Melinda is 16 and just got the Capital One High School card. Her credit journey has now begun. I guaranteed the card for her as she is a minor. Terms - $500 limit / 19.8% apr. / No annual fee. The minimum credit limit is $200 but Capital One allows an application for up to $999. Robinsons /May told me that I can make Melinda an authorized user on my charge next year when she is 17. How they picked 17 as the acceptable age is a mystery to me. I haven't asked Macy's, Blooingdales or Nordstrom about their policy(s) yet. Does anyone have any knowledge or suggestions about credit for High School students? BTW, Melinda is responsible enough to have a credit card and as I am on the hook for the bill it will get paid every month. If nothing else, I may just wait until next year and add her as a Robinsons AU. Best regards, Jim
That is great. Starting her out on a responsible credit journey is both good for her education, as well as good for her report when she applies for credit when she is on her own. I would take it somewhat slow though Jim, too much credit is probably not a good start, when she is 17 make her AU...and maybe add to her credit profile with another "student" card then. Hope all else is well. Tell her we said congratulations and use it wisely. -Peace, Dave PS - When is she going to join CreditNet )
Hey good to hear from you Nave !! Thanks for the advice. I hope everything is going well for you. Melinda doesn't know about Creditnet as she is unaware of my past credit difficulty. I'll be her credit guide for many years to come. But keeping a sense of humor here... Yes. There are many fine credit challenged individuals here but I don't want us (Melinda and I) to turn into a credit challenged family. - LOL - You know the kind of family where we are arguing over who gets on the computer first to find out the latest breaking news on Nextcard etc. ROFLOL Best regards, Jim P.S. Your FAQ section is very impressive.
LOL I can picture it. That is hillarious. All is well here too, need rain, wish we could borrow some from Texas or Florida. -Peace, Dave
I can remember my first CC. Dad co-applied - $1000 limit at 18! Living at home. Maxxed it out and Dad closed the account. BUT, the door was open. By then the college CC offers were pouring in the front door. The likes of Citibank and AMEX were doing drive-bys at my house, throwing CC applications on the lawn (not really but you get the point). Suddenly not living at home and had a huge CC debt. Decided that to get ahead I needed to pursue education more than work. Long story short, entered CCCS so I could just barely meet the new Min. payment. CCCS worked well for me, finished that some 9 years ago. Today I still have a great affinity for plastic and manage it a little better than when I was 18 ;}. So even though I have come a long way, I have made enough mistakes along the way. The board has been a wonderful place to pick up knowledge on how I can better understand and manage my finances. I just wish my Dad had talked to me a little more about finances when he co-signed my first CC. I would recommend you review your daughters credit card statement monthly with her. I know at her age having the CC is the thing to have, impress the friends. And, why not talk about some of your past mistakes with her, and what it has cost you. Imagine her future with a 750 FICO and an easy mortgage after college, or the possibilty of CCCS while in college and not a prayer of a mortgage for years to come. Sorry so long, but feel strongly that you can make such a positive difference in your daughters life now. We have all seen the down side of Credit here on this board, help her with a better start than many of us on this board have had!
I would wait a year and get her the Robinsons deal or something similar. When she goes to college she will get her own offers. Do things one card at a time. I got my first card at 18 and was kind of ready for it. Actually, I still had some growing up to do. You sound like a great parent.
I got my first CC when I was 17. My mom cosigned and it was an Associates. Initial CL was $700 but my mother wrote them and told them that was too high and made it $500. All she told me was "If you buy something, pay it off the next month and stay away from American Express". I wish she'd told me more. I did okay until I got to college. I needed to buy books and I used my CC....maxed it out. Got Citi and Discover while there too. Everything went to hell from there. I don't have any children but I have a niece and nephew. And if I do have children, I will be sure to explain to them how important credit is. Maybe not while you're in college, but when you get out. I'll tell them my story and explain it it terms they can understand - Credit scores are like a GPA: if it drops, it's terribly difficult to rebound from - you'll have to work twice as hard to achieve what someone who's never messed up can achieve. I wish my mom had said that to me (since I'd already experienced the GPA thing!). That would have been very clear and I would have thought twice about overextending myself. However, I am grateful that I learned my lesson before my thirties (I turn 30 next month) and when I need it most (during that decade and beyond), it will be great. (Thanks CreditNet).
Hey Jim, Glad that you are teaching your daughter responsibility. I was very independent growning up (maybe too independent?). I had a job when I was barely 15 working at a burger joint. I had an account at Wells Fargo as well. A year later I switched to BofA and got a checking account. I was at Meryvns one day and decided to fill out an application for a card (I was waiting for a friend and was bored). Next thing I knew, they sent me a card! I had the card for a year and made purchases and paid payments on it. It was only a $300 limit. Then after I paid the card off...I put the card away then later on a family member took the card and made charges on the card. I found out about it (bill came in the mail) and I returned the items that were purchased. Somehow the relative got a hold of the card again and made charges and I didn't find out about it until I was buying my first car at 18 (had a chargeoff on my record). I got it cleared up though. If you are going to get her a credit card you should also get her an account as well. I just recently got my son a Chase secured card (well it's in my name but he has a card). He is 13 but has been doing a lot of traveling for football and basketball this summer. I don't feel comfortable with him off at all these camps with no money, etc. so I armed him with a credit card and cell phone. He was excited. I am also going to take him to my credit union and open him up a savings account so he can start saving his money that he earns. Finance is very important to learn as a kid. My mon taught me everything so I'm going to do the same for my kids. I want him to build a strong credit history so when he's on his own he will have no problems getting the things that he wants. A girlfriend of mine started off when she was 19 with NO CREDIT. Aria was her first card. Now she has other cards but it took a while for things happen. What's sad is that since her credit was limited, she bought her first car at a rapist interest rate of around 20%! I felt bad for her but she did it and she did it on her own and that's all she cared about. I don't want my son to have problems like that. I'm going to teach him NOT to rely on credit and to have as few cards a possible. I've spent the last 2 years rebuilding my credit. Now I'm going to spend the next 2 years paying off debt focusing on getting down to a few key cards and that's it.
And I must say, I am still amazed at how easy it is to get a card while in college! Once I figured out I could charge pizza, beer and vacations I was headed down the wrong road. A dangerous time to have access to easy money. Best of luck with your daughter (my daughter is 2 and already getting pre-school Visa offers! just kidding!)
Thanks everyone for all the constructive comments. MP - Your comments are very appropriate. Melinda already has a credit union savings account and I will co-sign a car for her later on. By the time she is 18, she will have 2 cc accounts and be on a car loan. We are all products of our upbringing and I too went to work early. When I was 18 - (1977) - I applied for and received a "college B of A credit card". At that time, the credit card industry was in a major expansion and student cards were relatively new. Instead of mailing the card to me directly, B of A mailed it to the local branch. I stopped by the bank and asked about it. The idiot woman there said that she had the card and was waiting to see if I was smart enough to ask for it. ??? What an idiot. She could have lost her job over something like that. She loudly told me that she and her husband had bad credit and couldn't get a credit card. LOL At that point she presented the card to me and I dutifully signed it on the back. Obviously she was so stupid that she was being sincere. She was angered that I could get a card at 18 when she couldn't at 40. Within a year, I got a Robinsons-May charge and bought a new Toyata Corolla ( $5,230 ) with a $3K 9% CU loan. Now using Dogman's term - Snap to the future and it's 2002. He got told he could have an AMEX Platinum card and then someone reneged on it. I never responded to his thread because I wondered if that same idiot I met 25 years ago had moved companies and is working for AMEX these days. LOL The point of this is that I agree with you that our kids have to be taught how to work the banking / credit system to their advantage early in order to avoid the 20% loan shark rates when they are older. I respect your parenting advice and hope that many people read your post. I am happy for your sons that you are there for them. Best regards, Jim
Hey....I appreciate the kind words! You were talking to me, right???? LOL....if not then WOOPS! Nothing is free in this world and that is one of the lessons that I teach my kids. If they want something, they have to work for it. I'm always making deals with them. If they earn half the money, then I'll put up the other half. I just got my 6 year old a piggy bank and he already has like $8 bucks and some change in it. Some of the money he aquired from his brother for helping him out and the rest he got for helping me out. Today he took $2 of the money and went to 7-11 and bought us all slurpees. I thought that was nice of him. I felt bad and slipped $2 back in his bank! ;-) After we went to 7-11, my oldest son asked me out of the blue if he could have an X-Box. My response was: How about I pay rent instead??? He got the hint real quick. Next thing I knew he was in his room writing down all the possible ways he could earn $100 (only has to come up with half) to get an X-Box. I was particularly impressed at the fact that he actually SAT DOWN with a pen and paper and wrote this stuff down: Go out and find 3 lawns to mow and charge $10: $30 Help neighbor clean out garage: $10 Wash Mommy's and Friend's cars: $15 ...and I can't remember what else he wrote down but I thought this was pretty impressive. We'll see if he can put his plan to work. I want him to have whatever he wants but I also want him to understand the value of the dollar.
MP$40, Sounds like your sons are getting a fine upbringing. And yes, my last post was addressed to you. LOL Best regards, Jim P.S. - that AMEX Centurion thread by Dogman took me by surprise. As I said on another thread, I am totally contented carrying around my expired AMEX Gold Optima card. It looks great and my business relationship with AMEX has never been better from my point of view. I wonder if Dogman could apply for a second Green charge card and paint it black when he gets it.
Here was my reply on another thread to that answer: ROFLOL! If anyone is interested, they do sell expired cards on eBay. I think it was Doc? who told me about the Centurion Black card that was on sale. I think it went for $20! I would of totally bid on it....oh well. Next time.
Today, I made Melinda an authorized user (AU) on my 20 year old Macy's account. This was done right over the telephone at the Macy's department store. I got two choices... 1. Just let Melinda use my card and Macy's will call me for authorization when she tries to use it. 2. Macy's will mail Melinda her own card with her name on it and bill me. I chose to let her have her own card which should arrive in the mail in 2 weeks according to the telephone rep. Can any of you answer a couple of questions about AU accounts? Will the AU account rapidly improve her credit score over the next 2 years before she turns 18? Does a typical AU card have both parties names on it or just the AU? Thanks in advance for your answers. I have had no experience with AU accounts. I always obtained my credit on my own. When I was married, my ex-wife had her own accounts. Best regards, Jim
She WON'T have any file to improve as far as I know... When she turns 18...SHE WILL HAVE A GREAT FILE... AU CARD HER NAME ONLY... She should have "YOUR DATES"...
I don't think Macy's will report this on her history. Did they ask you for her ssn? My friend added her mom as AU and got a card in her name. If I recall correctly, it never made it to her reprorts. The card will have just her name on it.
I can't speak for Macy but in general being an AU on a 20 year old paid on time account should help her build great credit. When we qualify, my husband will get the Diner Club card and i will be an AU. We both will share the glory. The card will have only her name. Heck, her FICO will be in the 700's by the time she is 19 with these plans of yours. Cap 1, Macy, car loan. Maybe student loan when in college. Her credit will be better than mine.
Jim and MP$40 (and other responsible parents) I am not a parent but I must say I am quite impressed by your styles. Both of you deserve kudos for being good parents and creating a good foundation for your teenage kids. They will come out better equipped, and better history. I hope they realize when they grow up, how much it meant to them that they had parent(s) like you. If they do, and most likely they will, they will respect you more. This goes off topic from here, and may be it is topic for some other baord, but there is always that debate between the two schools of thought. Laying the foundation for your kids versus letting them out on their own. I don't think it is that black and white and most parents I know define (or at least try to)their own happy medium. Anyway, thank you credit net for exposing all these "complex dimensions of credit" and I hope I will be able to give good advise to someone friend or help lay a good foundation for some kid in future.
