My credit rating disappeared!

[made in china]

Wondering if any of y'all are knowledgeable on credit scores....

Went to go buy a new truck today, and was informed I have a credit rating of "zero", according to Experian and Equifax. Da eff? I have had 2 mortgages we paid off, in last decade 3 car leases and 2 car loans paid off early.

But, I haven't used credit for about 4+ years now, and apparently, because I do not participate in the "game", I am no longer "worthy" of a score.

I Googled why I would have a zero score, but that was confusing. Is it true, you lose your score after a few years of inactivity?

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[Alexx1401]

If you go too long with nothing it will effect things but that does sound odd after only 4. Have you tried running a credit report on yourself? If it was me I would pay to do one of the ones that runs all 3 of them and see what pops up. I would have to wonder if someone at the dealer entered something wrong for it to just show nothing.

 

[lucusloc]

Credit ratings are not based off of how reliable a borrower you are, they are based off of how much money they can make off of you in interest. This is why people with few loans and who pay off balances before they can accrue interest have worse scores than people leveraged to the hilt and make minimum payments every month. This is even worse if you choose to not use credit at all, even if you were a good borrower in the past. I keep my credit active, but I also consider it a problem if I move above the 720-750 range. That probably means I am carrying too much debt and am paying too much in interest, but it should still be high enough to qualify for most of the best rates and deals.

But yeah, exiting the borrowing game all together? They will punish you for that. 4 years seems a bit short to drop you to zero (I thought that took at least a decade) but with how terrible the economy has been they may have shortened those metrics. Now they are going to try and pump you for everything they can get out of you the next time you try to play, because you have shown that you are willing to exit the game at your earliest opportunity. They have one shot to get you to pay as much as they can drag out of you, and the big fat "zero" credit rating gives them an excuse to do that.

You might want to do what new kids do to get their credit ratings up and get a "store card," use it for a few purchases a month and pay it off immediately for a year or so, then go apply for a loan. This behavior should get you into the high 600s low 700s and get you pretty good deals on bigger lines of credit.

The credit rating game suck bubblegum, is anti-consumer and encourages people to maximized debt, but it is the number the world runs on. If you want to get the most out of your finances it behooves you to keep that number up as high as you can without actually putting yourself into any financial risk. One card that you use occasionally and pay off immediately should be all you need to do to do that (at least until they wise up to people playing that game and find a way to punish them for it).

 

[Certaindeaf]

I've had the same credit card for many decades. Only ever had the one. On one occasion I didn't pay the balance in full even though I didn't have to, choosing to instead zero it out in two payments.
My average monthly credit card bill is probably around $100.
My credit score is 785.

 

[Alexx1401]

I've had the same credit card for many decades. Only ever had the one. On one occasion I didn't pay the balance in full even though I didn't have to, choosing to instead zero it out in two payments.
My average monthly credit card bill is probably around $100.
My credit score is 785.

This is why I keep and use a few cards and now and then will not pay the entire bill on one of them. Just enough to keep them stringing along and keep a high score. Comes in handy when we do want to finance something. Last time we bought a new car the dealer was letting places bid against each other to give us the loan.

 

[Certaindeaf]

This is why I keep and use a few cards and now and then will not pay the entire bill on one of them. Just enough to keep them stringing along and keep a high score. Comes in handy when we do want to finance something. Last time we bought a new car the dealer was letting places bid against each other to give us the loan.

Yea, to reiterate, I've never carried over a balance save that one occasion in 40 years of sporadically using that one card.. sometimes not using it for perhaps years.

 

[Alexx1401]

Yea, to reiterate, I've never carried over a balance save that one occasion in 40 years of sporadically using that one card.. sometimes not using it for perhaps years.

I have "heard" people say they have had a bank cancel their card if they did not use it for a long period of time. Don't know if its true or not. I use mine like a checking account and have to couple decades now. Just so much more convenient and I get paid to use the damn things. Couple of them have deals going for a time where they pay more to use their card for certain things and I of course sign up for every one that comes along. Rotate the cards so they are all getting used each year. Credit limit on all 3 I use all the time now is so high now I could buy a new damn care with each one of them which seems strange. I can see how some get into real trouble with this.

 

[Jay Walk]

I sold real estate for 21 years, a few times borrowers had to go through manual underwriting as they did not have a history of borrowing money, "alternative credit" was used, such as a phone bill.

As stated here, a credit score shows that you are good at making payments and financial institutions like people that will pay interest in a timely manner. Pretty simple really.

 

[TTSX]

Credit is definitely not calculated by "for much money they can make off you in interest." It's calculated by your history of on time payments and debt: income ratio. Everyone I know with scores above 800 never misses payments and doesn't over leverage themselves with debt. The few I know with ratings below 600 have missed several payments and will never pay their debt off at the rate they are going now.

"0" sounds like no credit history which is certainly incorrect on your case. Did they run your wife's as well? Hers should be similar to yours... I'm just assuming you have a wife since you didn't mention a "we" in your post. My guess is something was entered wrong or a glitch.


Or maybe it was the Bidens colluding with China to have Jewish Ukranians wipe out the score of right wingers via chemtrail and/or HAARP

 

[Jay Walk]

To boost your credit score, you need to have debt. That's because your credit score increases when you have a long history of paying your credit card bills on time, and use only a small portion of your available credit. It also gets a lift when you have a healthy mix of different types of loans, such as a mortgage, a car loan, and credit cards.

 

[Certaindeaf]

On this occasion, buying a new truck, even if you did have a perfect credit score, instead of dealership or credit card financing, I'd try to get a secured loan from a credit union.. or pay cash outright.

 

[jayR]

You're lucky, don't buy a new truck.

 

[CamoDeafie]

Interesting. I have a "fair" score of 671something, but have not used credit cards since oh about 2008ish (last time I had one ). But I do autopay on most bills except rent and electricity, which are paid using checks. At one time I tried to do the PayPal credit thing and was denied for not having "enough credit history" decided to just save up some money over a few months and buy the item outright.

 

[Mikej]

This is screwed up!

We never had any credit. We bought a house in 2001. We had got an inheritance and put half purchase price down which brought payment amounts down. BAM! Credit coming out our ears! In these times I don't see why people don't pay all household bills with credit card, get the points, and pay off monthly. Plenty of credit, and the bonus of points to get something nice for yourselves a couple/three times a years. Cabela's Card is what wifey uses. I use Discover Card. If you need to call Discover? You can actually talk to a person! In America!

 

[Jay Walk]

Because swiping causes you to spend a lot more money.
Try going cash only for three months.
The savings is huge.

 

[Certaindeaf]

Because swiping causes you to spend a lot more money.
Try going cash only for three months.
The savings is huge.

Pretty sure op.. nevermind.

 

[Mikej]

Because swiping causes you to spend a lot more money.
Try going cash only for three months.
The savings is huge.

And that is why we have "The Latest Impulse" Buy thread!

 

[Jay Walk]

And that is why we have "The Latest Impulse" Buy thread!

Guilty as charged. Pretty sure I have a zero credit rating though.

 

[Alexx1401]

On this occasion, buying a new truck, even if you did have a perfect credit score, instead of dealership or credit card financing, I'd try to get a secured loan from a credit union.. or pay cash outright.

Last car we bought and financed it was from a dealer here but the financing came from a CU I had never even heard of. The finance guy at the dealer put it out to bid so to speak and one local CU came in with the best offer. I think some dealers have their own department doing the financing to make the profit from it. When we bought the hot-rod earlier we walked off from one dealer after making a deal over this. We were paying cash and they left us to sit forever due to the only person who could make the sale trying to get someone else financed. The place makes a cut off the financing too. When I realized what was going on we just walked out the door and went looking for the same car at a different dealer. Next day owner of the place we walked from calls offering to have someone come to our home, do the paper work and deliver the car. Told him your a day late buddy, have one sitting in drive right now from a dealer who did want my money.

 

[Alexx1401]

Because swiping causes you to spend a lot more money.
Try going cash only for three months.
The savings is huge.

Hell other than the grocery store I almost never buy anything at a store any more. Its all done on line. Between Wally and Amazon almost everything is delivered. I have heard several who still shop say they have tried going cash only for just that reason though. Said it helped them see and "control" what they were buying and how much they were spending.