I'm posting this just to relate the sheer shock of it.
My 18 year old daughter and I went to Chase to do some banking. My daughter works part-time and is a full-time college student. The teller tells my daughter, "I see here that you are pre-approved for a $7500 Visa Plantinum card."
Wth? I said, "She's 18! There must be some mistake."
"No, it's on my screen here." Good heavens.
I said, "Is she pre-approved, or pre-qualified? This doesn't make sense." She confirms that it's an approval. I told her, "She got a preapproval letter a month ago, but was denied when she applied." Again she assured us that this was a preapproval and she was, in essence, already approved for the card.
I said, "It's insane to give a $7500 credit limit to an 18 year old as her first card." My daughter burst into tears, thinking that she now owed the bank $7500. lol. So, I explained it all to her and told her to get a lower limit because $7500 is just asking for trouble on a first card, IMO. So, the teller said she'd request the card and we agreed on a $3000 limit. (Not too low, for utilization purposes, but not too high, to keep her from getting carried away.)
As she filled out the app. online, she asked for the total HHI, looking at me and telling me, "All money coming into the house---you, your husband, anyone." ??? Well, okay. So, I actually figured a bit on the low side and gave her a number. When my daughter applied online last month in response to the preapproval she'd received, we used only her income, which I assume is why she didn't get the card. I don't know. Frankly, I'm still a little stunned.
Of course, about 18 months ago, I added both her and her sister on a couple of our older accounts as AUs, just for the history and to get them off to a good credit start, but still. She doesn't even have a car loan. She just (last month) got a Stafford loan for school. I don't know what her scores are. If she'd stand still long enough, we could order them for her, but you know how teenagers are. 