I think the info from parents needs to have the years the kids got these cards.
In 2003 and 2006, both of our kiddos got credit cards with their Bank of America college student accounts. I think the credit limit was about $300 the first year…but increased every year.
HOWEVER! The credit card industry tightened up regulations on issuing credit cards in 2008. B of A no longer just gives students credit cards…at least not students without incomes.
Some credit unions will give kids credit cards if they and their parents hold accounts.
If you want your kiddo to have a credit card for use in emergencies, you can have them added onto YOUR account. Many folks I know do this for their college age kids.
Once a kiddo graduates and has a job, getting their own credit card isn’t a huge to do.
My D was an authorized user on my card since she was 18.
Last summer she applied for a Discover student card and got it with her part time work income. It had a $1,000 limit. She used it for groceries (about $50 a week) at college, and recently it showed the credit limit had increased to $1,500.
I thought they raised it every year, but it hadn’t been a year yet.
After my son started driving, I added him to our card. He is not 18 yet.
I added D to my CC in 2009, when she went away to college. This gave her some degree of credit for my stellar credit history. She never used the card without letting me know what the charges were (I told her I’d contest them if I didn’t recognize them and she didn’t let me know that she had made them). She had no problems getting a card of her own 1-2 years later when she was at Costco and got the AmEx which was rolled over into a Visa.
S was added to one of my CCs in 2006, so this looks like before the 2008 “tightening up.” I have no idea when he started applying for and getting credit cards but he never said he had any problems getting whatever cards he wanted. His credit history (from me) is significantly older than he is.
Again, the idea is NOT to have them come out of college with a 70K+ job and a $300 credit limit. Company want to send you somewhere for a week $300 isn’t going to cut it.
Having a credit card since I was in my teens made an enormous difference when I went to buy my first house 2 years ago. I got a credit card right before the credit reform act went into effect in 08/09 (can’t remember what year it was). By the time I graduated college (2013), I had somewhere around $5k in credit and I was going into grad school so certainly no big income.
Now I’m mid-20s and have a credit line somewhere around $50k because I have a large mix of credit cards and other lines of credit. I don’t have a high income but I have a near 10-year credit history with a very high credit score. So they just keep upping my limits lol.
I very much recommend kids started building credit ASAP, assuming they’ve proven to be responsible with money.
One note on Discover: I just got my first discover about a year ago and I’ve been really surprised at how many places don’t take it. So I carry around a Discover and Chase Visa in case the Discover isn’t taken.
@CU123 — my son had a CC with his name on it but completely linked to my account. We pulled his credit rating last summer and I was very surprised to see that his credit report had 24 months of credit history for that CC, so I don’t know if your statement is true.
“I know for certain that you only build credit when you are the primary credit card account holder. IOW it can’t be another card for a child for which you are the primary account holder.”
The credit report clearly reflected the CC on which I am the primary account holder.
Same son obtained a CC in his name halfway through sophomore year of college, so last year. Originally issued with $1000 limit which has increased every six months and now carries a $2250 limit. Younger son applied for same card once he turned 18 but was only offered a $500 limit.
@romanigypsyeyes — agree with you about having the kids start building their credit now. I was concerned that my son would not pay the bills on time, so I had him set up auto pay between the CC and his checking account. It took him a couple of trips to the bank to get it set up correctly, but it works perfectly now.
Do companies that expect employees to do some work related travel still issue corporate credit cards? I always had one except for my first few years out of college in a position that didn’t require travel.
Agree with auto pay. I have mine to auto pay the minimum on all accounts just in the unlikely case that I ever forget, but I go and pay the full amount every few weeks. I just don’t make it autopay the whole thing because I like to look over the report and make sure nothing looks amiss.
@CT1417 I guess its possible but not sure how, they wouldn’t have any info on him. No SSN, no income, nothing since its your account, the only thing they would know is his address assuming its the same as yours.
@CU123—I don’t know how it happened either, but the 24 months of history were there. I can’t recall if they asked for his SSN when I had the card issued, and the oddest part is that this particular CC is one where each user has the same #. (I prefer when each user has a unique #, even if under the same account.)
And, yes, same address as mine as he was in HS when the card was issued.
@CT1417 If they asked for his SSN then it could become a joint account which would affect his credit rating. You could always look it up or call them to find out.
@romanigypsyeyes —I have my son pay the full amount and hand him his paper statements when he is here on break. I fear that he does not review it online as he should. One step at a time…
@CT1417@romanigypsyeyes@doschicos I do full balance auto pay on all my cards (and my wife’s) and have my daughters do the same on there accounts. I use the alerts to let me know about significant activity plus everything downloads into financial software which I peruse to make sure I don’t have anything unusual going on. I’ve forgotten enough times (and had to call to get refunded the late fee) that I just went with auto pay on everything.
My S has done a significant amount of travel before he got a company CC. He was to pay and get reimbursed–car rental, hotel. I think they booked his flights.
@CU123 your statement “I know for certain that you only build credit when you are the primary credit card account holder. IOW it can’t be another card for a child for which you are the primary account holder.” is not true.
If you add someone as an authorized user that person builds credit history. You don’t have to make them joint on the account, just an authorized user. I added my kids as teenagers so when they got to college they had several years of credit history when we looked at their credit report. .
Launched kiddo does full pay. When we talked the ins and outs of credit cards, I pretty much made clear that the only way to approach a credit card is to pay it off in full every month. Online access allows for easy checking. Yes, it is easy to forego otherwise and once you don’t pay the full balance you are basically paying 2 months worth of interest because most credit cards charge residual interest. The only reason to get the card was to built up some credit really.
Oh sorry I should clarify… full autopay definitely something that I did in undergrad when I used my cards rather rarely.
Now I put everything on my credit cards so I check and pay them at least weekly because it’s a habit. I would recommend people do the full pay until they feel like checking the card is a comfortable part of their routine.
Mr R has full autopay set up on the one card that he has but uses pretty rarely since he is definitely not in the routine of checking the card. He normally uses our joint cards that have cashback options.