Credit gets on your report because some, but not all, creditors report it.  First the creditors set up an account with the one, two or all three credit reporting agencies and begin a reporting process.   That’s actually quite the loaded statement because it’s a little bit more complicated that that.  Not every creditor can set up an account.  Typically it takes a minimum of 500 accounts to report to a credit bureau.  Many companies don’t have that many accounts to report.  Next, it costs to report to the credit bureaus.  Just because a company may have the 500 required to have the reporting, it doesn’t mean that they will report due to the costs involved.  Most major companies do report to the credit bureaus including store credit cards, mortgages, car loans, student loans, among others.  Items that typically do not report to the credit bureaus are electric, gas and telephone company payments, rent, cable TV service, and small creditors such as local car small car lots.  However, if payments aren’t made to these creditors, they usually go on the credit report as a collection account.  Once an account is set up, then a credit begins reporting to the credit bureau.  The creditors may report daily, monthly, quarterly, yearly or once, usually when an account is paid off.  If you are trying to rebuild your credit, it’s important to know if your creditor reports to the credit bureau and how often they report.  If their reporting is not at least monthly, search for someone that does report monthly.  The more often a creditor reports the more your credit builds depth, which if your payments are on time, will raise your credit score.