What is a starting credit score?

When you check your credit scores for the first time, you might be surprised to find a three-digit number, even if you’ve never used credit before. That’s because your credit score doesn’t start at zero. In fact, the lowest possible score from FICO® and VantageScore® is 300.

But unless you’ve had some recent trouble with on-time payments or high spending, your score likely won’t be that low. Read on to learn more about where your score starts and why using credit responsibly is important from day one.

Key takeaways

• There isn’t a set credit score that each person starts out with. Instead, if you don’t have any credit history, you likely don’t have a score at all.

• Credit scores are calculated by taking into account a few factors like 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.

Since everyone’s credit journey is different, there’s no one standard credit score everyone starts with. And you can have different credit scores depending on the credit-scoring model—either FICO or VantageScore.

You won’t start with a score of zero, though. You simply won’t have a score at all. That’s because your credit scores aren’t calculated until a lender or another entity requests them to determine your creditworthiness. 

The key, and more important question, is how to establish credit and use your credit responsibly to help build the best score possible.

There are some factors that have a direct impact on your credit scores. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), here are a few that can influence your 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: It represents how long your accounts have been open. But remember, what qualifies as your oldest line of credit depends on what’s shown in your credit reports.

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

How exactly these factors affect your scores depends on the credit-scoring model—a mathematical formula used by a credit bureau—and the company doing the scoring. 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.

Here’s how FICO categorizes its scores:

• Exceptional: 800+

• Very good: 740-799

• Good: 670-739

• Fair: 580-669

• Poor: Less than 580

And here’s how VantageScore categorizes its scores:

• Excellent: 781-850

• Good: 661-780

• Fair: 601-660

• Poor: 500-600

• Very poor: 300-499

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. But that’s only if the account is used responsibly.

Building credit is a process. But that doesn’t mean you’re totally out of luck if you’re just starting to establish credit and considered credit invisible. There are certain things you can do to build credit for the first time:

If you don’t have a credit history, you might want to consider applying for a secured credit card. Secured means you give a security deposit to the credit card issuer in order to open an account. And building your credit through the responsible use of a secured card can make you a better candidate for things like mortgages, car loans and even other credit cards.

If a trusted family member or friend has good credit, you could ask them to add you to their account as an authorized user. Becoming an authorized user allows 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 the credit scores of you both.

Credit unions may offer credit-builder loans that allow you to build your credit history. The lender deposits the loan amount in a locked savings account, and you make small payments over a fixed period to pay it back. Payments are reported to credit agencies to help you establish credit. And once the loan is paid off, you get access to the money in the savings account.

In short, yes. But to establish a credit score, you’ll still need to have a line of credit or loan associated with your name. There are different types of credit: revolving, installment and open.

A credit card is an example of a revolving credit account. But you can build credit with any other type of account that reports activity to the credit bureaus. Here are a few examples of other types of credit accounts that can become part of your credit history:

• Other revolving lines of credit like a home equity line of credit or personal line of credit

• Installment loans like a mortgage, car loan, personal loan or student loan

• Open credit accounts that report credit activity like charge cards or private or local government service companies

You can get free copies of your credit reports from all three major credit bureaus—Equifax®, Experian® and TransUnion®. Call 877-322-8228 or visit AnnualCreditReport.com to learn more. Keep in mind that there may be a limit on how often you can get your reports. You can check the site for more details.

Consider monitoring your credit to see how your most recently reported balance impacts your scores. CreditWise from Capital One is a free tool that lets you monitor your VantageScore 3.0 credit score. Using CreditWise to monitor your credit won’t hurt your score. And it’s free for everyone—not just Capital One account holders.

Here are 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. You’ll likely start somewhere in the middle, and then you can start building your credit from there.

As you begin your credit journey, remember there are ways to start positive financial habits right away to help you continue building better scores. And if you’re considering applying for a credit card, compare Capital One credit cards or see if you’re pre-approved today.