Barclay SM for Daughter?

BluePoodle · ‎05-14-2014

My Daughter and I are considering having her app for her first CC this summer. She is only 19 and has a thin file, very thin.

She has two years worth of student loans and I have recently added her to my CC's as an AU but I have no idea how that impacts her credit file. We have never done a FICO Score pull for her and I don't even know if she would have a score. I think I have read that she would need 6 months of history but I don't know if that would be due to the CC's or if the 2 years with student loans would be long enough to generate a score?

I originally was planning to suggest to her to app for the Discover It and I was surprised this week when she actually receive an offer in the mail to apply, so assumably adding her as an AU is what generated this offer.

However, the Barclay SM card would fit her needs better as far as a cash back card. She would benefit from the Gas/Groceries/Amazon categories for 5%.

I really only want her to have 1 card for now. Do you think the SM is pushing it and just have her app for the Student Discover It card. I am sure she would be approved. Even if she only gets $500 CL, it would be fine for her needs to begin with.

Also, since she is on 3 of the four of my cards (QS, Barclay, and Discover) and the discover I opened in Jan 14, and the Barclay just this week. Does she need to "garden" before she apps since they are such new TL's even though she is only a AU? I was going to add her to my Amex too but I had to wait until I got the cards and set up my online account first before I could request it for her. I will SD 3 of my cards for her and let her have one of my cards for emergencies when she heads back to college in the fall.

Any suggestions would be welcomed. Thanks!

gh17 · ‎05-14-2014

Probably a better shot at a "student" card for your first card, so I would go with the Discover.

I'm not sure how the authorized user thing affects things. When I was 18, I couldn't get approved for any retail cards or anything and I ended up having my parents cosign on a BofA card (no rewards at the time ), and then I got them dropped off the card a year later. Worked for me, but if you can stay off of your daughter's file, that's probably better, because it doesn't really do you any good to have an extra card and then close it soon afterward.

I've known people to get approved for Discover with no history. I have no idea how Sallie Mae is about that. I guess you could try though? Worst case, it's just an inquiry.

gh17 · ‎05-14-2014

I'll also add that I don't think there's much of a point in having her "garden" when she doesn't even have a history. The whole point here is to get her started with a positive history early on. The longer you delay it, the more you're hurting her potential account age in the future.

barthooper · ‎05-14-2014

I did quite a bit of research before applying for the Sallie Mae last week (approved for $4,700) and I saw that in a few places, people were mentioning that even though it is marketed to students for the loan payoff purposes, they have fairly high requirements for it and you'd be most likely to get it with a high 600 to mid 700. I had a 725 on Transunion according to Barclays around the time I applied.

Longroad · ‎05-14-2014

My 21 year old son received the SM card this fall with approx 2 years of only student loans as history. He was able to get the Discover IT $1000 (auto CLI to $1300) and Citi Dividend $2000 as student versions and the SM $3200 and Cap 1 QS1 $300 (auto CLI to $500) as regular cards all at the same time.

My 19 year old only had 3 months with stident loans and received only the Discover IT $500 student version (auto CLI to $750) He was declined for BOA student version and SM so he stopped apping. Fast forward six months to Monday night. He apped and was instantly approved for BOA Travel Rewards $1500 and Citi TYP $1500 both student versions and SM $1600.

Both of them had FICO scores or approx 670 when approved for their cards. I helped them pull their reports to see where they were. My 19 year old had no score when we started. I guess it takes 6 months to get some history to score. Hope this helps And good luck to you and your daughter.

Kenny · ‎05-15-2014

@Longroad wrote:
My 21 year old son received the SM card this fall with approx 2 years of only student loans as history. He was able to get the Discover IT $1000 (auto CLI to $1300) and Citi Dividend $2000 as student versions and the SM $3200 and Cap 1 QS1 $300 (auto CLI to $500) as regular cards all at the same time.

My 19 year old only had 3 months with stident loans and received only the Discover IT $500 student version (auto CLI to $750) He was declined for BOA student version and SM so he stopped apping. Fast forward six months to Monday night. He apped and was instantly approved for BOA Travel Rewards $1500 and Citi TYP $1500 both student versions and SM $1600.

Both of them had FICO scores or approx 670 when approved for their cards. I helped them pull their reports to see where they were. My 19 year old had no score when we started. I guess it takes 6 months to get some history to score. Hope this helps And good luck to you and your daughter.

There we go. I honestly, think that there would be no reason the OP's DD couldn't get this. If needed to recon, could fulllllllly explain why this could would be awesome for her. Gas, groceries, books and paying back student loans? Hello! Perfect for a student!

Take the myFICO Fitness Challenge

BluePoodle · ‎05-15-2014

@Longroad wrote:
My 21 year old son received the SM card this fall with approx 2 years of only student loans as history. He was able to get the Discover IT $1000 (auto CLI to $1300) and Citi Dividend $2000 as student versions and the SM $3200 and Cap 1 QS1 $300 (auto CLI to $500) as regular cards all at the same time.

My 19 year old only had 3 months with stident loans and received only the Discover IT $500 student version (auto CLI to $750) He was declined for BOA student version and SM so he stopped apping. Fast forward six months to Monday night. He apped and was instantly approved for BOA Travel Rewards $1500 and Citi TYP $1500 both student versions and SM $1600.

Both of them had FICO scores or approx 670 when approved for their cards. I helped them pull their reports to see where they were. My 19 year old had no score when we started. I guess it takes 6 months to get some history to score. Hope this helps And good luck to you and your daughter.

Thank you Longroad and KennyRS, this is exactly what I was looking for! The SM really is a better fit for her so I hope she can get get. If not, it looks like we will try to recon and then app for the Discover It. A $500 CL would be fine, she pays for her phone bill, her sorority dues and gas/groceries/books. We may need to try to pull her score soon to see if she even has one.

BluePoodle · ‎05-15-2014

@Longroad wrote:
My 21 year old son received the SM card this fall with approx 2 years of only student loans as history. He was able to get the Discover IT $1000 (auto CLI to $1300) and Citi Dividend $2000 as student versions and the SM $3200 and Cap 1 QS1 $300 (auto CLI to $500) as regular cards all at the same time.

My 19 year old only had 3 months with stident loans and received only the Discover IT $500 student version (auto CLI to $750) He was declined for BOA student version and SM so he stopped apping. Fast forward six months to Monday night. He apped and was instantly approved for BOA Travel Rewards $1500 and Citi TYP $1500 both student versions and SM $1600.

Both of them had FICO scores or approx 670 when approved for their cards. I helped them pull their reports to see where they were. My 19 year old had no score when we started. I guess it takes 6 months to get some history to score. Hope this helps And good luck to you and your daughter.

Oh, do you mind if I ask, what kind of income did your two children have? Or did they just put "Student" under employment? My DD will earn about $3000 for the summer then she receives another $5,200 a year from her father for spending $. He has it auto depositied from his weekly paycheck into her bank account, so I assume they would count that.

BluePoodle · ‎05-15-2014

We applied for the introductory score watch with EQ for my daugher and found out that she does have a score, which is 661. She has 5 student loans and two of the 3 AU cards are showing up right now. I assume her TU would be a bit higher but at least similar in score as I find TU is a more generous in scoring that EQ. So I guess we shall see if she wants to apply now that we know she at least has a score.

She also shows only 1 year of history with 2 years worth of student loans, so I thought that was kind of strange.

Longroad · ‎05-16-2014

My sons both have about $13500 in income per year.

Good luck with your app and let us know the results

Edit: Yes they marked "student" on every application.