What credit score do you start with?

No one starts with a specific credit score. But you won’t start with a score of zero. You simply won’t have a score at all until you’ve had a credit account open for around six months. 

Once you have credit history established, your credit scores can be calculated when a lender or another entity requests them to determine your creditworthiness. And your initial credit scores will fall somewhere within the standard range of 300 to 850.

Learn more about when and how credit building starts and why using credit responsibly is important from day one.

What you’ll learn:

• To establish credit, you’ll first need access to a credit card or other type of credit account.

• It can take around six months to become scorable, but the timing can vary by credit-scoring company.

• Credit scores are calculated based on factors such as payment history, current debt, credit utilization, credit mix, credit age and new credit applications.

• Once credit is established, credit scores typically range from 300 to 850.

A person’s credit history often starts when taking out their first credit card or other line of credit. From there, it typically takes some time—about six months—for credit bureaus to gather enough information for credit-scoring companies to determine your starting credit score. But the exact amount of time it takes to get your first credit score depends on the credit-scoring company and the credit-scoring model it uses.

Most people likely won’t have credit reports or scores before turning 18—or even 21. That’s because of laws that determine when a person can get loans or credit cards of their own.

But if a trusted family member or friend adds you as an authorized user, it could help you establish credit earlier if the account is used responsibly.

According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), here are some factors that have a direct impact on your credit scores:

• Payment history: Your payment history indicates how well you’ve made payments on time. 

• Debt: This refers to how much current unpaid debt you have across all your accounts.

• Credit utilization: This is the ratio that reflects how much of your available credit you’re using compared with how much you have available. Credit utilization is usually expressed as a percentage.

• Credit mix: Your credit mix refers to how many and what kinds of loans you have, such as revolving credit accounts and installment loans. 

• Credit age: This represents how long your accounts have been open. 

• New credit applications: This reflects how many times you’ve recently applied for new credit. The effect of a single application might be minor. But a lot of new applications, each of which triggers a hard credit inquiry, could give a negative impression to lenders.

The way these factors affect your scores depends on the credit-scoring model, a mathematical formula used by the company calculating your score. A model might use information from a combination of different credit reports or from just one report. Then, each credit-scoring model might assign different levels of importance to that information.

FICO and VantageScore are the two credit-scoring companies that provide some of the most commonly used credit scores. Scores from both companies range from 300 to 850. Your credit scores will initially start somewhere within that range.

Here’s how FICO categorizes its scores:

• Exceptional: 800+
• Very good: 740-799
• Good: 670-739
• Fair: 580-669
• Poor: Less than 580

Here’s how VantageScore categorizes its scores:

• Superprime: 781-850
• Prime: 661-780
• Near prime: 601-660
• Subprime: 300-600

Building credit is a process. But there are certain things you can do to establish and build credit for the first time. Here are a few options:

• Apply for a credit card and use it responsibly. A secured credit card involves giving a refundable deposit to the credit card issuer—it’s a common type of credit card for those with no previous credit history. You might even be eligible for an unsecured card. See if you’re approved with 100% certainty—with no impact on your credit scores.

• Become an authorized user. If a trusted family member or friend has good credit, you could ask them to add you to their account as an authorized user. This would allow you to make purchases, but the primary cardholder is ultimately responsible for all the charges made on the account. Keep in mind that things like late payments can hurt both users’ credit scores. 

• Take out a credit-builder loan. Credit-builder loans allow you to build your credit history. The lender deposits the loan amount in a locked savings account, and you make set payments over a fixed amount of time to pay it back. Payments are reported to credit bureaus to help you establish credit. And once the loan is paid off, you get the money back.

After you have access to an account, the key is learning how to use credit responsibly to help build the best score possible. This means practicing good credit habits like making on-time payments, keeping balances low and only applying for credit you really need.

You can get free copies of your credit reports from all three major credit bureaus—Equifax®, Experian® and TransUnion®—by visiting AnnualCreditReport.com.

CreditWise lets you monitor your credit report and credit score for free. And using it won’t hurt your credit scores.

Here are the answers to some frequently asked questions about starting credit scores:

Even if you haven’t had any type of credit before, your scores don’t start at zero. Your starting credit score will fall somewhere in the possible range of 300 to 850. As you begin your credit journey, remember there are ways to start positive financial habits right away to help you continue building better scores. 

If you’re considering applying for a credit card, compare Capital One credit cards or see if you’ll be approved today.