Answer: About 1 in 5 between the ages of 23 and 27. 

Hat tip to Laura Matchett of NGPF for pointing out this informative Forbes article. As for the reasons why they are being rejected:

The biggest obstacle facing millennials in their struggle for new cards appears to be their credit scores. ID Analytics reports that 67% of consumers under the age of 30 have a subprime or non-prime credit score. Worse yet, around 33% of people in this age group do not have any score at all, due to a lack of credit history. Patrick Reemts, vice president of credit risk solutions at ID Analytics, claims that this is, in part, due to the fact that traditional credit scores aren’t tapping into more modern data sources, like cell phone bills. “Traditional credit scores may have served previous generations well,” he writes. “Their lack of visibility into critical modern credit responsibilities [has left] many millennials with incomplete or nonexistent histories at the major credit bureaus.”

To address this weakness in the credit scoring systems, fintech companies are stepping into the breach with new models to assess credit risk:

Some companies have decided to jump on the lending gap created by traditional scores. Affirm is one of the companies gaining the most traction in this space. To date, the company has raised $420M from investors, including $100M from Morgan Stanley just this month. Max Levchin, Affirm’s CEO and the cofounder of PayPal, told CNBC that the company is focused on “creating a purchase oriented, purchase built loan to help folks afford nicer things…especially millennials.” The startup operates by providing consumers loans when at the checkout of some online retailers, including Casper, Reverm and Pixel. Affirm uses some pretty alternative data sources to provide their loans to as many people as possible. According to the New York Times, the company uses things like social network profiles and online communications to assess their users.

Here’s a few follow-up questions if you want to keep the discussion going:

• For those teaching high school seniors or college students, questions to ask…
  • Do you have a credit score?
  • How did you get it?
  • Do they think it reflects their ability to pay? Why or why not?
• Why do you think having a credit score is important?
• Would you be worried if you were in the group that didn’t have a credit score? Why or why not?
• When do you think that you will get a credit score? What actions will you need to take to get one?

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.