<p>DS has our credit card – that is, DH has one, I have one, and DS has the third. He charges things onto our card when he needs to. I want him to have his own, separate card.</p>
<p>He just graduated last June and got a second Bachelors (in engineering) in December. He is scheduled to start his new job, in another state, in the beginning of April.</p>
<p>He has a small student loan which he just paid off.</p>
<p>He applied to get a card in his own name, and Citicards has declined his application, for the following reasons:</p>
<p>Length of time accounts have been established on your credit report
Your credit report shows proportion of loan balance to loan amounts is too high
There is a lack of recent revolving account information on your credit report
There is a lack of recent bank/national revolving information on your credit report.</p>
<p>Yet, they give his credit score as being 654, which isn’t – horrible.</p>
<p>I don’t remember having this problem with my older son.</p>
<p>Our DS was able to get one with our bank. It has a low limit, $2500, but that is ok too. He didn’t have any problems getting that. They have a special program set up for college students for that card (Wells). I think it started with a $1000 limit. We had him get it when he was 18 to start building a credit rating exactly for the reasons your son was turned down. We will do the same for the rest of the kids.</p>
<p>Agree with SteveMa. The easiest CC’s to get in our experience were ones through the kids own bank. A low credit limit is usually enough for a young adult.</p>
<p>If the limit is really low, he might need to stay on your credit card account, too, in case he has to buy anything expensive.</p>
<p>One of my kids, a recent graduate, has a joint credit card account with me. Her employer expects her to pay for travel-related expenses in advance and get reimbursed. She would not be able to do this without the larger limit that we were able to get because of my income.</p>
<p>VeryHappy…the credit card industry has changed a lot in the last couple of years. If possible, be a bit patient. Once our DD graduated, she began to receive credit card solicitations in the mail. She still has her B of A Visa (hers was the last year when incoming freshmen got a credit card as part of the student package). </p>
<p>I’m surprised you aren’t already getting these solicitations in the mail…maybe they are going to his school address?</p>
<p>In any event…the worst would be if he had to wait a month or two into his employment to get a credit card. Does he have a bank account…has he tried applying with that bank?</p>
<p>S1andonly was rejected by several after college. He just kept applying to the solicitations he received. Eventually one accepted. Told him to charge a few things and pay it off and to do this occasionally to establish credit.</p>
<p>My SIL just got her first CC. She is unemployed, single and in her 50’s. But she has a large amount of money deposited in a local bank, so they gave her a CC.</p>
<p>There are various ways, even in this tough credit climate.</p>
<p>I’m going to echo the bank where he currently has a bank account. Try not to let him apply to a bunch of credit cards at once- try to apply only to ones that you’re pretty sure he’ll get. The more hard inquiries, the lower your credit score. </p>
<p>$2500 is a pretty high limit for a first credit card. I just got a new credit card a few months ago (I’m 21… I might have been 20 when I applied)- I make decent income, have had a credit card for 5 years (I have four total now), make car payments, and have never even been late on a payment and they still only approved me for $1500 to start with this newest credit card. </p>
<p>Also try credit unions. Is your son’s U associated with a credit union or bank? They tend to be more lenient with students/alumni. </p>
<p>As SteveMA said, it’s reasons like this that it’s important to start building credit early. But that’s not the issue at hand.</p>
<p>Capital one will usually give a card with a low balance for beginners. High rate, but if you pay, eh, it’s the deal for getting credit established. My d started with capital one and after a year got a bank card and an amex…</p>
<p>My suggestion is start in college, freshman year, even with a card that requires a deposit. Getting an apartment etc will need credit</p>
<p>Agreed. Although I was offered many opportunities to obtain credit cards as a college freshman in the more freewheeling '90s…my fear of getting myself mired in credit card debt that I saw with some older cousins and college classmates caused me to decide to wait until graduation. </p>
<p>That was a mistake as I found my lack of established credit history and relatively low bank balance really hampered me in getting apartments and getting more desirable credit cards beyond Discovery…which some establishments I patronized wouldn’t accept. It took around six months of working after graduation to get my bank’s credit card and another year and a half afterwards to get the desired credit card I wanted to cover all my bases(AMEX Blue). The last was a bit amusingly ironic as they solicited my application the second time after rejecting my first application two years before. Now I have a few credit cards…of which I only use one frequently and charge occasional amounts on others to keep them active…and make damned sure I remain a “deadbeat”* as far as the credit card companies are concerned. </p>
<ul>
<li>Term credit card companies use for customers who pay their monthly balances in full…which means they end up earning nothing from the high interest they hoped to charge to us…</li>
</ul>
<p>I would get a capital one card, he shouldn’t have any issues there. It shouldn’t matter what the interest rate is because he should be paying it off in full each month. If he’s not planning to pay it off in full then he shouldn’t have a credit card because they all have crazy interest.</p>
<p>I disagree. Even with an absurdly high interest rate, I never pay more than $4/5 in interest on my Cap One credit card when I don’t pay it off. That’s small pickles compared to not having credit. It’s very much worth it to have a credit card even if you can’t pay it off immediately, as long as you’re able to pay it off quickly-ish and never be late on a payment.</p>
<p>Quickly ish. Even if its four or five dollars that’s money wasted. People shouldn’t buy things they can’t pay off in full. Its not a good habit to get into. The only exception would be like college, house, and car. Now if there is a medical emergency and you wind up with a crazy bill, I can see putting that on a card and not being able to pay it off in full right away.</p>
<p>An issue for my son too - he’s on our checking account and one of my credit cards. His paycheck is going into our checking account for now which means I’ll have to keep track of his balances (which I don’t want to do). I was thinking of suggesting that he get an account at one of the larger Boston banks but I just had a look at one (with a really convenient ATM) and they have fees below $7,500 combined balance. I’m not used to minimum balances for free checking (and everything else) because we’ve been in a credit union for the last few decade so no fees. He can make the combined balance pretty easily. I guess we’d look to them for a Visa or Mastercard at the same bank.</p>
<p>fender, that $4 or $5 is a small price to pay for established credit and to have that credit line if necessary. Yes, it’s money wasted, but it’s a small price to pay.</p>
<p>I assume, BCEagle, that you mean your DS has his own checking account linked to yours. At least I hope thats what you mean. Or maybe you are a co-signatory on his account. But if he is a college grad and has his own income he should be establishing his own credit and financial management, not co-mingling his income/expenses with yours. </p>
<p>We transferred the title of older s’s car to him when he graduated (or within that year sometime) and had him get separate auto insurance (still through our same insurer, USAA). We lost the family discount for him anyway as he was in a different state. If heaven forbid he had an accident and someone was hurt, we’d prefer to minimize our exposure, and as owners of the car/insurance we would be exposed. Now thats not a major reason we had him take ownership of the car (which he sold and replaced), and we have umbrella insurance, but its a piece of the “you are old enough to take responsibility” puzzle.</p>
<p>He is on our checking account as is our daughter. He needed a place for direct deposit in a hurry so he just used our account. He’s been busy working and finding an apartment and then setting it up so he hasn’t had time to look for a bank account or credit card. He will continue to have access to our accounts but he needs these for himself and our credit union, while incredibly convenient for me, isn’t for him.</p>
<p>He’s actually still in school (has a few courses to finish his MS) and will be taking one course part time for a while to finish that.</p>
<p>Many credit unions have cooperative arrangements with other cr unions, and many don’t charge fees to use other ATMs. He should look into openig his own cking account with the cr union, even if its not in the city he’ll be in.</p>
<p>Our credit union provides 4 or 8 (don’t recall) foreign transactions per month but I assume that’s combined for the account. There are no branches of the credit union where he is which would be a pain for non-routine transactions where he has to go into the branch.</p>
<p>It would make it easier to transfer his funds though as the credit union has instant transfer of funds to another credit union member (which is pretty cool).</p>