Establish a Credit Score?
Establishing a credit score can be somewhat time-intensive: Typically, within a few weeks after you open your first loan or credit card account, the lender reports it to the national credit bureaus and then, within a few weeks, you’ll have a credit report established at each bureau. Only after a credit report reflects an account that has been open for at least six months, with at least one payment reported during that period, will it be able to be used to generate a FICO® Score☉ .
Experian Go™, on the other hand, allows you to establish an Experian credit report instantly and potentially start building your credit history right away by using Experian Boost to add regular bill payments you’ve made in the past. Experian Go can also help you determine other options for building credit by asking a few questions about your income and finances. Besides saving you the month or two that’s typically required for your credit report to appear, Experian Go offers guidance on how to establish a credit score as quickly as possible. Depending on your responses, it could lead to credit offers that let you open an account quickly and start logging scoreable credit activity right away.