annualcreditreport.com shows "cannot find a matching credit file"

[Anonymous]

Trying to help my 21 year old son establish credit in his name.

my plan was to add him as an authorized user to my cards.

I also thought it would be interesting to see what the 3 agencies currently show in his name- to make sure he doesn't have any accounts opened in his name he didn't know about - and also to get a score to use as a baseline.  That way after adding him as an AU - we could check again later to see what kind of score improvement to received.

That all said - my son tried to use annualcreditreport.com but is failing the verification steps.  We are certain he is using the correct SSN (I have the original).  The message received is "cannot find a matching credit file".   Is this to be expected with someone who has no prior credit history?  

Showing my ignorance here...does everyone have a credit file with the bureaus even if they don't have lines of credit or inquiries opened?

[RSX]

I went through a similar process with my 20yr old son. I had him open a CRedit Karma account.  He also didn’t show a score, but at least we knew when his credit journey began

because you are adding a verification step to it, you may not be able to find the reason

inwould suggest you try what I did.  Then add him as an AU

He took about 2 months before an initial score popped up.  

[Remedios]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Trying to help my 21 year old son establish credit in his name.

my plan was to add him as an authorized user to my cards.

I also thought it would be interesting to see what the 3 agencies currently show in his name- to make sure he doesn't have any accounts opened in his name he didn't know about - and also to get a score to use as a baseline.  That way after adding him as an AU - we could check again later to see what kind of score improvement to received.

That all said - my son tried to use annualcreditreport.com but is failing the verification steps.  We are certain he is using the correct SSN (I have the original).  The message received is "cannot find a matching credit file".   Is this to be expected with someone who has no prior credit history?  

Showing my ignorance here...does everyone have a credit file with the bureaus even if they don't have lines of credit or inquiries opened?

---

If he has no accounts, there is no file.

File is generated when first HP is performed or first account added

If he has student loans, those would have generated a file. 

If there are truly no accounts, there wont be one.