[chimeracoder]

> This is not true. For example, when I first moved to the US, I was unable to get a "real" credit card, much less a car or home loan.

Yes, that's not because you had a bad credit score, but because lenders in the US are more conservative and are generally unwilling to lend money to a person who doesn't have a good credit score. This applies especially to people who aren't citizens, even if they have legal residence and work authorization. You didn't have a good credit score - or any score at all. That doesn't mean you had a bad rating. If you'd had a bad score, it would have been much worse that what you describe.

The original statement was that "if you have never taken any loans, you will never have a bad rating". This is true in both the Netherlands and the US (barring cases of fraud and identity theft, which occur in both countries).