<p>“Even if you pay it off when the statement comes, you’re in debt for that period.”</p>
<p>annasdad has helped me see my life in a different light. As I now see things, I’m in debt a dozen times a week. Each time I permit a cashier to tell me how much owe for a purchase, I’m obviously in debt until I hand over the cash. If I have to fumble for change, I’m in debt twice as long!</p>
<p>Honestly, it’s been three pages since anything new and constructive was posted. (Sorry jym, fendergirl, oldfort, annasdad … but I think your earlier posts said it all.)</p>
<p>I’m shocked that students who have presumably been carefully counseled by their parents about responsible use of credit cards and equally presumably promised their parents that they would use those cards responsibly would, first of all, be so irresponsible as to buy things they could not pay for, and second, attempt to deceive their parents about what they had done.</p>
<p>To the OP - I can’t speak for the other companies but like I mentioned I am only familiar with Capital One… I started with them @16 with a $500 limit w/ my mom as a cosigner. It showed up on her credit report as well. When I turned 18 they mailed me something saying they were removing my moms name from the card and they upped my limit to I believe $2000 (not 100% sure on that.). Definitely came in handy when I was in college because on more then one occasion I had to make purchases of more then $500. (Books, supplies, etc). I would think if this is your D’s first card they would start with a pretty low limit as well. They were really good about the whole thing. Every time I tried to buy something big and have it shipped to me at college they called me to make sure the charge was legitimate.</p>
<p>Most kids use paperless statements because its greener and easier. Heck, he deposits checks into his checking account by taking a picture with his phone! Ain’t technology grand! We love the one month of free credit the companies give us before we have to pay for our stuff. Its not debt, its a free loan. NO one is buying something they can’t afford they are getting to keep the money in their bank/savings account (earning a piddly interest) for a month longer. And, with the credit cards giving percentages back on these purchases, they are paying us to use their cards. What a win-win!!</p>
<p>I’m probably one of the few people that does not use paperless statements on my credit card. I get so many e-mails and I ignore half of them so I’m afraid I would miss the one giving me the amount due and by what date.</p>
<p>Yes, those money back credit cards are a nice perk. The first time my daughter received her check for her Costco credit card, she thought she had to spend it at Costco. Instead, she could go into the store and receive cash, cash that she can use anywhere. She ended up just putting the money in her checkbook to pay bills or whatever. I think it was close to $200, a nice bit of found money! With the price of gas, this years check should be rather high ;)</p>
<p>How were you able to check your adult child’s credit score ? I would like to see if my 21 year old has any score…she thinks all credit cards are corporate rip-offs and refuses to get one. At our insistence she does carry a card on our account in case of emergencies. I’m sure this will come back to bite her in the backside when she tries to engage in adult transaction like apartment rental .</p>
<p>Snowball, I have my CC send me a check about 2 weeks prior to me going on a vacation and that becomes my spending money. It’s definitely a great perk!!</p>
<p>Dragonmom, my parents, my sister, and myself check our credit scores and reports online each year. I think it’s at freecreditreport.com. The report is free but you have to pay for the score. 22 year old sister is around 750-780 I believe. Last time I checked mine it was in the low 800’s if I am remembering correctly… but we both started our credit history at 16.</p>
SS #, home address, any online free credit report site. D1 and I talked about her report. We signed up for it prior to her employment background check just to make sure everything was fine.</p>
<p>How long do the electronic records stay available on line, fendergirl? I prefer paperless becuase I always go over my accounts and match up the receipts each month. If I ever needed to go back to a paperless account a year or more later, would the information still be accessible?</p>
<p>jym, I don’t know how long the electronic records stay online… I get the paper ones in the mail. I’m pretty sure you can go back more then a year, but beyond that I don’t know. My 401k goes back 2 years online (I get a paper statement from them too), and my paystubs at work go back 2 years as well. (they don’t do paper ones when you have direct deposit.)</p>
<p>Good for you that you have a 401K! You go girl!</p>
<p>My s’s have set up Roths with income earned. Hope you’ve done that too. I can tell fromw what you say about your financial house being is such order, that surely you’ve got a Roth.</p>
<p>Unfortunately I don’t. I’ve thought about it but haven’t done anything on that one yet. I have my 401k which both myself and my employer contribute to and I have a pension as well which I am fully vested in. </p>
<p>collage1, I did think of one other thing… if you do decide on a CC for D make sure it’s from a big company that you have heard of. Sister tried out a CC from a smaller bank that she found online somewhere and they had ridiculous service charges for things. Call in your payment, pay a fee. Make your payment online, pay a fee.</p>
<p>jym626, thank you for the link to the last post about this topic. Between the info from this thread along with that thread, I have the info I need…it does seem somewhat questionable about whether an 18 without a real income source will even be able to qualify for a cc, but between our local credit union, seeing if she’s eligible for one from the bank she chooses in her college town, Capital One’s Journey Student Rewards Card and CitiBank’s CitiForward card, we have a direction to pursue!</p>
<p>Thank you again to those who helped me with my question.</p>
<p>Neither H nor I nor either of our kids has EVER paid ANY late or finance charges. H & I have always charged nearly everything we can & like getting “cash back.” We added our kids to our credit cards when they started college. Not sure what it does to either of their credit scores that they’ve been on our accounts for so many years.</p>
<p>S had no trouble getting a lease in his name alone in college and also when he started his job in VA. He also had no trouble getting a GOLD AmEx card with the 1st 2 years free. He abhors debt and has always been an extremely good saver and very careful with his money. D so far has been learning and doing a decent job. Personally, I have been very happy with the AmEx Costco card, especially their extended warranty free protection, which may have swayed S toward signing up with AmEx.</p>
<p>We really didn’t push our kids to get their own CCs when they were in school, since they had no means to pay them off. We did add them to our CCs & got a CC with a fairly low credit limit that they used in case of need. They have been very responsible & always told us when they made any charges.</p>
<p>Both kids did get a lot of offers when they were in school but weren’t interested. I personally like the cashback cards – Fidelity has one that gives 2% that sounds attractive, which I would recommend if either of my kids asked me. I did send S info about it but so far, he’s happy with his Charles Schwab no-fee debit card & his AmEx Gold card.</p>