What credit cards do your students have? When S16 went to school, he applied through usaa (I’ve been a member for 30 years) and got a $2500 Visa Preferred, cash back. He has it on his own. I am not a co-signer. I’ve spent the last few weeks going around and around with usaa trying to do the same for S19. We finally got to the point to apply, and he was denied for lack of credit history. When I called they said they no longer give cards to students. Does that sound right? And I wish they had told me this at the beginning of the summer. Now we are running out of time. I tried to get him one with H’s card (amazon) and again was denied.
So what do your students have? I’m only looking for $1000-2500 max. If I have to co-sign, I will. He is well schooled on credit card/interest, and is not a big spender. I just think it’s important to start building up his own history.
We couldn’t get a card for our D either. We have a joint card that she’s using for emergencies. She’s currently working at school and one of her “to do” items was to go to the credit union and re-apply now that she’s working and has a signed co-op offer for next year.
I made both of my kids authorized users on one of my credit cards, which has worked quite well for us. Authorized users can build a credit history even though they are not the primary cardholder. My son was able to get a Discover card as a student as well.
My D is an authorized user on my AMEX platinum card…after some amount of research, we chose AMEX (we have other cards too) as it was free to add her and they specifically said even though she is an auth user on my account it will still build a credit history for her.
I was not able to get my college student a credit card applying online. Going to a local BofA branch, they were able to answer the questions so that she got one. It is worth a try.
Our S16 got a Mastercard through Bank of America. We did not need to co-sign (I thought we would have, so that was a surprise). He had checking account already (for years) so that’s why no need to cosign I guess.
thanks all! I’m glad to know it isn’t so easy for everyone. S16 had no issue with USAA. But, we just applied for the Discover Student card and was approved for $1500. Yay!
Make the kid an authorized user on your account…but be VERY clear on what your expectation is for use. If you don’t want Starbucks everyday, or Springsteen concert tickets…make that clear.
Our kids actually had student credit cards but the limit was SOOOO low that it wasn’t sufficient to book an airline ticket if needed. So one was an authorized user on one of our accounts solely for emergencies. If there was some other big ticket item the kid needed, she had to callus first. She knew that if she abused the use, we would remove her from the card.
The credit card companies have become more restrictive with college student accounts…which is not a bad thing.
Before going off to college my kids went in to the local Wells Fargo branch where they had bank accounts and set up credit card accounts. Initially they might have been “secured” credit cards, tied to their bank accounts, but I don’t remember. They also set it up so that the CC balance was automatically paid in full every month, directly from their bank accounts. The idea was for them to use the cards minimally but regularly in order to establish a good credit history. It worked well.
Be careful with Discover - their student card interest rates are outrageous so make sure your s knows to pay on time!
My kids are both USAA members and one has a bank account there. After a couple of years of having her checking and savings with them she got preapproved for a credit card. She was a student and had no income so not sure if that was “back then” with USAA. My younger opened her accounts with Wells Fargo last year and her debit card is usable as a credit card. I am hoping after a year or so she’ll get a similar deal - she does have a job so maybe it’ll work out. Both of them also have a card of mine that they use for anything I pay for - school books and travel expenses during the year, groceries when they are home on breaks.
Thanks again! I have been very open with them about finances since they were in middle school. They’ve known about credit cards, compound interest, etc. They also always knew how much we made (or didn’t make), our debts, etc. They know why we do what we do from a financial aspect. Both of them have had savings/debit cards since they were in elementary school, and neither of them seem to spend more than they have. Older S has fancy tastes, but he is more creative in earning the $$$. Younger S just likes to hoard it mostly. But, it never hurts to go over it with the younger S again.
At the beginning of the summer, I sent them off together to drive cross country to older S’s internship city. I gave them my emergency credit card for expenses. They did well enough. Just fast food/gas and cheaper hotels that I would have preferred (I’m a Holiday Inn/Best Western type person) to save me $$$. I let older S keep the card over the summer in case anything major popped up. He did use it to set up initial charges since he gets paid monthly, but he always asks before making a charge. Of course, they also know that with the internet/phone, any time I charge happens, it pops up on my phone! LOL.
For my S we got an extra Visa card on our account but this did not help to build up his credit rating. So for my D we got a student Discover card and it worked out well-- it had a small limit and she built up her own credit rating. Of course in all cases the student has to be responsible financially.
I have posted many times on this. I didn’t let my kids have their own credit cards until they were off my payroll. I gave them my platinum AmEx and a Visa card. They had to be very careful on using my cards because I saw all usages. When they were ready to get their own cards, both of them got 15-20K credit limits. Apparently my good credit transferred to them.
We got D an AmEx Costco (which was converted to a Citi Visa). She was shopping with us and took pity on the poor guy who was trying to sign people up. He took her info and she was approved on the spot. She was told that her “income” included the money WE paid toward her college expenses. She got a credit limit that was bigger than the guy signing people up! They were both surprised, as she didn’t have a job!
My kids were authorized users in our credit cards since middle school. ( I know sone kids that age can’t handle it but our had no issues). In college they both remained so. But my daughter who went to Michigan was able to get her own CC because PNC bank had a relationship with the college. I’m sure the interest rates were outrageous but who cares. Both my kids were taught to pay cc weekly to help track spending. Interest rates were irrelevant.
My kids had their own debit cards plus a card . They also had cards on on our JetBlue (was AmEx at the time, now Chase) - I did it to get airline points and also have an easy way for them to do “parent approved” expenses like son’s travel to/from his college in Boston. I surprised (happily so) that they received a credit score based on my payments … not saying this is really fair, but it seems to be how things worked. That mean that we did not have to cosign for DD’s first apartment after college - YAY.
I thought about getting an Amex card for my son under my account, but because I have a platinum card, they would give him only a platinum or gold card. I would have done it if they would have given him a regular green card, but I felt strange about him walking around campus with a gold card. Otherwise, Amex works pretty well, as I would have been able to set his individual credit limit at any level and he would have been able to build up his credit history. In the end, I got him a card under my CapOne account instead, and that had the same benefits - they will cut him off if he exceeds the limit I’ve set. That credit card will be for emergencies, and he will also have his own debit card and hopefully his own credit card, albeit with a lower limit.
I also put each child on a CC with me when they started college with a credit limit of about $2500. It was so they could pay for a plane fare, car repair, books or emergency if needed. They needed to let me know if they used it. They got my great credit history from that. They never abused cards.
How are you getting the additional users cards to have different limits from the main user? I don’t seem to be able to do that on any of my cards. One of my CC is the same number for all cards, another has different user numbers.