<p>It’s really no wonder that kids get in over their heads with debt. This could be mighty tempting! Son received the offer through his frequent flyer account. I wonder how many equally noncredit-worthy kids & teens get such offers, and how easy it is to bluff one’s way through the application?</p>
<p>Hope he accepted it. Good for the economy!</p>
<p>Somewhat akin to my 10 year old getting called for jury duty. (No, mini, he did not accept it. ;))</p>
<p>The shelves of the local video game store would be cleared in no time…</p>
<p>MO3sons – He was called for that last year, too. I guess we never realized what a mature, young man we’ve raised – and in half the time we expected it to take!</p>
<p>So, if he gets the Alaska Airlines card, in exchange for $90 a year, and a single purchase on it, he gets a $50 companion ticket every year, and half off any one flight in the U.S. Such a deal. He shouldn’t pass it up.</p>
<p>Hmmm…Maybe I should look over this offer more carefully. (I haven’t shredded it yet.)</p>
<p>My son got a credit card application at age 2 shortly after I signed him up for American Airlines frequent flier program.</p>
<p>Application? My daughter apparently was receiving them and filling them out without my knowledge, and she had a credit card from Bank of America at age 8. With about a $3000 limit. </p>
<p>I told her to keep it but put it away in a drawer and that she could use it once a year for an online purchase of a gift that I’d pay for – she did that until about age 14 or 15 - at that point, I let her start using it more and at about age 15 or 16 she started carrying it around. When the bill came each month I would make a copy and then give her one to mark up to let me know which items I should pay for and which were hers – for convenience, she was using it to charge a lot of things that I ordinarily would pay for. </p>
<p>Needless to say at 19 she has great credit and a rather generous credit limit. She now pays the bills online – she is scrupulous about paying the bill in full as soon as it is received. So, at least for her, she has built up the habit of treating the bill very seriously when it comes.</p>
<p>That is nothing. My father got a Discover card in the mail 17 years after he died. Fortunately I cut the cards up before my son found out all he had to do is call a machine to activate them.</p>
<p>My CAT got a couple of offers over the years…</p>
<p>calmom–what was the “income” of your 8 year old? It’s been a while since I filled out a credit card app but I think they want to see some income. Don’t they?</p>
<p>“$5/week…hmm, must be a typo.” Ok, approved! :D</p>
<p>I don’t think they care what the income is. My youngest filled one out while in college because his friend was getting something for having people fill them out. He already had two and didn’t really want this one, but wanted to do his friend a favor. So he very accurately filled it out: no job, no income, full time student. He got it anyway. With an $8,000 credit limit.</p>
<p>The credit card offer happened several times with my kids when they were growing up, but the kicker was when my six-year-old son was dropped from my health insurance. After calling and asking, “what’s up with that?” we were told that our policy didn’t cover married children. Man, and I missed the whole ceremony … I was just crushed!</p>
<p>zebes</p>
<p>Calmom, that’s a hoot. From what you’ve written about your D on CC, I’m not surprised she was an eight year old responsibly handling credit! My son? Not a chance. The house would be quickly filled with composite material lacrosse & hockey sticks, new Wii games, an ipod, radio controlled cars … my head would be spinning.</p>
<p>My business is called The X Law Firm. For anonymity, call it The Whitney Law Firm. Some enterprising list picked it up as “Ms. Whitney L. Firm”. For years, Ms. Firm has been deluged with “preapproved” credit card applications. “Dear Ms. Firm, You have been preapproved for $100,000.” It’s tempting to have Ms. Firm send my three kids to college!</p>
<p>
Since I didn’t know that she mailed back the card, I have no idea what she wrote. But the forms usually ask for “household” income, and at age 8 my daughter was definitely a member of the household. </p>
<p>The credit card was actually issued by our bank – she had an account set up with the bank, one of those kid’s savings accounts-- and I’m pretty sure that the reason she got the solicitation in the first place was the bank sending out to its own customer database… apparently without first checking age. </p>
<p>When she was about 14 I tried to get her a checking account and the bank refused to give it to her – they said she was too young. They had not hesitated to give her a debit account – and, though they might not have been aware of what they had done, by that time she’d held the credit card for 6 years – but they were quite firm that they weren’t going to allow a checking account. Eventually I just set up a second checking account for myself, then made it into a joint account with her – and to this day that’s the only checking account she has ever had. </p>
<p>So basically the bank’s crazy. She just applied for an Amazon Visa only because she kept seeing the offer of $30 rebate on books if she would take the card… but she was turned down for that one on grounds of insufficient income. Go figure.</p>
<p>Kids and young adults get into credit debt over their heads, NOT because of credit card companies sending them credit cards. It’s because their parents never taught them about finances, how to budget, how to save, their responsibilities. Unfortunately, too many adults don’t know any of these skills either. If you have more than 10% of your yearly income sitting on a credit card, then you don’t know how to handle finances.</p>
<p>Just like guns don’t kill people. Alcohol doesn’t cause DWI and car accidents. Condoms don’t cause teens to have sex. etc… Credit cards don’t cause debt. It’s not knowing how to use any of the items that cause problems. Later… Mike…</p>
<p>And sometimes insurance companies kill people, marry them off, and make them “independent.” 
The many times I’ve had to call an ins co and fix a “coding error” are too many to count.</p>
<p>I got notice of a credit card ‘change in terms’ from BofA this week. The problem is I’ve never had a BofA credit card. It turns out they bought some MBNA accounts and among them was an account that I had closed two years ago with $0 balance. The ‘customer satisfaction agent’ (as if) said it may take a little while for the account to stop being referenced for such mailings. go figure.</p>