How do i have bad credit without ever having a credit card?
Im 20 and I applied for a kohls credit card and they denied me for bad credit but i have never ever owned a credit card or anything. I have loans for college but thats it. So how can i have bad credit without ever having credit. How am i supposed to get a credit card ever if i have bad credit?
If you’ve ever paid a student loan payment late that hurts your credit a lot. Same goes for if you’ve ever had a negative bank balance or if you’ve paid any other bills in your name late.
The best thing you can do is check your credit report and make sure all the information is correct.
At 20 you, by definition, have bad credit as the law was changed to make it very difficult for you to get a credit card.
When was the last time you checked your credit reports?
They are free once a year (all 3) at:
Annual Credit Report.com
No need for the score – useless since you want to review all the reports line by line
How did you know you got turned down for bad credit?
Maybe they turned you down due to your age (must be 21 or older)
Or your income is too low to support a card
Or, you have not had employment for over a year.
Anyway – you should know those 3 reports – every single line- your responsibility
What you should have is a lack of credit. To make sure, pull all 3 of your reports and make sure your ID has not been stolen.
What was the actual terminology they used? Was this in a letter form that they mailed to you??
When someone is denied, the reasons given never actually say “bad credit”, even though that is what they might mean.
You said you have school loans. Have you EVER been late with a payment?
Have you actually seen your credit reports? If not, get them here for free by law: https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp
Don’t buy the scores, they’re meaningless. Also, those reports are available to you for a short time (2 weeks if I recall) so print them up or at least save them as word docs.
If you’ve never checked your reports, who knows, maybe someone got ahold of your social & opened up some cards in your name. No telling. Anywho…get those reports & find out what is on them. Under the section of “Inquiries”, you’ll see which report(s) that Kohls pulled.
see if someone has been using ur information
A rejection isn’t always about bad credit and missing payments. It might actually be that the bank that runs the card doesn’t think you earn enough money to support your rent, student loans and a new credit card.
Check the rejection letter for the actual reason (however vague it might be). If you were turned down for something in your credit report, the letter will say so and mention that you’re entitled to a free copy from the reporting agency they used.
Pay-up your student loans they your credit ratings will improve.
If you only have student loans, it is more likely that you have limited credit, instead of bad credit. Student loans in deferment do nothing to build your credit history.
You should pull your credit report (AnnualCreditReport.com) and see what actually shows. It could be errors on your report or it could be that someone (usually a relative) used your ID to open accounts.
If it turns out that it’s just a lack of credit, you may have to start with a secured card — you pay a deposit which is held as collateral against the line of credit.