Insufficient Credit History

Sometimes you may be denied credit, simply because your credit report contains too little information about your record of paying off past loans and handling debt. This may occur if you are young, or if for any other reason your have no or only a short credit history.

If this happens, make sure that your credit file reflects all your credit accounts. Certain accounts, such as some department store credit cards, along with travel and gasoline cards are typically not included. If you are denied credit because of an "insufficient credit file," you can ask the credit reporting companies to add these credit accounts to your file, so they become part of your credit history. You may be required to pay a fee for this service.