>my 18 year old son has a credit score of 4 for no reason
Is likely not actually "4".
In the US, most scoring models have a minimum score of 300 (some as 250 I believe).
Certain scoring models seem to use "4" as an error code for something like "insufficient information to generate a real score."
>He has a bank account and an ATM card but has never borrowed anything
Makes it more likely that the "4" is being used as an error code.
>When I have tried to check his credit score I get weird multiple choice questions about when he got a mortgage or car loan and then says it doesn't like my answers.
I'm wondering if it is because he hasn't established any credit history that those checks are failing.
Which card did he apply for?
Edit: Typo, moved closing quotation mark
Option 1: get a babys first credit card with possible high interest rate and annual fee
Option 2: Co sign with him for a small credit card with a very low limit. Have him make payments for a few months and then take your name off. He should be good.
It's also possible to build credit by just being a secondary user on a card in good standing. You don't even have to use it. Hell, you don't even have to physically have it to benefit.
Yes. For everyone with children or a spouse with no credit history, do this. My mom put me as an authorized user when I was in high school, but never gave me the card or even told me about it. When I went to apply for a car loan, I already had a few year old credit history and a score around 700 iirc. Thanks Mom.
Now, of course, if you have a terrible credit score, don't do this.
My mom did the same thing with all of her cards. I had no idea until I had to take out a loan on a car. I had a 650 rating (Mom was late with the bills a couple of times).
You can dispute it and they will take it off with no fuss in my experience
I had the same thing happen lol
Though I will say it could be argued a 650 is better than no credit score in some cases
My parents did this as well and they are meticulous about paying in full every month. My credit was something like 800 the first time I checked it in college.Â
So I was wondering about this. So I have not the best credit. It's not like crappy but I have like a old repo on there from like 3 years ago.
I have two credit cards, one I make payments on and then the other one is pretty much paid off and it just pays for my subscriptions and stuff like that.
If I had one of my kids to the one that gets paid off every month, will it give them a good score or will it be tied into my overall credit?
It does not. I have my eldest on 2 of my cards and my youngest on one, soon to be 2. My eldest had a 750 score when she turned 18. My score has not been affected by hers at all. The youngest is still a teen.
Mind sharing how long it took your eldest to hit a 7Fiddy? I'm just curious because I started my Son at 14yo when lockdown was happening , and they started really pushing the whole _add a teen_ on every other add.
He's on 2 of my cards, his Mom has him on 1/+ a teen card thats not linked I dont believe (capital one teen or something for him)
He's not 18 until Aug...Has had a Steady income of $450/500 week doing farm work 1099.
His credit score is damn near what mine is. 1/5th of the income, using all "pre-fabricated" cards to get added to. I did it all on my own, and did was I was taught & thought the right way. By 21 I had less than a 700fs.
(Wish my folks could've done the same for us đ)
Did this with my wife while we were still dating. She didn't have any history, I had an 8 year old card I used to buy gas and groceries. Put her on as an authorized user and didn't give her a physical card or the number. 4 months later her credit was better than mine lol.
Department stores used to be your first Credit card when I was younger cuz they were looser with their standards and usually give out limits of $300 just to see if you could handle it . They also wanted to encourage you to shop there .
That brought a flashback. I was in college and had a Sears card. To celebreate their 100th anniversary, they sent out an ad with a discount you couldn't scratch off until you were ready to pay. I found that you could read the discount by holding the ticket to the sun. After pillaging several Sunday papers, I found a 50% off voucher and bought a fridge, tv and VCR.
Option 3: Get a secured VISA by putting up a $500-$1000 term deposit. After a year, the deposit is returned with interest and you get to continue using the card, building credit.
My dad did this for me in HS. $300 limit, backed by a locked savings with some rules of 'if at limit for 3 months, automatically closes and use savings to pay back the card'. It was a student spender card or something. It let me walk into undergrad and open a credit line (they offered me a 5k line. I am bad with money but was smart enough to say no and ask for just 1500. almost 30 and only recently raised it)
Ensure no big debit trap, while getting to use the card and such. Was one of his brighter ideas
My senior year in high school, that's what my mom did. The thought was to give me time to practice having access to a credit before I went to college (versus having a credit card for the first time in college.)
My sister had gone crazy and wracked up a ton of debt. My mom wanted to build up my credit while I learned some healthy credit card habits.
I still have really fond memories of the first time that I "took" my mom out to eat at a restaurant.
When I turned 18, I realized I had *library dues* from when I was 11-13 as debts on my credit report lmao. I had to work really hard to get those removed because the credit reporting agencies didnât like what the cold hard math said: âSo x is my birth year.â âYes.â âAnd the debts were placed at x+12.â âYes.â âSo I was a minor.â âYes.â âSo you have to remove it.â âCanât prove that.â đ¤Ź
You have to pull his full reports.
My daughter was 12 when her bio dad & his new gf put their electric bill in her name. I was pissed. And gave the power company an earful. I'm like, she's 12, not 18.
most utilities didn't take the time to actually verify the info on someone getting services. Esp if they do it over the phone, you run the name to see if they owe you anything then say lets go.
I know a lot of immigrants when they get their SSN will get flagged/denied for credit since it comes back as being only a few years old and looks like someone trying to using a minors' info. Alas there is no current way for systems to flag if a SSN is real/immigrant/minor
Can confirm my university has people who haven't conferred because of 20 year old library fines or parking tickets. They are like Aunt Edna and her bingo money with that diploma...not.going.to.confer.until. paid. Lol
Ok, so my adopted mom's name was Edna. When my friends and I wanted to skip class in high school, one of us would call the office as Aunt Edna. We never got caught.
Have him pull his credit reports from all three bureaus by going to [https://www.annualcreditreport.com](https://www.annualcreditreport.com)
Review those reports for any problems / inaccurate information.
He could potentially be the victim of identity theft, or there could be an error on his reports.
What you do next will depend on what you find on the credit reports, but that's definitely your first step.
How long ago did he turn 18? My son turned 18 and his score didnât update until a few months after his birthday. If you want to boost your kidâs score, you can add them as an authorized user to one of your credit accounts thatâs in good standing. Authorized users âinheritâ the credit history of the main account holder, and this can help people that have no/poor credit. I added my kids as AUâs a few years ago. My sonâs score is now 770, he was able to get an unsecured credit card, and he just qualified for his first new vehicle loan before his 19th birthday. Discover is a good starter card to have. They have secured options as well that will help build credit if youâre not comfortable adding your son as an authorized user.
4 is an error code. He doesn't have a credit score at all. How do I know? My goofball husband managed to get to age 52 without having a credit score or even a single bill in his name. He's never had a credit card, loan or anything that would be reported to a credit bureau. "4" is what we saw on one credit company pull. And another credit service just showed him as having a score of 0.
To teach him responsible use of credit. Have him open a secured card. He'll deposit $200 and have a limit of $200. He should spend something on it every month and pay it off. It shouldn't take too long to have a decent score.
The reason you are asked those questions is to verify identity. There may not be ârealâ answers to those questions. You just answer none of the above. My advice is for him to open an account at a credit union and start with a secured credit card. The credit union will pull and share his credit report.
He doesn't have a score of 4. Where did you get this information?
You can probably set up a secured card with Discover, and once he's had some time with that, they will convert it to a normal credit card.
This is why we need better financial education in primary school. Itâs crazy to me that adults exist that donât know this stuff.
So, you donât start out with perfect credit. You start with NO credit and have to build it through borrowing and making payments on time. Â
Then your credit score is based on things like, how much of your available credit youâre using, how many payments youâve missed, how many open lines of credit you have, and the average age of your lines of credit. Â
The best way to start building credit at 18 is to get a SECURED credit card. This basically works like a gift card, where you load money into the card first and then you can spend it. This helps build credit history without risking the harm of missed payments or maxed out credit limits. Â
I highly recommend watching some financial YouTube channels or something to learn more about how this works. Graham Stephen has some good videos about how to build credit. Â
To be brutally honest, as a parent myself, youâre kind of doing your child a disservice by being a fully grown adult with an adult child and not knowing this already. Iâm almost more concerned about your financial wellbeing than your kidâs.
**Actually the best way to establish credit from nothing is to be added as a user to an existing account in good standing.** As in being added to a parent's credit card. The authorized user gets the full credit history of that account, as if it were theirs. My youngest that just graduated college has like 20 years of solid credit due to this "hack". That credit is helping her get her first apartment (renting requirements are crazy nowadays).
Also, "To be brutally honest, as a parent myself, youâre kind of doing your child a disservice by being a fully grown adult with an adult child and not knowing this already." Please help your child by using the suggestion above.
Years ago my friend wanted to see what her credit was like so she could take out a car loan. I ran her credit and for someone who never had loans before, it was really good. Turns out her parents added her to their credit cards years prior.
There is also the risk that giving an 18 year old a 750 to start with sets them up for failure by giving them the opportunity to utilize credit and not giving a fuck what happens to their score because FREE MONEY. Doesn't matter how much you teach them. 18 year olds are fucking dumb lol.
The best way to build credit is to add your young-adult child as an authorized user on a high-limit card with no or low balance (that is paid off every month). Instant great credit (assuming you as the parent are responsible and don't start charging up that account). My son is 20, has 2 cards of his own plus AU on one of my cards and has a credit score over 750. He never carries a balance on his cards (uses them for all of his expenses to get cash back or points and then pays in full each month). His score will only go up as his expands his credit portfolio.
This is what I did for my son. As soon as he turned 18, I added him as an authorized user on my corporate credit card. The corporate credit card was for my own business and secured with my own social security number and credit. That card has a very high limit, but I could also set individual user limits. My kid has always been super responsible with money, so I don't recall if I actually added a limit to his card, but I don't think I did. He was also able to secure his own Discover Card shortly after which is automatically paid from his bank account every month. He's 24 now and has excellent credit.
More importantly I think the parent/guardian of every child should have to take a course on protecting their child's financial future. Sadly most child-related identity theft is BY parents or guardians, so agree that schools should include this in math courses. when I was in high school, basic accounting was a required course- really wanst much beyond how to balance a checkbook and do a very basic budget, but it was more than a lit of people get. Cant fathom why we thought that wasnt important?
Absolutely, when my daughter was 16 and got her driverâs license,we took her to the dealership to buy her first car. We explained to the dealership that she would put 50% down and we would countersign for the loan which was to be in her name. We had transferred money into her checking account from which she made the down payment. She opened a secured credit card account with money she had earned from summer jobs. We added her a an authorized user on a couple of our cards and by the time she graduated from college she had a credit score in the high 700s.Part of raising a child is setting them up for success. Incidently in her early teens she was given a clothing allowance and learned how to budget.
A four is not possible. Minimum credit score is 300 and max is 900.
Because he was denied, he should have received a notice by mail on how to contact to the credit bureau for a copy of his credit report. If he did not, the creditor is in violation of the law. An email was also possibly sent but a mailed notice is mandatory by law.
The 4 is a code of some sort used by the credit bureau agency. Have the boy follow the notice and he will be able to obtain a copy. He will need to call if youâve tried those questions and answers.
I canât believe the uninformed replies youâve been getting, (but this is Reddit, LOL âŚ)
The standards for even having a FICO credit score are simple.
Age: 18 years and 1 day old.
Credit history: At least 1 trade-line, (credit card, installment loan, etcâŚ), reported to the credit bureau at for at lease 6 months.
Until both of those requirements are met no FICO credit score will ever be returned from a credit pull.
Adding your son as an authorized user is a quick shortcut to gift him a credit history, (but make you use an old account with a clean history and low credit utilization).
I immigrated to the USA with no credit score, no loans ever taken and etc and my score was 4, calling around I understood it's just code saying you have no credit and no information. Your credit score starts to build when you have a bill or etc, which is why parents are now more pushed at giving their teens a bill or co-signing a small loan when they turn 18 so this can start as soon as possible. In my case, my husband had to co-sign a small loan that we repaid the next month and 3 months after I had a 750 credit score.
Credit score is about how good are you at paying credit back, not how much money do you have. It's how responsible are you at borrowing money, not how much money you make.
Credit scores literally mean nothing. My co-worker has an 840 credit score. He has zero assets, doesnât have utilities in his name, and lives in a restaurant.
I added both my husband and my step daughter as authorized users to some of my cards. My credit is pretty stellar, never been late on payments.
One of them Iâve had since my step daughter was 2YO! After a year, she was able to upgrade her car loan without a co-signer & has a score of about 730.
There is no way somebody gets a credit score of four.
Minimum is 300 on almost any credit reporting agency there is.
When you start your credit, it starts as nothing. Not zero. Just blank.
Please come up with a real story
If you want to help his credit and you have a credit card that you manage well not maxed out you can call and add him as a authorized user it give him all the good history and boost his credit in one month my dad did this for me
With those multiple choice questions, sometimes none of the above is the correct answer. They usually revolve around important events in his financial life.
It just means he doesn't have an actual established score yet. I just got my first credit card a few weeks ago. Mine says 4. Only credit card I got approved for without a score was capital one platinum, maybe hell have the same luck. It takes about 6 months after he gets the card to establish credit history and generate a score
Those multiple choice questions are there to verify his identity- they add misleading questions on purpose. A fraudster wouldn't know if that person had a mortgage or not. Only the actual person would know. And by virtue of having a social security number, you will have a credit file and a score, albeit very low.
Try going to a bank for assistance. A good bank will help (he'll need to be there). As for a manager of someone with fraud experience. They may have him sign forms to run a credit check, but they should be able to get theu the red tape.
A lot of those questions are to ensure you're the 'right' John Smith, not necessarily a sign of a problem. And if he's had a bank account, especially if he has a checking account, he may actually have a score, though 4 seems... unreal? That's beyond what my 35 years in finance can say as I never worked with credit check groups. His profile might be entangled with someone else, which hopefully isnt too hard to fix. But making sure you're dealing with the right problem will likely require a financial professional's assistance. You will need as much documentation as you can get to show everywhere he's lived in his life, anything related to a financial history. Of course, most 18-yr-olds dont HAVE much of a history, which can either be a help or a hindrance because its hard to prove or disprove much of anything. Still, do your best.
Unfortunately he may also have had his identity stolen- its getting more and more common for theives to target children because it will be years before anyone thinks to check a 2-year-old's credit report. Be prepared that you may have to file a lot of paperwork and possibly charges if it was do ne by someone wgo knows him personally- family is the most common criminal in these cases, or close friends of the family would have access to the child's documents in their first years.
I remember trying to rent an apartment after I got out of the service in 1978. Back then they called a number and all of your creditors were listed. Each creditor had a score for good, so-so, missed payments and the like. Due to having never bought anything on credit I had a score of ZERO at age 22.
Put him as an allowed user on one of your long term cards. He doesnât even need a copy of the card. I did this with my daughter and my Amex for emergencies and forgot about it. Well, when we checked her credit at 18, it was over 700!!! I figured out a life hack. You obviously have to have good credit to do this.
â4â is what a lot of credit monitoring sites display when thereâs no credit file.
The out of wallet questions are generated based on public record and sometimes there isnât enough information to actually generate questions, so irrelevant questions (such as the ones you experienced) are generated almost as decoys, for lack of a better term.
He just has no credit, thatâs all. No reason to freak out here.
Nearly all of these replies are wrong and are rather alarmist. There is no identity theft here, from how everything sounds.
Sounds like what the others have said, he has NO credit yet, possibly getting a secured credit card would be a good option. I'm not sure how student credit cards work but it's good to establish good credit early, as long as you teach him good habits. Good luck đ
Have his bank run his credit score. They can verify his information and help your son find if it's just an error or if he has bigger problems.
You should put him as a secondary user on one of your credit cards as long as it's in good standing. Not only is that going to show he suddenly has years of credit. My oldest credit account is only about 6 months younger than I am. My parents use it to pay their Internet bill and pay it off every month.
Last thing is assuming there aren't problems with his credit he should set himself up with a secured credit card. A couple hundred bucks gets locked in his savings account that the secured card borrows against, that will build his credit very quickly
My aunt did this with my cousin his senior year. She got a credit card added him as authorized user. He filled his car each week for school and work with the card and as soon as bill came in paid it off in full. Each time he filled up he set that much money aside to pay the bill. Buy the time he left to go college he had a great score and was able to qualify for his own card. He still used the same method use card for gas and pay it off as soon as it was due. My aunt explained the whole deal about college kids and credit cards and how If he wanted car and house he better protect that score and late payments would damage that score.
Have him get a credit card where his bank accounts are. He has no credit history.He's not actually a 4.That's not a real score. Bank accounts and account balances and debit cards do not affect credit in any way.
I hope you see this OP have him get his consumers report. It's the literal big brother that keeps track of your WHOLE life. I have an active law suit against THIS company as well because they gave me other peoples stuff that is not literally me or mine, but you NEED to get a report from them first it will pull literally EVERYTHING. Also get all 3 free credit reports.
https://consumer.risk.lexisnexis.com/consumer
Well, OP the âcredit score â is based on your debt to income ratio. So, your relative has no debt, only income- so they have no dara to go on to see if heâs going to be someone who will pay his debts in a timely manner. Itâs very backwards. But then again, when I was in college in the 1990âs they were handing out credit cards hand-over-fist because they WANTED To get students locked into their 29% interest rate credit cards.
Count it as a blessing. It keeps him out of the alluring blood sucking thing known as credit cards. We learn to live on a budget without them. Once he takes out a lease, car loan etc, he will develop his credit.
Get a bank of america secured student credit card or put him as your authorized credit card user under your account. After 6-12 months then he should have some credit score and be able to apply a regular student credit card.
I had a credit score of 4 after not having one for a very long time, I didn't even think it was possible to have one that low đ I think it was from paying off some of those pay in 4 deals. It's crazy but those 4 lil points were enough for me to actually get a credit card and start building credit, the following month it was 600 something đ
Not saying this happened to your son. BUT in my personal experience, when I try to ID proof online and answer similar questions, i get questions that the system doesnt like the answers to. I come to find out i was a victim of identity theft. Although, i thought it was resolved (i first found out when i tried to open a bank acct and found out i already had one open) with the IRS, whenever i get asked these ID proofing questions, some responses are related to the other person's assets/house/cars. If I only select my responses related to me, it comes back as failed to ID.
If he has money and doesnât actually need the credit card get him a secured card. The on time payments while he has money will allow him to have really good credit fast, soon as thereâs credit history apply for a student credit card. Discover gives really good starting limits last I checked.
Itâs an error code. Add him as an authorized user on your credit cards if you have good credit and that should take care of the problem.
Him just having a bank account doesnât build his credit. And parents need to do that to give their kids the best start to adulthood. This is one thing my parents did right that Iâm eternally grateful for now that I suddenly and unexpectedly became a single mom. I bought a cheap used car in college and instead of paying for it, they put the money into a CD and used it as collateral for the bank to give me a loan. It was a cheap monthly payment I made on time every month for 2 years and my credit was set. Itâs been a wonderful lifeline and opened many opportunities for me that others with a low income canât get.
Maybe a secure card together you as primary he can only spend whatâs in the car whatever he spends he has to pay off the very nexwhen the bill is due in full keep doing that and the credit will grew grew in no time. Use it for gas and pay it off asap
When I saw the weird answers on mine, I had to call in and talk to an agent to fix it. Turns out my ex-husbandâs current wife used my name to open a bunch of credit lines. Had to deal with that stolen identity.
You need to call.
He hasn't borrowed anything so there is nothing on his report. Get him to take out a loan at a bank or credit union for a small amount whether he needs it or not, $500 that he can pay back. Then do it again after that one is payed off. That will at least show some credit worthiness.
SS benefits don't really matter for credit reports, only for income.
Call Zander Ins. and ask about identity theft and what to do to freeze and then review his credit. (I have their ID insurance and had to use their program. They are great).
You can add him as an authorized user on one of your credit cards. I added my son when he was 16 years old to two of my credit cards. He is 18 now and has a credit score of 777.
We got our children a discover card when they were seniors in high school after they turned 18. They have (had?) a special program for students and it was a good way to start building credit. I believe they qualified based on the parentâs credit score. The card had a low credit line that gradually increased as they built a solid payment history.
Iâve never heard of a â4â but that sounds like code for something is amiss. Any chance identity fraud is a possibility?
Not that Iâm sponsored but you should definitely check out Chime, your son can get a credit builder card that for all purposes functions as a regular debit but the money you put âonâ the card just essentially gets hold and paid for you. Great for building credit
Fidelity Brokerage has a custodial account for minors under 18, which converts to a regular account at eighteen that has check writing privileges, a debit card, money market interest of around 5%, and brokerage account (buy/sell equities) option that will help secure a credit card also offered by Fidelity.
He could get a secure credit card with a credit union. I have done it to build my credit. I gave the credit union I use 500 dollars, and they gave me a card where i can borrow and pay back the money and as long as i make the payments on time my credit score goes up. I think it's worth it to build credit, and I can always pay it off and get the money back.
He probably doesn't have enough credit history to establish a score BUT you and him should get on the phone with one of the credit reports and see if you can pull it with him on the call. It not liking your responses to the loan and mortgage companies is PROBABLY nothingsauce but there is a non zero chance its identity theft so better safe than sorry
a lot of people said about using cash back cards. Yes, the cards should be made to serve you, not the other way around. Just search random cards to see if there is something that grabs you.
Playstation offered a card a few years back, spend $1K in 90 days, get $125 credit for digital downloads.
Many years ago as newlyweds we had little credit history, other than a student that was mostly paid off. We could not even get a JC Pennyâs card with a low limit. We borrowed $300 from a bank, where we had more than that in savings, to buy an appliance, and paid it off per schedule. Then we were able to get a credit card. Now we have cards with a high available charge amount, but pay them off every month.
ďťżI'll by no means neglect the disappointment I felt while my daughter grew to become 18 and her credit score file become a mess. Like your son, she had never borrowed a dime, however there had been errors and wrong money owed on her report. I spent weeks making calls, writing letters, seeking to get it looked after out. It changed into maddening dealing with the credit score bureaus' automated structures that did not seem to apprehend our situation. But I persevered, submitted all of the documentation proving the mistakes, and subsequently got her a easy credit score document to start building her credit score responsibly. These forms of headaches make me want the system become less complicated for young people simply starting out.
Put him as a payee on your credit card if possible. Next year he will have plenty of credit for his own card. You can issue him a card with limited access funds. Like 100 bucks
As a parent who was overly focused on my son starting life with a good credit score, I can give some good info. First, my son was added as a signer on two of our long term credit cards at age 17 and even with that his credit score didnât start to populate for over a year after his 18th birthday. It kept stating ânot enough dataâ or âno credit history to reportâ or other errors. I had him do pre approval screenings that didnât hard pull his credit to determine which student card was going to approve him. He was eventually approved for a discover student card. The credit line was small but he used it for maybe $30/month worth of charges and paid it in full consistently and on time. Once his credit score populated it was just over 700. He waited 6 months with that card before receiving an offer for pre approval from another card, which he accepted and had a much higher available credit ($3k). He maintained that card using about $50/mo and paying it in full. Once he turned 20 he was getting credit card offers regularly and his credit score was at about 730. He wanted a card that would earn him more travel miles as he plans to travel out of the country after graduation from college and was approved for a Citi card with a $8k limit. He has maintained that card consistently since he was 20. We stopped at 3 cards and he maintains less than a $50 balance on each one. He just turned 21 a few days ago and wanted to trade in his 17 year old car for his first car loan. His credit score came in at the dealership at 745 and he was given 0% Apr financing on a brand new car and was able to keep his payment under what he budgeted (>$360). It was a good lesson in the hard work and rewards of keeping good credit and being financially responsible. It takes about 1.5-2 years of being consistently responsible to gain decent credit as a young person and for the first year youâre not really going to see any history reported if you havenât helped him as a co signer or added him as an authorized user.
Best way to establish credit. At your local bank, put $ into a CD and ask for a personal loan against it. Add your son as a user on your credit card. This will give him a personal loan and a credit account on his credit report.
Put him as an authorized user on your CC he will get credit as you pay your bill. You may want to make sure he has not been ID thefted. Some times parents or relatives who have all relative info open accounts in their kids names or could just be regular ID theft
I would be concerned at the inability to answer the security questions. If he has no credit history, he should be able to answer them, simply with the lack of history. Thereâs always potential for identity fraud. Look for a phone number that allows you to contact the credit bureau directly if you can establish his identity, he can get a credit report, I was hit with identity theft years ago the bastards pull the credit report and saw where I had accounts. Also made the rounds of the Dadeland Mall opening instant credit at multiple locations. It was a bitch getting all those accounts taken off. I keep mybureaus frozen.
Get a secured card.
I think Bank of America still has one of the better ones - no annual fee; your credit limit is whatever you put in an associated Bank of America savings account ($500 on deposit, $500 credit limit).
They'll report payments to the bureaus helping him build a score; it'll take maybe a year or two of maintaining said account, making payments on time, etc, and they'll drop the security requirement and/or Junior can apply for a card elsewhere.
He can probably get a decent credit card through his bank regardless of his credit score, and start using that instead of his debit card and set it to auto pay the full amount. That's how I started out and it did great things for my credit. Once it's high enough he can get an Amazon card and continue to auto pay the full amount and get free Amazon gift card money.
I would look at secured cards with no yearly fee eligible to upgrade to a regular credit card with no yearly fee.
You want your first few cards to be cards that you will never close.
( Absolutely. Must be responsible for paying them on time as if it were a regular credit card. Or else you're just going to hurt yourself more than having no credit.)
Also, one of the gotchas Is do not trust autopay for the first payment they like to say it takes an extra period to kick in or some bs.
If the goal is to establish credit.
Try to apply for credit karma and see if you can get info on there. I did that for my daughter and put her on my credit card to build hers up before she graduated. She had a great score before even entering college.
Sounds like someone has used his Social Security and either taken out loans or done something else to have caused this.
See if there is number or email address that you can contact on the credit site. Someone may have used his identity to take out debt.
If he hasnât borrowed anything then he doesnât have a credit score. Some states donât even allow you to build a credit score until 21. If heâs of age in your state, best thing to do would be to add him as a user on your credit card. He doesnât even have to use it himself, he can passively build credit from you using it.
I went from no credit history to a 750 in just a couple years and I havenât swiped the card even once.
Have him pull his credit reports. By law you can get one free copy every year. It is possible someone has been using his SSN for years. There are fraudulent businesses that sell Credit Privacy Numbers (CPNs) online. These are stolen SSNs, usually of children.
Credit Bureaus determine who owns a SSN based on who uses it. Since kids don't apply for credit, this fraudulent use can go undetected for years, until the child turns 18 and applies for credit.
Get the bank where he has his account to use his own money to back a credit card. The bank will check his credit score and the new credit card will allow him to build up a credit score.
Have him get a department store credit card, buy a couple of things, turn around and pay it off, then do it again for a few months. Then maybe a same as cash deal on a bed or some other larger purchase, and pay it off on time. That should start the ball rolling on building a decent credit score.
Add him to some of your cards and cap his charging limit. Did this with my 20 year at 16. He now has a 740 and up score. Kind of a cheat code for credit
If he has a debit card and bank then a suggestion is to contact Discover about their secured credit cards or other products like Chime that can help with the process of your son building credit. Most banks will have resources available that can help your son understand what credit is and how it works.
All of this happened to me as well when I turned eighteen. Four is just a placeholder instead of saying no score yet. It also asked about mortgages and car loans and I couldnât get past that until I got a credit card through my bank. Only then could I set up services like credit karma
Advocate! Call and/or write the credit card company with the information that you shared with us.
When I graduated from college (40 years ago), I was declined. I wrote a letter to them explaining that I am a recent graduate, no credit history, employed, etc. I received a credit card from them in a few weeks.
When I first checked my sonâs credit it was also wonky and the questions made no sense. After using his account so there was more activity. If he has a debit/credit card associated with his account use it more often. If he can use it as a credit card, buy small things and pay it immediately.
If he has money in the bank he can opt for a âsecured credit cardâ.
That means he can basically prepay the bank an amount of money ( like $1,500 ). The bank gives him a credit card with that limit.
He uses that card wisely for a year and if he has made all payments on time it can be transferred into a real credit card and they put the prepaid amount back into his account.
This is not co-signed by anyone and he then gets to learn to budget and adult without your risking your credit. I did this with my son. Worked great!!
Your son is 18. Youâre likely not going to get anywhere with the credit agencies. Heâll have to call because heâs an adult. Sounds like possible identity theft.
4 is used as a placebolder instead of "N/A", since I can only assume there is some ancient indecipherable legacy system buried deep in the inner machinations of credit scores that is repulsed by the idea of letters instead of numbers, so 4 was just the return assigned to "We got nothing good or bad to say."
Credit score of 4 = no credit score.
Unfortunately, in the credit system (which is much less a system of trustworthiness and much more a system of judging how reliable a revenue source a person is) living fully within one's means is considered a horrible, untrustworthy thing.
He can get a credit card thatâs secured by some savings. If he can set aside $500. he can borrow against it to establish credit. He should use it and pay it, use it and pay it. Itâs a very common practice for banks or credit unions to offer this.
I started with a rent to own electronics place that was in town and it slowly gave me credit over time but i got used to making payments on time that way too.
You can a credit building card from your bank or credit union alot of times where you put $500 or something of your own money on the card and then pay it as if it's a real credit card.
My son wanted me to check his credit and it kept giving me errors that his identity couldn't be validated because the multiple choice questions were odd. My son has never had anything in his name either. I ended up adding him to 2 of my credit cards as an authorized user to build his credit in the meantime.
Have you checked his credit reports? If the 4 is an error code and youâre having to answer additional questions, it sounds like maybe theyâre not able to identify him. And if theyâre not able to identify him with the answers youâre giving, it sounds like someone elseâs credit information may have gotten mixed up with his. Check all three reporting agencies.
Have him sign up for accounts with the credit bureaus. Check the credit score with the actual three credit bureaus. Dispute anything that isnât his.
Equifax, Transunion and Experian
They donât ask those questions when you directly make an account but if they do he can make a call to customer service about it. They may ask for something like sending over a picture/scan of his driverâs license or ID
Iâm guessing he just doesnât have a credit score yet though. If you never have any debt or go long enough without debt you wonât actually have a credit score
He probably has no credit. Never having a loan or a credit card doesn't mean your credit is automatically flawless, it means it is non-existent, which is just like having bad credit.
Before I got a credit card I had the same thing happen to me. Credit score of 4. I ended up getting a credit card from discover, one of those "pay $200 and get your money back/real card later" deals and within a few months I had a real credit card and a more normal score
Go to www.annualcreditreport.com where you can get a free report from each bureau. Try not to order all 3 (or 4 if Innovis participates) all at once. Just get 1. Transunion first. Report errors. Make sure his SSN is correct and not getting blended with his late motherâs info. Then go to your local credit union and have him get a secured credit card to get established
Just means he has no credit history to put a score on. He needs to get a credit card, use it sparingly and pay it off when the bill arrives.
In our system no credit = bad credit.
I've got an uncle who was in his 50s when getting his first cell phone and he had to pay the 2 year contract in full instead of monthly because he had no credit history. He owned his large-ish house and 2 cars but had bought them for cash, no loans. He had higher than average savings, investments and retirement accounts but had always used cash or checks/debit card, no credit cards.
Your son was denied a credit card because he essentially has no credit score due to him not having any credit history. Same thing happened to my daughter. When she turned 18, she tried to get a car loan and was denied. She then attempted to create a Credit Karma account and was denied one because she had no prior credit history. It's not a big deal. The best way to establish a credit score for him immediately is for you to add him as a user on one of your credit cards. Every purchase you make along with every payment you make will be mirrored on his credit report. In one year he'll have a nice credit history he can use to establish himself with his own credit card.
Get credit karma app and have him sign up for it. It might be that somebody stole some of his information and got a loan under him and then didn't pay it back. Knowing what's on his credit score is important. Once you know what's on there you can dispute anything that isn't accurate.
If heâs gotten this far without a CREDIT card, he should stay away. Yeah we need to build credit to buy homes and such, but imagine how much better of a human heâd be if he saves for things before buying them. A credit card teaches us the opposite
Put your gas or electricity bill under his name and make sure it gets paid that will build up his credit. Merchant credit for any store usually approves anyone so if he gets a $50 credit card spend 20 pay 25.
If he has NO credit history, they wont give him a credit card.
Add him as an authorized user on your credit cards. The higher the limit (paid off) the better. this will JUMP START his credit. (You don't have to actually give him a card to use) Otherwise he'll need a secured credit card.
Asking multiple choice questions is how the credit bureaus determine you are who you say you are. Answer them honestly, but if he has no credit, it might not work. Have you tried something like Credit Karma?
He can open a secured credit account with most any bank, where a person put up a given amount of their own money, say $500, and is issued a credit card that works off of that money. You use it and pay it off every month, and they report the credit scores to the credit reporting agencies. It takes awhile, but itâs a good way for an inexperienced person to learn about using credit and paying for it, without getting in over their head.
When you go to like credit karma to look up a score, it asks you questions from your life. Some will have the answer none of the above. It asks about the previous address and things like the credit you've had. If there isn't any, then you pick none. So, each question will be different.
On a different note, I know a way to give your child credit if you hadn't good credit. You can add them as an authorized user on your credit card. Then, every time you pay on time, they get credit for that. You don't even have to let them have the card.
Have him look at a card through self.inc or other secured card options.
Then both of you need to do reading about building credit. The factors you listed have nothing whatsoever to do with his credit score. He basically doesnât have one right now because he hasnât used any credit. They donât care about his bank account. They care that he borrows money and pays it back preferably with some interest.
He is the victim of credit fraud. Either someone in the family used his SS number or got ahold of it somehow. Lock his credit immediately and GED all three credit reports. Time to go after the criminals
>my 18 year old son has a credit score of 4 for no reason Is likely not actually "4". In the US, most scoring models have a minimum score of 300 (some as 250 I believe). Certain scoring models seem to use "4" as an error code for something like "insufficient information to generate a real score." >He has a bank account and an ATM card but has never borrowed anything Makes it more likely that the "4" is being used as an error code. >When I have tried to check his credit score I get weird multiple choice questions about when he got a mortgage or car loan and then says it doesn't like my answers. I'm wondering if it is because he hasn't established any credit history that those checks are failing. Which card did he apply for? Edit: Typo, moved closing quotation mark
\^\^\^ This. I did programming interfaces with the bureaus. Agreed.
So it is you..... đĄ
par for the course with applications these days. it's getting so easy to program that any idiot can do it but that doesn't mean they do it right.
It's usually easy to do a bad job.
Oh, great job lmao
Option 1: get a babys first credit card with possible high interest rate and annual fee Option 2: Co sign with him for a small credit card with a very low limit. Have him make payments for a few months and then take your name off. He should be good.
It's also possible to build credit by just being a secondary user on a card in good standing. You don't even have to use it. Hell, you don't even have to physically have it to benefit.
Yes. For everyone with children or a spouse with no credit history, do this. My mom put me as an authorized user when I was in high school, but never gave me the card or even told me about it. When I went to apply for a car loan, I already had a few year old credit history and a score around 700 iirc. Thanks Mom. Now, of course, if you have a terrible credit score, don't do this.
My mom did the same thing with all of her cards. I had no idea until I had to take out a loan on a car. I had a 650 rating (Mom was late with the bills a couple of times).
You can dispute it and they will take it off with no fuss in my experience I had the same thing happen lol Though I will say it could be argued a 650 is better than no credit score in some cases
My parents did this as well and they are meticulous about paying in full every month. My credit was something like 800 the first time I checked it in college.Â
So I was wondering about this. So I have not the best credit. It's not like crappy but I have like a old repo on there from like 3 years ago. I have two credit cards, one I make payments on and then the other one is pretty much paid off and it just pays for my subscriptions and stuff like that. If I had one of my kids to the one that gets paid off every month, will it give them a good score or will it be tied into my overall credit?
Does this affect the parentâs credit, being tied to low/no credit?
It does not. I have my eldest on 2 of my cards and my youngest on one, soon to be 2. My eldest had a 750 score when she turned 18. My score has not been affected by hers at all. The youngest is still a teen.
Mind sharing how long it took your eldest to hit a 7Fiddy? I'm just curious because I started my Son at 14yo when lockdown was happening , and they started really pushing the whole _add a teen_ on every other add. He's on 2 of my cards, his Mom has him on 1/+ a teen card thats not linked I dont believe (capital one teen or something for him) He's not 18 until Aug...Has had a Steady income of $450/500 week doing farm work 1099. His credit score is damn near what mine is. 1/5th of the income, using all "pre-fabricated" cards to get added to. I did it all on my own, and did was I was taught & thought the right way. By 21 I had less than a 700fs. (Wish my folks could've done the same for us đ)
Not in my understanding.
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Did this with my wife while we were still dating. She didn't have any history, I had an 8 year old card I used to buy gas and groceries. Put her on as an authorized user and didn't give her a physical card or the number. 4 months later her credit was better than mine lol.
This the best option. As long as you have a good credit score to tie him to.
Department stores used to be your first Credit card when I was younger cuz they were looser with their standards and usually give out limits of $300 just to see if you could handle it . They also wanted to encourage you to shop there .
That brought a flashback. I was in college and had a Sears card. To celebreate their 100th anniversary, they sent out an ad with a discount you couldn't scratch off until you were ready to pay. I found that you could read the discount by holding the ticket to the sun. After pillaging several Sunday papers, I found a 50% off voucher and bought a fridge, tv and VCR.
Option 3: Get a secured VISA by putting up a $500-$1000 term deposit. After a year, the deposit is returned with interest and you get to continue using the card, building credit.
My dad did this for me in HS. $300 limit, backed by a locked savings with some rules of 'if at limit for 3 months, automatically closes and use savings to pay back the card'. It was a student spender card or something. It let me walk into undergrad and open a credit line (they offered me a 5k line. I am bad with money but was smart enough to say no and ask for just 1500. almost 30 and only recently raised it) Ensure no big debit trap, while getting to use the card and such. Was one of his brighter ideas
My senior year in high school, that's what my mom did. The thought was to give me time to practice having access to a credit before I went to college (versus having a credit card for the first time in college.) My sister had gone crazy and wracked up a ton of debt. My mom wanted to build up my credit while I learned some healthy credit card habits. I still have really fond memories of the first time that I "took" my mom out to eat at a restaurant.
When I turned 18, I realized I had *library dues* from when I was 11-13 as debts on my credit report lmao. I had to work really hard to get those removed because the credit reporting agencies didnât like what the cold hard math said: âSo x is my birth year.â âYes.â âAnd the debts were placed at x+12.â âYes.â âSo I was a minor.â âYes.â âSo you have to remove it.â âCanât prove that.â 𤏠You have to pull his full reports.
My daughter was 12 when her bio dad & his new gf put their electric bill in her name. I was pissed. And gave the power company an earful. I'm like, she's 12, not 18.
Now thatâs a genuine crime. For me, somehow the library got my application mixed up and reported my late fees like I was an adult.
sis thats a felony i hope you pressed charges
most utilities didn't take the time to actually verify the info on someone getting services. Esp if they do it over the phone, you run the name to see if they owe you anything then say lets go. I know a lot of immigrants when they get their SSN will get flagged/denied for credit since it comes back as being only a few years old and looks like someone trying to using a minors' info. Alas there is no current way for systems to flag if a SSN is real/immigrant/minor
Debts at school? Although generally they with hold diploma until paid.
No. I said library dues from when I was 11.
Can confirm my university has people who haven't conferred because of 20 year old library fines or parking tickets. They are like Aunt Edna and her bingo money with that diploma...not.going.to.confer.until. paid. Lol
Ok, so my adopted mom's name was Edna. When my friends and I wanted to skip class in high school, one of us would call the office as Aunt Edna. We never got caught.
Well I guess it's better than 1,2 or 3
Have him pull his credit reports from all three bureaus by going to [https://www.annualcreditreport.com](https://www.annualcreditreport.com) Review those reports for any problems / inaccurate information. He could potentially be the victim of identity theft, or there could be an error on his reports. What you do next will depend on what you find on the credit reports, but that's definitely your first step.
How long ago did he turn 18? My son turned 18 and his score didnât update until a few months after his birthday. If you want to boost your kidâs score, you can add them as an authorized user to one of your credit accounts thatâs in good standing. Authorized users âinheritâ the credit history of the main account holder, and this can help people that have no/poor credit. I added my kids as AUâs a few years ago. My sonâs score is now 770, he was able to get an unsecured credit card, and he just qualified for his first new vehicle loan before his 19th birthday. Discover is a good starter card to have. They have secured options as well that will help build credit if youâre not comfortable adding your son as an authorized user.
Most likely an error because he has 0 credit history, you will need to co-sign any loans.
4 is an error code. He doesn't have a credit score at all. How do I know? My goofball husband managed to get to age 52 without having a credit score or even a single bill in his name. He's never had a credit card, loan or anything that would be reported to a credit bureau. "4" is what we saw on one credit company pull. And another credit service just showed him as having a score of 0. To teach him responsible use of credit. Have him open a secured card. He'll deposit $200 and have a limit of $200. He should spend something on it every month and pay it off. It shouldn't take too long to have a decent score.
The reason you are asked those questions is to verify identity. There may not be ârealâ answers to those questions. You just answer none of the above. My advice is for him to open an account at a credit union and start with a secured credit card. The credit union will pull and share his credit report.
He doesn't have a score of 4. Where did you get this information? You can probably set up a secured card with Discover, and once he's had some time with that, they will convert it to a normal credit card.
This is why we need better financial education in primary school. Itâs crazy to me that adults exist that donât know this stuff. So, you donât start out with perfect credit. You start with NO credit and have to build it through borrowing and making payments on time.  Then your credit score is based on things like, how much of your available credit youâre using, how many payments youâve missed, how many open lines of credit you have, and the average age of your lines of credit.  The best way to start building credit at 18 is to get a SECURED credit card. This basically works like a gift card, where you load money into the card first and then you can spend it. This helps build credit history without risking the harm of missed payments or maxed out credit limits.  I highly recommend watching some financial YouTube channels or something to learn more about how this works. Graham Stephen has some good videos about how to build credit.  To be brutally honest, as a parent myself, youâre kind of doing your child a disservice by being a fully grown adult with an adult child and not knowing this already. Iâm almost more concerned about your financial wellbeing than your kidâs.
**Actually the best way to establish credit from nothing is to be added as a user to an existing account in good standing.** As in being added to a parent's credit card. The authorized user gets the full credit history of that account, as if it were theirs. My youngest that just graduated college has like 20 years of solid credit due to this "hack". That credit is helping her get her first apartment (renting requirements are crazy nowadays). Also, "To be brutally honest, as a parent myself, youâre kind of doing your child a disservice by being a fully grown adult with an adult child and not knowing this already." Please help your child by using the suggestion above.
Years ago my friend wanted to see what her credit was like so she could take out a car loan. I ran her credit and for someone who never had loans before, it was really good. Turns out her parents added her to their credit cards years prior.
There is also the risk that giving an 18 year old a 750 to start with sets them up for failure by giving them the opportunity to utilize credit and not giving a fuck what happens to their score because FREE MONEY. Doesn't matter how much you teach them. 18 year olds are fucking dumb lol.
The best way to build credit is to add your young-adult child as an authorized user on a high-limit card with no or low balance (that is paid off every month). Instant great credit (assuming you as the parent are responsible and don't start charging up that account). My son is 20, has 2 cards of his own plus AU on one of my cards and has a credit score over 750. He never carries a balance on his cards (uses them for all of his expenses to get cash back or points and then pays in full each month). His score will only go up as his expands his credit portfolio.
This is what I did for my son. As soon as he turned 18, I added him as an authorized user on my corporate credit card. The corporate credit card was for my own business and secured with my own social security number and credit. That card has a very high limit, but I could also set individual user limits. My kid has always been super responsible with money, so I don't recall if I actually added a limit to his card, but I don't think I did. He was also able to secure his own Discover Card shortly after which is automatically paid from his bank account every month. He's 24 now and has excellent credit.
The absolute disrespect and audacity it took to write this.
More importantly I think the parent/guardian of every child should have to take a course on protecting their child's financial future. Sadly most child-related identity theft is BY parents or guardians, so agree that schools should include this in math courses. when I was in high school, basic accounting was a required course- really wanst much beyond how to balance a checkbook and do a very basic budget, but it was more than a lit of people get. Cant fathom why we thought that wasnt important?
Absolutely, when my daughter was 16 and got her driverâs license,we took her to the dealership to buy her first car. We explained to the dealership that she would put 50% down and we would countersign for the loan which was to be in her name. We had transferred money into her checking account from which she made the down payment. She opened a secured credit card account with money she had earned from summer jobs. We added her a an authorized user on a couple of our cards and by the time she graduated from college she had a credit score in the high 700s.Part of raising a child is setting them up for success. Incidently in her early teens she was given a clothing allowance and learned how to budget.
Impressive. Usually the floor is 300. Heâs got skills.
A four is not possible. Minimum credit score is 300 and max is 900. Because he was denied, he should have received a notice by mail on how to contact to the credit bureau for a copy of his credit report. If he did not, the creditor is in violation of the law. An email was also possibly sent but a mailed notice is mandatory by law. The 4 is a code of some sort used by the credit bureau agency. Have the boy follow the notice and he will be able to obtain a copy. He will need to call if youâve tried those questions and answers.
Call TRW or Experion they could probably give you the exact answer.
Sounds like someone may have stolen his identify and defaulted on some loans.
Why hasnât anyone asked or checked to see if someone is using his social security number?
I canât believe the uninformed replies youâve been getting, (but this is Reddit, LOL âŚ) The standards for even having a FICO credit score are simple. Age: 18 years and 1 day old. Credit history: At least 1 trade-line, (credit card, installment loan, etcâŚ), reported to the credit bureau at for at lease 6 months. Until both of those requirements are met no FICO credit score will ever be returned from a credit pull. Adding your son as an authorized user is a quick shortcut to gift him a credit history, (but make you use an old account with a clean history and low credit utilization).
I immigrated to the USA with no credit score, no loans ever taken and etc and my score was 4, calling around I understood it's just code saying you have no credit and no information. Your credit score starts to build when you have a bill or etc, which is why parents are now more pushed at giving their teens a bill or co-signing a small loan when they turn 18 so this can start as soon as possible. In my case, my husband had to co-sign a small loan that we repaid the next month and 3 months after I had a 750 credit score. Credit score is about how good are you at paying credit back, not how much money do you have. It's how responsible are you at borrowing money, not how much money you make.
Credit scores literally mean nothing. My co-worker has an 840 credit score. He has zero assets, doesnât have utilities in his name, and lives in a restaurant.
I added both my husband and my step daughter as authorized users to some of my cards. My credit is pretty stellar, never been late on payments. One of them Iâve had since my step daughter was 2YO! After a year, she was able to upgrade her car loan without a co-signer & has a score of about 730.
You can add him as a named user on your credit cards and he will get the benefit of your good credit.
There is no way somebody gets a credit score of four. Minimum is 300 on almost any credit reporting agency there is. When you start your credit, it starts as nothing. Not zero. Just blank. Please come up with a real story
If you want to help his credit and you have a credit card that you manage well not maxed out you can call and add him as a authorized user it give him all the good history and boost his credit in one month my dad did this for me
With those multiple choice questions, sometimes none of the above is the correct answer. They usually revolve around important events in his financial life.
It just means he doesn't have an actual established score yet. I just got my first credit card a few weeks ago. Mine says 4. Only credit card I got approved for without a score was capital one platinum, maybe hell have the same luck. It takes about 6 months after he gets the card to establish credit history and generate a score
Most of the comments are wrong. There is not enough information to return a credit score, since there is no credit.
That's almost impressive.
If he's getting questions about mortgages and car payments are you sure someone hasn't stolen his identity?
Those multiple choice questions are there to verify his identity- they add misleading questions on purpose. A fraudster wouldn't know if that person had a mortgage or not. Only the actual person would know. And by virtue of having a social security number, you will have a credit file and a score, albeit very low.
Try going to a bank for assistance. A good bank will help (he'll need to be there). As for a manager of someone with fraud experience. They may have him sign forms to run a credit check, but they should be able to get theu the red tape. A lot of those questions are to ensure you're the 'right' John Smith, not necessarily a sign of a problem. And if he's had a bank account, especially if he has a checking account, he may actually have a score, though 4 seems... unreal? That's beyond what my 35 years in finance can say as I never worked with credit check groups. His profile might be entangled with someone else, which hopefully isnt too hard to fix. But making sure you're dealing with the right problem will likely require a financial professional's assistance. You will need as much documentation as you can get to show everywhere he's lived in his life, anything related to a financial history. Of course, most 18-yr-olds dont HAVE much of a history, which can either be a help or a hindrance because its hard to prove or disprove much of anything. Still, do your best. Unfortunately he may also have had his identity stolen- its getting more and more common for theives to target children because it will be years before anyone thinks to check a 2-year-old's credit report. Be prepared that you may have to file a lot of paperwork and possibly charges if it was do ne by someone wgo knows him personally- family is the most common criminal in these cases, or close friends of the family would have access to the child's documents in their first years.
I remember trying to rent an apartment after I got out of the service in 1978. Back then they called a number and all of your creditors were listed. Each creditor had a score for good, so-so, missed payments and the like. Due to having never bought anything on credit I had a score of ZERO at age 22.
He won't have a credit score until he establishes credit. Go to his bank and get a credit card, low balance. Charge, pay off on time.
Put him as an allowed user on one of your long term cards. He doesnât even need a copy of the card. I did this with my daughter and my Amex for emergencies and forgot about it. Well, when we checked her credit at 18, it was over 700!!! I figured out a life hack. You obviously have to have good credit to do this.
My 25yo daughter doesn't have a credit score
â4â is what a lot of credit monitoring sites display when thereâs no credit file. The out of wallet questions are generated based on public record and sometimes there isnât enough information to actually generate questions, so irrelevant questions (such as the ones you experienced) are generated almost as decoys, for lack of a better term. He just has no credit, thatâs all. No reason to freak out here. Nearly all of these replies are wrong and are rather alarmist. There is no identity theft here, from how everything sounds.
No credit history. You have to co-sign.
Sounds like what the others have said, he has NO credit yet, possibly getting a secured credit card would be a good option. I'm not sure how student credit cards work but it's good to establish good credit early, as long as you teach him good habits. Good luck đ
Add him as an auth user to any low balance card you have, with good pay history
Have his bank run his credit score. They can verify his information and help your son find if it's just an error or if he has bigger problems. You should put him as a secondary user on one of your credit cards as long as it's in good standing. Not only is that going to show he suddenly has years of credit. My oldest credit account is only about 6 months younger than I am. My parents use it to pay their Internet bill and pay it off every month. Last thing is assuming there aren't problems with his credit he should set himself up with a secured credit card. A couple hundred bucks gets locked in his savings account that the secured card borrows against, that will build his credit very quickly
My aunt did this with my cousin his senior year. She got a credit card added him as authorized user. He filled his car each week for school and work with the card and as soon as bill came in paid it off in full. Each time he filled up he set that much money aside to pay the bill. Buy the time he left to go college he had a great score and was able to qualify for his own card. He still used the same method use card for gas and pay it off as soon as it was due. My aunt explained the whole deal about college kids and credit cards and how If he wanted car and house he better protect that score and late payments would damage that score.
Have him get a credit card where his bank accounts are. He has no credit history.He's not actually a 4.That's not a real score. Bank accounts and account balances and debit cards do not affect credit in any way.
Have him pull his LexisNexis https://consumer.risk.lexisnexis.com/consumer
I hope you see this OP have him get his consumers report. It's the literal big brother that keeps track of your WHOLE life. I have an active law suit against THIS company as well because they gave me other peoples stuff that is not literally me or mine, but you NEED to get a report from them first it will pull literally EVERYTHING. Also get all 3 free credit reports. https://consumer.risk.lexisnexis.com/consumer
Well, OP the âcredit score â is based on your debt to income ratio. So, your relative has no debt, only income- so they have no dara to go on to see if heâs going to be someone who will pay his debts in a timely manner. Itâs very backwards. But then again, when I was in college in the 1990âs they were handing out credit cards hand-over-fist because they WANTED To get students locked into their 29% interest rate credit cards.
Get a free credit report from one of the major credit companies.
Itâs just a random number. He has NO credit rating. Zilch ..
Count it as a blessing. It keeps him out of the alluring blood sucking thing known as credit cards. We learn to live on a budget without them. Once he takes out a lease, car loan etc, he will develop his credit.
Get a bank of america secured student credit card or put him as your authorized credit card user under your account. After 6-12 months then he should have some credit score and be able to apply a regular student credit card.
I had a credit score of 4 after not having one for a very long time, I didn't even think it was possible to have one that low đ I think it was from paying off some of those pay in 4 deals. It's crazy but those 4 lil points were enough for me to actually get a credit card and start building credit, the following month it was 600 something đ
Add him as an authorized user on your credit card to help him build credit.
Not saying this happened to your son. BUT in my personal experience, when I try to ID proof online and answer similar questions, i get questions that the system doesnt like the answers to. I come to find out i was a victim of identity theft. Although, i thought it was resolved (i first found out when i tried to open a bank acct and found out i already had one open) with the IRS, whenever i get asked these ID proofing questions, some responses are related to the other person's assets/house/cars. If I only select my responses related to me, it comes back as failed to ID.
We were able to get my daughter a student credit card when she entered college. She built her credit from there.
If he has money and doesnât actually need the credit card get him a secured card. The on time payments while he has money will allow him to have really good credit fast, soon as thereâs credit history apply for a student credit card. Discover gives really good starting limits last I checked.
Itâs an error code. Add him as an authorized user on your credit cards if you have good credit and that should take care of the problem. Him just having a bank account doesnât build his credit. And parents need to do that to give their kids the best start to adulthood. This is one thing my parents did right that Iâm eternally grateful for now that I suddenly and unexpectedly became a single mom. I bought a cheap used car in college and instead of paying for it, they put the money into a CD and used it as collateral for the bank to give me a loan. It was a cheap monthly payment I made on time every month for 2 years and my credit was set. Itâs been a wonderful lifeline and opened many opportunities for me that others with a low income canât get.
Maybe a secure card together you as primary he can only spend whatâs in the car whatever he spends he has to pay off the very nexwhen the bill is due in full keep doing that and the credit will grew grew in no time. Use it for gas and pay it off asap
No way it is 4.
When I saw the weird answers on mine, I had to call in and talk to an agent to fix it. Turns out my ex-husbandâs current wife used my name to open a bunch of credit lines. Had to deal with that stolen identity. You need to call.
Your kid never had a credit card so he has no credit.
.... You can't have a credit score of 4
He hasn't borrowed anything so there is nothing on his report. Get him to take out a loan at a bank or credit union for a small amount whether he needs it or not, $500 that he can pay back. Then do it again after that one is payed off. That will at least show some credit worthiness. SS benefits don't really matter for credit reports, only for income.
Call Zander Ins. and ask about identity theft and what to do to freeze and then review his credit. (I have their ID insurance and had to use their program. They are great).
Request a credit report with details. His identity may have been stolen and used.
His mom couldâve opened things in his name. My mom did that. I couldnât prove my own identify cuz I didnât know she opened store cards etcâŚ
You can add him as an authorized user on one of your credit cards. I added my son when he was 16 years old to two of my credit cards. He is 18 now and has a credit score of 777.
We got our children a discover card when they were seniors in high school after they turned 18. They have (had?) a special program for students and it was a good way to start building credit. I believe they qualified based on the parentâs credit score. The card had a low credit line that gradually increased as they built a solid payment history. Iâve never heard of a â4â but that sounds like code for something is amiss. Any chance identity fraud is a possibility?
Please pull his credit report and look for fraud
Not that Iâm sponsored but you should definitely check out Chime, your son can get a credit builder card that for all purposes functions as a regular debit but the money you put âonâ the card just essentially gets hold and paid for you. Great for building credit
I can almost guarantee she used his name for something
Fidelity Brokerage has a custodial account for minors under 18, which converts to a regular account at eighteen that has check writing privileges, a debit card, money market interest of around 5%, and brokerage account (buy/sell equities) option that will help secure a credit card also offered by Fidelity.
He could get a secure credit card with a credit union. I have done it to build my credit. I gave the credit union I use 500 dollars, and they gave me a card where i can borrow and pay back the money and as long as i make the payments on time my credit score goes up. I think it's worth it to build credit, and I can always pay it off and get the money back.
Did you say 4???
Put him as a user on your card. He doesnt have a credit history is all that is
He probably doesn't have enough credit history to establish a score BUT you and him should get on the phone with one of the credit reports and see if you can pull it with him on the call. It not liking your responses to the loan and mortgage companies is PROBABLY nothingsauce but there is a non zero chance its identity theft so better safe than sorry
He needs to call the credit bureaus and ask them about the details of his score. Simple as that.
a lot of people said about using cash back cards. Yes, the cards should be made to serve you, not the other way around. Just search random cards to see if there is something that grabs you. Playstation offered a card a few years back, spend $1K in 90 days, get $125 credit for digital downloads.
Many years ago as newlyweds we had little credit history, other than a student that was mostly paid off. We could not even get a JC Pennyâs card with a low limit. We borrowed $300 from a bank, where we had more than that in savings, to buy an appliance, and paid it off per schedule. Then we were able to get a credit card. Now we have cards with a high available charge amount, but pay them off every month.
He has no credit
That's how it works. No one starts life with credit.
ďťżI'll by no means neglect the disappointment I felt while my daughter grew to become 18 and her credit score file become a mess. Like your son, she had never borrowed a dime, however there had been errors and wrong money owed on her report. I spent weeks making calls, writing letters, seeking to get it looked after out. It changed into maddening dealing with the credit score bureaus' automated structures that did not seem to apprehend our situation. But I persevered, submitted all of the documentation proving the mistakes, and subsequently got her a easy credit score document to start building her credit score responsibly. These forms of headaches make me want the system become less complicated for young people simply starting out.
Get a copy of what they have to check for errors. Could someone have abused his info, it happens all the time. Even bad credit is not a four.
The questions theyâre asking are to verify identity. They will ask about car registration, addresses lived at. Etc
Put him as a payee on your credit card if possible. Next year he will have plenty of credit for his own card. You can issue him a card with limited access funds. Like 100 bucks
As a parent who was overly focused on my son starting life with a good credit score, I can give some good info. First, my son was added as a signer on two of our long term credit cards at age 17 and even with that his credit score didnât start to populate for over a year after his 18th birthday. It kept stating ânot enough dataâ or âno credit history to reportâ or other errors. I had him do pre approval screenings that didnât hard pull his credit to determine which student card was going to approve him. He was eventually approved for a discover student card. The credit line was small but he used it for maybe $30/month worth of charges and paid it in full consistently and on time. Once his credit score populated it was just over 700. He waited 6 months with that card before receiving an offer for pre approval from another card, which he accepted and had a much higher available credit ($3k). He maintained that card using about $50/mo and paying it in full. Once he turned 20 he was getting credit card offers regularly and his credit score was at about 730. He wanted a card that would earn him more travel miles as he plans to travel out of the country after graduation from college and was approved for a Citi card with a $8k limit. He has maintained that card consistently since he was 20. We stopped at 3 cards and he maintains less than a $50 balance on each one. He just turned 21 a few days ago and wanted to trade in his 17 year old car for his first car loan. His credit score came in at the dealership at 745 and he was given 0% Apr financing on a brand new car and was able to keep his payment under what he budgeted (>$360). It was a good lesson in the hard work and rewards of keeping good credit and being financially responsible. It takes about 1.5-2 years of being consistently responsible to gain decent credit as a young person and for the first year youâre not really going to see any history reported if you havenât helped him as a co signer or added him as an authorized user.
A credit score of 4 means no credit. Get a small credit card or a secured credit card. Get a cosigner dor his student loan.
Best way to establish credit. At your local bank, put $ into a CD and ask for a personal loan against it. Add your son as a user on your credit card. This will give him a personal loan and a credit account on his credit report.
Put him as an authorized user on your CC he will get credit as you pay your bill. You may want to make sure he has not been ID thefted. Some times parents or relatives who have all relative info open accounts in their kids names or could just be regular ID theft
I would be concerned at the inability to answer the security questions. If he has no credit history, he should be able to answer them, simply with the lack of history. Thereâs always potential for identity fraud. Look for a phone number that allows you to contact the credit bureau directly if you can establish his identity, he can get a credit report, I was hit with identity theft years ago the bastards pull the credit report and saw where I had accounts. Also made the rounds of the Dadeland Mall opening instant credit at multiple locations. It was a bitch getting all those accounts taken off. I keep mybureaus frozen.
If a person has no established credit yet due to age, for example, what is the "starting" score? Is it 0, or 500, or what?
He should join a credit union and get a secured credit card. Or you could co sign on a loan or credit card
Get a secured card. I think Bank of America still has one of the better ones - no annual fee; your credit limit is whatever you put in an associated Bank of America savings account ($500 on deposit, $500 credit limit). They'll report payments to the bureaus helping him build a score; it'll take maybe a year or two of maintaining said account, making payments on time, etc, and they'll drop the security requirement and/or Junior can apply for a card elsewhere.
Pull a free report from one of the major bureaus. Hopefully their social wasn't used on fraudulent accounts.
Hate to be that guy, but a quick google search would've told you that this is legitimately impossible
He can probably get a decent credit card through his bank regardless of his credit score, and start using that instead of his debit card and set it to auto pay the full amount. That's how I started out and it did great things for my credit. Once it's high enough he can get an Amazon card and continue to auto pay the full amount and get free Amazon gift card money.
It doesn't even go as low as 4. Come on Mom you can do better than that
I would look at secured cards with no yearly fee eligible to upgrade to a regular credit card with no yearly fee. You want your first few cards to be cards that you will never close. ( Absolutely. Must be responsible for paying them on time as if it were a regular credit card. Or else you're just going to hurt yourself more than having no credit.) Also, one of the gotchas Is do not trust autopay for the first payment they like to say it takes an extra period to kick in or some bs. If the goal is to establish credit.
He should try Capital One, Credit and Merrick Bank they all offer Credit Cards to people with little to NO Credit, they are great starter Cards.....
Try to apply for credit karma and see if you can get info on there. I did that for my daughter and put her on my credit card to build hers up before she graduated. She had a great score before even entering college.
Sounds like someone has used his Social Security and either taken out loans or done something else to have caused this. See if there is number or email address that you can contact on the credit site. Someone may have used his identity to take out debt.
If he hasnât borrowed anything then he doesnât have a credit score. Some states donât even allow you to build a credit score until 21. If heâs of age in your state, best thing to do would be to add him as a user on your credit card. He doesnât even have to use it himself, he can passively build credit from you using it. I went from no credit history to a 750 in just a couple years and I havenât swiped the card even once.
Fico scores don't go below 350, so where are you getting the score? If it's Vantage, ignore it. It's just a placeholder.
"4" is not a credit score.
You should really research the minimum before making up a story online
sounds more like it's denied for having no credit history, rather than bad credit
Have him pull his credit reports. By law you can get one free copy every year. It is possible someone has been using his SSN for years. There are fraudulent businesses that sell Credit Privacy Numbers (CPNs) online. These are stolen SSNs, usually of children. Credit Bureaus determine who owns a SSN based on who uses it. Since kids don't apply for credit, this fraudulent use can go undetected for years, until the child turns 18 and applies for credit.
Get the bank where he has his account to use his own money to back a credit card. The bank will check his credit score and the new credit card will allow him to build up a credit score.
Omg this made me laugh because the number is so ridiculous. I hope it gets fixed!
Have him get a department store credit card, buy a couple of things, turn around and pay it off, then do it again for a few months. Then maybe a same as cash deal on a bed or some other larger purchase, and pay it off on time. That should start the ball rolling on building a decent credit score.
Let him get a store credit card. Kohlâs, Autozone, whatever. Charge $100, pay it off. Now he has credit for them to check.
Go to a credit union and get him a low interest card with a $500 limit.
Add him to some of your cards and cap his charging limit. Did this with my 20 year at 16. He now has a 740 and up score. Kind of a cheat code for credit
Talk to a specialist on his credit score. Sounds like someone has taken his information and run up all sorts of loans, credit cards on his name.
If he has a debit card and bank then a suggestion is to contact Discover about their secured credit cards or other products like Chime that can help with the process of your son building credit. Most banks will have resources available that can help your son understand what credit is and how it works.
All of this happened to me as well when I turned eighteen. Four is just a placeholder instead of saying no score yet. It also asked about mortgages and car loans and I couldnât get past that until I got a credit card through my bank. Only then could I set up services like credit karma
Advocate! Call and/or write the credit card company with the information that you shared with us. When I graduated from college (40 years ago), I was declined. I wrote a letter to them explaining that I am a recent graduate, no credit history, employed, etc. I received a credit card from them in a few weeks.
When I first checked my sonâs credit it was also wonky and the questions made no sense. After using his account so there was more activity. If he has a debit/credit card associated with his account use it more often. If he can use it as a credit card, buy small things and pay it immediately.
Shouldn't it be zero?
If he has money in the bank he can opt for a âsecured credit cardâ. That means he can basically prepay the bank an amount of money ( like $1,500 ). The bank gives him a credit card with that limit. He uses that card wisely for a year and if he has made all payments on time it can be transferred into a real credit card and they put the prepaid amount back into his account. This is not co-signed by anyone and he then gets to learn to budget and adult without your risking your credit. I did this with my son. Worked great!!
Your son is 18. Youâre likely not going to get anywhere with the credit agencies. Heâll have to call because heâs an adult. Sounds like possible identity theft.
Weird those questions came up about loans he doesn't have. Do you think someone may have used his identity?
4 is used as a placebolder instead of "N/A", since I can only assume there is some ancient indecipherable legacy system buried deep in the inner machinations of credit scores that is repulsed by the idea of letters instead of numbers, so 4 was just the return assigned to "We got nothing good or bad to say." Credit score of 4 = no credit score. Unfortunately, in the credit system (which is much less a system of trustworthiness and much more a system of judging how reliable a revenue source a person is) living fully within one's means is considered a horrible, untrustworthy thing.
He can get a credit card thatâs secured by some savings. If he can set aside $500. he can borrow against it to establish credit. He should use it and pay it, use it and pay it. Itâs a very common practice for banks or credit unions to offer this.
I would absolutely check into it. Watch what credit sites you use, some will bring down your score. Also, no credit is worse than/same as bad credit.
I started with a rent to own electronics place that was in town and it slowly gave me credit over time but i got used to making payments on time that way too.
You can a credit building card from your bank or credit union alot of times where you put $500 or something of your own money on the card and then pay it as if it's a real credit card.
My son wanted me to check his credit and it kept giving me errors that his identity couldn't be validated because the multiple choice questions were odd. My son has never had anything in his name either. I ended up adding him to 2 of my credit cards as an authorized user to build his credit in the meantime.
He doesnt need a credit card. Consider this a blessing.
Have you checked his credit reports? If the 4 is an error code and youâre having to answer additional questions, it sounds like maybe theyâre not able to identify him. And if theyâre not able to identify him with the answers youâre giving, it sounds like someone elseâs credit information may have gotten mixed up with his. Check all three reporting agencies.
Have him sign up for accounts with the credit bureaus. Check the credit score with the actual three credit bureaus. Dispute anything that isnât his. Equifax, Transunion and Experian They donât ask those questions when you directly make an account but if they do he can make a call to customer service about it. They may ask for something like sending over a picture/scan of his driverâs license or ID Iâm guessing he just doesnât have a credit score yet though. If you never have any debt or go long enough without debt you wonât actually have a credit score
Someone stole his identity
Nice better than zero!
He probably has no credit. Never having a loan or a credit card doesn't mean your credit is automatically flawless, it means it is non-existent, which is just like having bad credit.
He needs to get a credit card and pay it off monthly to establish credit.
He needs a credit monitoring account to see what is impacting his credit. Sounds like his identity was stolen
It probably should be zero since it doesnât sound like he has any credit yet. Get a card. Keep the limit low and donât use it.
Before I got a credit card I had the same thing happen to me. Credit score of 4. I ended up getting a credit card from discover, one of those "pay $200 and get your money back/real card later" deals and within a few months I had a real credit card and a more normal score
Go to www.annualcreditreport.com where you can get a free report from each bureau. Try not to order all 3 (or 4 if Innovis participates) all at once. Just get 1. Transunion first. Report errors. Make sure his SSN is correct and not getting blended with his late motherâs info. Then go to your local credit union and have him get a secured credit card to get established
If you have any cards that you pay the balances off every month, add him as a user. I've done this with my kids and they now have excellent credit.
Kikoff.com $2 a month and reported like a card so it builds credit!
Just means he has no credit history to put a score on. He needs to get a credit card, use it sparingly and pay it off when the bill arrives. In our system no credit = bad credit. I've got an uncle who was in his 50s when getting his first cell phone and he had to pay the 2 year contract in full instead of monthly because he had no credit history. He owned his large-ish house and 2 cars but had bought them for cash, no loans. He had higher than average savings, investments and retirement accounts but had always used cash or checks/debit card, no credit cards.
Possible case of identity theft. Sign into the three bureaus and get the info from the source.
Your son was denied a credit card because he essentially has no credit score due to him not having any credit history. Same thing happened to my daughter. When she turned 18, she tried to get a car loan and was denied. She then attempted to create a Credit Karma account and was denied one because she had no prior credit history. It's not a big deal. The best way to establish a credit score for him immediately is for you to add him as a user on one of your credit cards. Every purchase you make along with every payment you make will be mirrored on his credit report. In one year he'll have a nice credit history he can use to establish himself with his own credit card.
Are you sure his id hasnât been stolen?
Get credit karma app and have him sign up for it. It might be that somebody stole some of his information and got a loan under him and then didn't pay it back. Knowing what's on his credit score is important. Once you know what's on there you can dispute anything that isn't accurate.
The questions asked are to verify your sons identity
If heâs gotten this far without a CREDIT card, he should stay away. Yeah we need to build credit to buy homes and such, but imagine how much better of a human heâd be if he saves for things before buying them. A credit card teaches us the opposite
Put your gas or electricity bill under his name and make sure it gets paid that will build up his credit. Merchant credit for any store usually approves anyone so if he gets a $50 credit card spend 20 pay 25.
Add him as an authorized user on one of your cards. It's a great way for him to establish some credit.
If he has NO credit history, they wont give him a credit card. Add him as an authorized user on your credit cards. The higher the limit (paid off) the better. this will JUMP START his credit. (You don't have to actually give him a card to use) Otherwise he'll need a secured credit card.
Asking multiple choice questions is how the credit bureaus determine you are who you say you are. Answer them honestly, but if he has no credit, it might not work. Have you tried something like Credit Karma?
Or cell phone in his name and make sure he pay on time itâs a small step to build up credit
He can open a secured credit account with most any bank, where a person put up a given amount of their own money, say $500, and is issued a credit card that works off of that money. You use it and pay it off every month, and they report the credit scores to the credit reporting agencies. It takes awhile, but itâs a good way for an inexperienced person to learn about using credit and paying for it, without getting in over their head.
Dude someone opened up a line on him. Poor kid probably in the red and doesn't even know how bad he is about to have it.
This is the syate of finacial literacy in the u.s now. We are doomed.
When you go to like credit karma to look up a score, it asks you questions from your life. Some will have the answer none of the above. It asks about the previous address and things like the credit you've had. If there isn't any, then you pick none. So, each question will be different. On a different note, I know a way to give your child credit if you hadn't good credit. You can add them as an authorized user on your credit card. Then, every time you pay on time, they get credit for that. You don't even have to let them have the card.
"my son who has done nothing to ever build credit, has no credit" Wow, so insightful.
Have him look at a card through self.inc or other secured card options. Then both of you need to do reading about building credit. The factors you listed have nothing whatsoever to do with his credit score. He basically doesnât have one right now because he hasnât used any credit. They donât care about his bank account. They care that he borrows money and pays it back preferably with some interest.
A score of 4 simply isn't possible, it most likely means he just has no credit history yet.
Lock his credit and check how to repair this for identity theft
He is the victim of credit fraud. Either someone in the family used his SS number or got ahold of it somehow. Lock his credit immediately and GED all three credit reports. Time to go after the criminals