<p>Okay so I hate all these repetitive credit card threads but I have a new take on it. Our college Jr. son has a credit card through BofA which is linked to his checking and savings. Just opened an account with BofA for the younger sister and they turned her down on the credit card. Cited a lack of credit references. Definitely a sign of the times because DS had no references but got the card with no problems.
So…do we go through BofA and ask about co-signing? I have no problem with co-signing but I want the card in her name so she can build some credit. I want her to have a card because she will be 5 hours from home and will have a car.</p>
<p>How 'bout a few hundred dollars in a checking account with a debit card, just for emergencies?</p>
<p>“Building credit” is overrated, IMHO. Her focus in college should be graduating with as little debt as possible and learning to manage what little money she has. To heck with credit cards. Again, just MHO.</p>
<p>Ask BofA about a secured credit card. It’s a credit card for all intents, but it’s backed by a non-interest-generating savings account. You determine the limit by how much you deposit into the account. After a year of responsible credit management, your daughter will have her credit rating and be eligible to switch to a regular credit card account (at which time she gets the money in the savings account refunded).</p>
<p>Why BofA? Try getting a CC through another firm. Have you checked into credit unions?</p>
<p>Having a CC is a good idea for the student for emergency purposes and unless she has enough cash in her account a debit card won’t be able to handle the emergency situations. By emergency I mean being stranded or something - not a bolster to funds. However, I do agree that it’s good policy to never charge anything that can’t be paid off as soon as the bill comes so as to never pay an interest fee.</p>
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<p>Building credit is “overrated” until she gets out of school and wants to buy a car/house/etc. and can’t because she doesn’t have enough credit, or any at all.</p>
<p>^^Even if she pays cash for the car she can still have a hard time getting insurance, apartment rentals, etc. without a decent credit history.</p>
<p>If someone else (parent, family friend, etc.) co-signs a child’s credit card, it does not help with building the child’s credit history.</p>
<p>Try Wells Fargo. In the past they had a package that included a student credit card with a low limit and checking and savings. I also think in Ca Wells Fargo has much better customer service.
Not such a big deal since she is has a car but the ATM on campus is through a Stockton credit union. If your D has a debit through almost any credit union there is no atm fee. Not sure where the B of A is but the Wells Fargo is very close to campus especially if you have a car.</p>
<p>I think I’m going to talk to BofA about geekmom’s idea. The only reason I like BofA is because of the paying it off online from the same account system. As I said my son has a BofA card and he knows that any time he charges anything he needs to pay it off immediately by transferring the money from checking or savings to the credit card.<br>
It’s a convenience thing.<br>
She will have plenty of cash in her account but the ATM will sometimes limit the amount of cash that can be withdrawn, etc. If she has a car emergency or gets stranded somewhere I want her to have the credit card.</p>
<p>FYI, we have a friend who’s son was denied a secured credit card because of no credit. I thought that was the point of the secured. If you want to get them a card so they have one, here’s what I did. </p>
<p>I called the credit card company to get S4 added as a co-signer to one of my cards. What they suggested was to take part of the limit on of that card and place it on a new card, adding him as a authorized user. So he now has a card with a $2,000 limit to pay for books/supplies and emergencies. When I tried to add him later as a co-signer, everything sounded fine until he got a denial letter for not having a credit history, but he still has a card with his name on it.</p>
<p>I’m figuring we’ll pay at least the interest on his unsubsidized loan and hopefully the payments and the loan will show up on his credit report. Later, we’ll apply for a new card just in his name.</p>
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Exactly. The one thing I like about the bank I share with geek_son (not BofA) is that his checking account is linked to my ATM card – so it’s a breeze to transfer money to him if I need to.</p>
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It is. This doesn’t make sense. But banks can be weird that way, I guess.</p>
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<p>Or if you don’t want to be a co-signer on a student loan. They used to count no credit history as good credit, but now it means you’ll need to co-sign on a loan until they have a credit score above some certain amount. </p>
<p>While we don’t want to think about it, death can occur and the financial consequences can be enormous. For instance, we had a friend who lost his daughter in a car accident. She had student loans that didn’t require a co-signer, so they were written off. There are grandparents who co-signed a loan, who are now responsible for paying for it when their grandchild died. That especially hurts when they are retired and on a fixed income.</p>
<p>Getting denied on a secured credit card for lack of credit history makes NO sense, any way you look at it! We keep getting credit card applications mailed to D–I wouldn’t be surprised if they deny her app even if she were to complete it because she has not held a job for at least 2 years, which I understand is what the financial institutions around here are requiring.</p>
<p>Citi has several credit cards just for college students with no annual fees.</p>
<p>DD was at a university 1500 miles from home. A credit card was not a luxury. Our experience with BofA was not heartening, and we ended up with a credit card from our local bank. It costs $3 each time she takes cash out of the ATM, but the card is in her name alone.</p>
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<p>As much as I despise the whole ‘credit score’ industry you do have to play the game or you’ll be stuck in the cold when it comes to getting anyone to give you anything (insurance, non-essential utilities, car/home loan).</p>
<p>In the past I would have said to get a college student to sign up for a basic card, use it once or twice a month and then always pay it off in full… basically just establishing a solid payment record for a few years. However these days it’s very difficult for someone without credit to establish credit since it’s a whole Catch-22 for people just starting out… you can’t get credit because you don’t have a credit history and you can’t get a credit history because nobody will give you credit.</p>
<p>My recollection from what the other credit card thread concluded:</p>
<p>Co-signing on a kid named credit card still builds credit
Getting your kid a credit card on your own account doesn’t.</p>
<p>Getting a credit card is one of the next things on our list. She already has a B of A checking and savings account, so I’ll be trying B of A first.</p>
<p>We didn’t see the point in getting our daughter a credit card for her first couple of years in college but when she was a Junior and tried to get a CC, she was denied. Finally she secured one from Capital one, specifically for college students with a low $200 authorized credit line. She’s now 24 and it’s only up to a $1,000. We found it humorous when we realized her salary was almost that much per week. Recently she had to get her credit rating to rent an apartment and found that I must have signed her up for an American Express credit card when I got one for myself through Costco. I never gave her the card because she wasn’t in the country and totally forgot about it but because I paid it off every month I was building her credit rating! We both thought that she might have had her identity stolen when we saw this strange American Express cc on the report, but admired how the “thief” was paying it off every month. </p>
<p>Our whole intention for the CC was just for the credit history. She preferred using her debit card so she wouldn’t have to remember to pay the bills.</p>