Given what I hear about US banks, this seems like a most obvious variable to include in computing the credit score. Which leads me to my question - is there an official/exhaustive list of what exactly is considered and how, or is that a banking secret?

The factors are, in decreasing order of weight:

- Credit card utilization (balance as a percentage of available credit at last statement close)

- On-time payments (you just have to pay the minimum required by the date specified for it to count)

- Derogatory marks (collections, bankruptcies, foreclosures and liens)

- Average age of accounts (this favors older people who have been using credit a long time but not opening a lot of accounts recently)

- Total number of accounts (also rewards a mixture of types - car, student, credit card, mortgage, etc)

- Hard inquiries (very slightly dings your score if you're currently looking for credit, punishes you harder if you're desperately applying to everything you can find because this indicates financial emergency and therefore high risk).

https://www.creditkarma.com/article/credit-score-factors

If you use CreditKarma, it'll explain all this and how the values on your credit report fit in to the averages.

The exact FICO algorithm is proprietary. They do give some information about what it entails.

I am in no way affiliated with freecreditreport.com, it's just a site I find incredibly useful. It's now owned by Experian and it gives you your Experian FICO 8 credit score. They break down each part of your credit score and grade you on each. (A-F)

There's other sites like credit karma that do similar but they use vantage score which is also known as FAKO score and isn't used by lenders but is a good indication of what your FICO score may be.

You and your parents history in the US in general can have a an affect on whether you can convince a bank to give you a credit card or not not on the credit score.

I am not talking about credit card history but about history of being a US citizen, having a bank account etc.

I think a lot here are missing the point.

The question is not about your credit score but about getting the credit card to begin with. Once you get the card they assign you a credit score but in order to get it you have to start building debt (and as a foreigner I had to do that with my own money)

No, no, no. Your parents history doesn't affect you in such a way!!!! (Unless you live with them and only in very certain ways) Thank God because my parents are scumbags. My dad is flagged in car insurance databases. When I get a car insurance quote they ask me "who is [my dad]?" I say "he's my dad and I don't live with him and he doesn't have access to my car." They say "OK" and we move on.

You also don't have to start building debt. Having a credit card you don't use is enough.

Ok, here is the thing. Your parents credit score doesn't affect yours. At all. IT doesn't help you get a credit card, nor bank accounts.

Unless: Someone has them cosign for a loan or credit card. This is somewhat common with a first car loan or some student loans, but less common with credit cards. They won't be able to do that if they have a low score.

Otherwise, you are basically on your own. The credit stuff you would have experienced coming here is what many 18-year olds hav to deal with. Some older women find themselves in a similar position - the accounts were all in their husband's name.

>Your parents credit score doesn't affect yours. At all. IT doesn't help you get a credit card, nor bank accounts.

Perhaps one's parents can't help in any formal way, but for me, my parents' creditworthiness and relationship with a local bank helped get me my first credit card.

Right before I left home for college, I applied for a credit card with my local bank, and was initially declined. When I asked for reconsideration by the branch manager, he looked into the situation and indicated that he couldn't do anything to assist.

When my mother found out I was declined, she took me back to the branch, and asked the branch manger to reconsider the credit decision. Upon a review of my parents' standing with the bank, the branch manager overrode the previous decision and I was given a Visa card with a moderate ($1000 USD) limit. My mother wasn't even asked to co-sign on the account, provide any kind of guarantee, or be associated with the credit card in any way.

That's a very very special case and it only happened because you wanted it to.

You are talking about two different things.

With regards to credit score, of course, I never said it did.

With regards to getting a first credit card thats simply not true. Maybe if you go into a bank and open an account but if you have had a relationship with that bank for several years it is going to help you get one to begin with. Of course it helps you if you have had a history with the bank. And of course there are americans who can't just get a credit card thats still not what I am talking about.

I know plenty of 18 year olds who never had to deal with what I had and no matter what it doesn't really change anything from my original claim which is that the US credit history system is built on distrust not trust.

Citibank offers customers credit cards based on how much they have on their savings account. So it's simply not true that history doesn't help. Of course it does as it should.

Being an authorized user on a parent's credit card does build credit history for the child.

I did not have that, or any cosigned loan.

But it's also true that if you come to the US during or after college, banks will not issue you a credit card.

Instead, they will issue you a 'secured' credit card, where you get a $300-500 limit on a card against the same amount paid to the bank as security. Only after a year or 2 of this, will the bank actually issue credit.

Maybe you had an account/history with the bank for a while, and that made a difference?

That isn't just immigrants: Plenty of young, non-college bound students have only access to such cards. Americans also use them after bankruptcy to try to help strengthen their credit scores.

But you are an american right? You spent your whole life in the US? So you have a history with a bank I am assuming.

I don't understand exactly why I am being down-voted.

The system is at it is it's not something I made up.

I'd assume you are being downvoted because you are making assertions about the US credit system without actually knowing how it works.

I live in the US so yes I have a pretty good idea of how it works.

But please point to where I am wrong about the credit score system.

You are being downvoted because you are spouting falsehoods about the US credit/financial system.

Which falsehood exactly?

Where to start?

> You are american you have a history and your parents have a history.

Parents have nothing to do with anything unless your parents cosign or add you as an authorized user on their cards. Being American has nothing to do with anything other than some cards require you to be a US citizen for some reason, my BVAA card does for example. My parents are scumbags and their scummy-iness doesn't effect my ability to build credit.

The trick is to apply for the right card, different lenders/products target different populations. A store card or a secured card is a good start in building credit, that's what I did when I was young and had practically zero income. My limit was like $300 but it was enough to get me on the map. I didn't have to deal with being rejected because I applied for the product that fits my life situation. If you just apply for the heavily advertised cards you are not going to get a good result. After that I applied for a crappy card I was "pre-approved" for that came in the mail. Once you have a credit history you're going to get offers in the mail unless you opt-out.

Getting a charge card (which is not the same as a credit card) may be an option too, not sure on that one.

>The question is not about your credit score but about getting the credit card to begin with. Once you get the card they assign you a credit score but in order to get it you have to start building debt (and as a foreigner I had to do that with my own money)

False, you don't have to have any debt to get a credit score. Having credit available to you you don't use is enough.

First you say

>You are asked about assets, income etc. but those things have very little effect on whether you get a credit card or not.

Then you say:

>I wasn't talking about credit history but about history as in, a customer in a bank for years. These are also factors for how easy/hard things like this is.... There is a difference between being a US citizen having had bank account most of your life and then being a foreigner who just got yours.

Those things are mutually exclusive and both can't be correct.

>There are plenty of other ways to credit companies could gauge inside your economic maturity as much of your financial history have been done via debit card for more or less the same transactions that you are going to use your credit card for... You are not suddenly going to become financially irresponsible just because you get credit

This is beyond false and laughable. Nobody gives two craps about "economic maturity" they want to know "is this person likely to pay back the loan?"

>Second it's a fairly know issue that the way creditscore is established is pretty flawed.

It has its limits but are you questioning actuaries that crunch these numbers for a living? I mean, I'm assuming they have a reason and numbers and there's data to back it up and they just didn't say "lol, lets make up some shit." If they were getting bad results and losing money they'd change the algorithm.

> I live in the US so yes I have a pretty good idea of how it works.

Almost no Americans have any idea how "the system" works, its very specificity knowledge and there's tons of myths. You know how many times I've heard people say "my credit is terrible, its around 750?" 750 is an excellent score. People get credit reports confused with credit scores and all kinds of "I heard," "I assume," etc.

Yet it's possible to do this in other countries and therefore of course also possible in the US.

The very fact that things like how much you have on your savings account can affect your ability to get a credit card disproves your claims.

You might yourself be the one who have "heard" and is "assuming" things which plenty of other commenters in this thread shows.

Retail banking history is not a factor in credit scores.

If you have a very long history with a bank, however, that might factor into that bank's decision in giving you a credit card. Nothing stops banks from combining credit score data with other sources.

As a personal anecdote, I avoided credit cards until age 31, but had a bank account with Wells Fargo since I was 16. Because I had no history, almost no one wanted to give me a card despite my high provable income. I got my first credit card with capital one (for a hilarious 300 dollar limit).

But two months later after I became a known credit card user I started getting credit card offers in the mail from a variety of sources -- Wells Fargo offered me considerably more credit than the others, presumably because some system of theirs thought I was more trustworthy (long-standing account history? Actual visible income in the bank account?) They even offered me a rewards card even though I only had 1 month of history.

I am well aware of that and I never claimed it did. I wasn't talking about credit history but about history as in, a customer in a bank for years. These are also factors for how easy/hard things like this is.

Having a history with a bank has no impact whatsoever on your credit report.

This has nothing to do with your credit report or your credit history.

This has to do with your chance of getting a credit card to begin with. There is a difference between being a US citizen having had bank account most of your life and then being a foreigner who just got yours.

Not sure why you keep insisting I am saying something else than I am.

Because you're not being at all clear and you're still incorrect.