What has to be on a credit report to calculate a FICO score?

According to the company that created the FICO scoring formula, Fair Isaacs Corporation, there are three basic requirements that a credit report must contain to calculate a FICO score:

TIPS FOR CONSUMERS
 - It takes six months and a day for a newly opened account to be included in the FICO score.  Keep this in mind if you have a major loan planned in the near future and need to have some positive, open accounts (trade lines in the mortgage world) to qualify.

- Keep your open accounts active so they continue to be reported to the credit bureaus and included on your credit reports.  This article on Credit Tips has more information on using credit cards as credit building tools. 

- Check your own credit reports regularly to catch and correct any errors.  Someone else's information can end up in your credit file and it probably won't help your score.  If your information gets mixed with a deceased credit file and it is not caught and addressed, it can cause a domino affect of financial headaches.  Take the time to schedule regular credit checkups to improve your financial fitness.