Can an under 18 have bad credit, or any form of credit reference at all for that matter?

I tried to purchase an iPhone from the apple store using paypal credit. I'm 17, obviously knowing you need to be 18 to apply for PayPal credit, I said my birth date was in 1997 not 1998, anyhow when I clicked apply it said my application had been declined due to my bad credit, why is this?

So, you wonder if lying about your age is why you were declined?

Why would you lie on a loan application? If this was a mortgage, it would be a felony.

The reason, I'm willing to bet, is you have no credit history and they aren't going to be the ones to find out you not only lie, but you don't pay either.

Likely it could not find a credit report for your name, DOB (as you reported it), SSN combination, so to them no credit is bad credit.

Sorry, but looks like you might actually have to play by some rules for a change.

You shouldn't have any credit. Maybe it meant declined due to no credit.

You were actually declined for lying on the application.

You attempted fraud and they caught you.

Since your only 17-years old you can't have any credit so what they got was a blank report with no score. That is considered bad credit.

Not really answering the question here, but any under 18 is not allowed credit.

It is now, because you applied. Applying gives you bad credit.

The better reason is whether that is the only thing wrong with your credit, or you also have bad credit because someone else got credit (or collections) using your identity. If they did, then you can dispute some of what they did, and have some of it removed. However, it's very important not to have all of it removed, because removing all of it would leave with you nothing on your credit (except your history of applying) and having no credit can be even worse than having bad credit. There are places that will approve someone with bad credit, but won't approve anyone with no credit.