Credit Advice

Co-signing for a loan should show up as an entry on your son’s credit report, so double-check whether it has been accurately reported to the credit bureaus by looking at his Credit Report Card and also by requesting a free credit report at www.annualcreditreport.com.

Yea, sounds like the credit bureaus mistakenly didn't include the loan on your son's history. Surprisingly, errors on credit reports happen far too often.

Definitely check it out so he can benefit from it being on his credit report and building his credit history.

My first step would be to make sure that the information about him on the loan documentation is correct, contact the creditor first. If they update anything, check his report about 60 days later (giving them time to report the next month's payment and account details).

When you co signed, do both of your names appear on the loan, did both of your names appear on the title and registration of the car? If not, the car company screwed you, used only your credit so they could get you approved but mess with you and say that they had to mark up the APR because your son had no credit history, meanwhile they did not even use his.

If the loan is recent, it may not have had time to give your son a credit score.  It takes a few months of payment history for the credit bureau to have enough information to caculate a score.  I've seen credit reports that do not give a credit score until 4 or 5 payments have been made.

Also,if the auto loan is his only credit tradeline and the loan is paid OFF, he may not have enough current history for the credit bureau to calculate a score.  One of the reasons a lot of places recommend getting a credit card to build one's credit is because credit cards can stay open instead of drifting into the past as soon as they are paid off (plus if you pay the balance in full evey month, you can establish a credit history without paying any interest).