Tag: credit cards

What Is Your Credit Score When You Turn 18?

Here’s something that surprises a lot of people: turning 18 doesn’t give you a credit score. You don’t start at 300, you don’t start at 500, you don’t start at zero — you don’t have a score at all. FICO needs at least one account that’s been open for at least six months before it can generate a score. If you’ve never been on a credit account, your file is blank. Lenders who pull your credit will see a thin file or a “no score” result.

what is your credit score when you turn 18

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A new tradeline has been opened: what it means

If you bought an authorized user tradeline and then got an alert from Credit Karma or your bank’s credit monitoring saying “a new tradeline has been opened,” that’s the notification you were waiting for. It means the tradeline posted. Here’s what it actually means for your credit — and a couple of things worth checking when you see it.

a new tradeline has been opened

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If one credit bureau removes an item, do the others have to?

Short answer: no. If one credit bureau removes a negative item from your report, the others have no obligation to do the same. Each bureau operates independently — a successful dispute with Experian doesn’t automatically trigger anything at Equifax or TransUnion. You have to file separately with each one. I’ll explain why, and what that means in practice.

if one credit bureau removes do the others have to

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Medical bill statute of limitations: what to know

Somebody asked me once if buying a tradeline would fix a medical collection that had tanked their credit score. I told them probably not — not in the way they were hoping. But I also told them to look into whether the statute of limitations on that debt had already expired, because that changes what their options actually are. That question comes up more than you’d think, so here’s what the medical bill statute of limitations actually means.

medical bill statute of limitations

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How often does Credit Karma update? What to actually know

Buyers ask me this more than you’d expect — usually right after they’ve added a tradeline and are watching Credit Karma every day waiting for the number to move. So let me answer the actual question and then explain the part that matters more: what Credit Karma’s score is, and when to trust it.

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