 TITLE: A Beginner’s Guide to Building Credit CONTENT: Reasons Why You May Not Have a Credit Score\n-------------------------------------------\nAvoiding debt may seem natural to those just starting out, but it starves your credit reports of vital data. Using credit and incurring debt—even very small amounts you quickly pay off—makes you less of a mystery to lenders. If you never take on debt, a lender will have no idea what kind of borrower you may be, which makes you inherently risky.\nWithout supplying sufficient information to your credit report for a long enough period of time, you will have what's called a thin credit file, and may not have a credit score. Maybe you're a young adult and haven't entered the world of credit yet. If you're an immigrant to the U.S., any debts from your country of origin won't be listed on your credit reports from the three major U.S. credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax). These situations can leave you with a thin credit file until you begin building more credit.\nIf you have recently opened credit accounts on your credit reports, you won't have a credit score until you have used them for a while. The two primary scoring models, FICO and VantageScore, consider your accounts slightly differently. A FICO® Score will develop after you have at least one account open and recorded on your file for six months. A VantageScore, though, will generate much faster. As long as your credit report shows at least one account, it can begin to factor in to your VantageScore.\nWith either scoring model, you'll have to keep accounts active if you want them to reflect positively on your credit. Inactive accounts are at risk of being closed. Closing an account can cause your score to drop if it increases your credit utilization rate or shortens your credit age. Even if paid-off loans and credit cards still appear on your report, there won't be sufficient activity for the scoring model to create an accurate score if you haven't made a charge or a payment in 24 months. END