Strange credit report problem

[Bobert]

Hi all - After many years of pretty marginal living, I'm finally in a position where I can start dealing with things like my credit and thinking about things like buying a house. I know that I have plenty of bills that have been sent to collections in the past, most paid off. Because I knew how poorly I managed my own money I haven't had a credit card since 1995 - it's all been debit cards since then.

Dreading it, I finally went about trying to get my credit reports. However at both Experian and Equifax I was unable to obtain one. The person I spoke to at Equifax said she was unable to pull any information on me, and the automated response from Experian said the same.

Any idea what is going on? Where is my information, rotten though it might be?

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

[chane]

You will probably have to send them a letter with a copy of your social security card and drivers license and/or utility bill with your current address on it.

[Bobert]

Thanks for the reply. It turns out that since I've been only using cash for the last 15 years I have nothing that could generate a FICO score. I used annualcreditreport.com to pull my reports from the big 3 and found only two very minor ($59 and $29) unpaid utility bills that I must have missed since I move every couple of years. I will try to do a pay for deletion with both of them and then figure out what to do next. I guess I'm now in the position of having no credit so am considering starting with a "no credit" credit card and taking it carefully from there.