Has anyone else had this problem? I am 24 years old and I have had a credit card since I was 19 or 20. I have tried to open a bank account at cibc and td, and both times the banks told me that they would have to give me only up to $100 access to all deposits and the rest would be held for a week because I have no credit. The second time I got fed up and finally got a hold of someone through visa who told me that they could see my credit fine, and that they could see td had looked at it two days ago, yet TD told me I had no credit at all? I got married at the end of 2007 and when I contacted equifax today, they tried telling me that this was happening because my name was not updated. I repeated to her several times that this was before I got married or even changed any of my information, but she kept saying that was the reason. Does anyone know what is going on? I am starting to get really frustrated and I am worried that when I go to buy a house, they are going to deny me because I "have no credit" when I clearly do and it is good credit!
You need to get your actual reports from the bureau yourself to see what is going on. Reporting is voluntary - the cc you have may not be reporting, or if you do not use it, it may have stopped reporting (although on your report). With no activity you might not generate a score. Further, if it is the only card you have, even if it is reporting, it is probably not enough.
No, I use it all the time but it could be possible they arn't reporting it. Although equifax told me that my credit was looking fine so they have some kind of record. What else should I be doing to get more credit?
Maybe it's not being reported to all the bureaus. Some companies only report to one or two. And the banks may have pulled from the bureau where it's not being reported. One thing you can do is get more credit. Only having one card is not good. You only have one tradeline on your report, which may keep your score low. And if that card ever has problems, you have no backup. FICO likes a mix of credit types. Get a store card or two (use them every few months) and maybe another major card.
You may be off-line with Equifax. Have a mortgage professional pull your file to see if Equifax is disseminating your information online to lenders. If they're not, you may have to retain counsel to get it back. This is a common issue with them. As to how to get more credit, you can ask your husband or a family member to add you to their credit card accounts as an authorized user if the accounts are at least two years old with low useage. They will report to your report and be scored as if they are yours. It won't effect their credit at all and they can simply destroy the cards once they arrive. If this isn't an option, there are companies that offer this service at a few. Apex Credit Services is one of them and you may feel free to contact us if you so wish. We do not make outbound calls thus, you'd have to call us. I'd definately check on Equifax though insofar as there seems to be an issue.
