helping an adult child get started w/ credit

[Anonymous]

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@Kree wrote:

Prepaid international travel card.  No exchange fees. Loaded/reloaded at the balance you want.  Cancelable if lost/stolen. reasonable emergency cash fees for atm usage. And it looks like Visa offers them.

https://usa.visa.com/pay-with-visa/cards/prepaid-cards/travel-money-card.html

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It's even a chip+pin, wow... It's a good immediate solution, though it won't help with building credit, costs $9.95 ($5.95 if OP is an AAA member), and assumes OP is geographically near an AAA office.

[Anonymous]

Not sure if this is right for your situation but this is what I did for my daughter: I had her apply for a secured card with me added as an AU. I have access to pay if she needs money but I don't get any of the details on her spending unless I log in to the website under her account, but that was part of our deal. As an AU I didn't get hit with an inquiry and since she had just 1 brand new student loan the inq wasn't a big deal for her. We intentionally kept the CL low- only $250, but after 16 mo of fairly regular use it seems to be ok with Discover. She just got her first unsolicited CC offer from them in the mail yesterday. I figure when she gets out of Job Corp and gets employed she'll be able to apply for another card pretty easily. We use USAA and they don't report the card as secured, just as a regular card, but full disclosure - It also shows on my report the same way. Her bank supplied Vantage 3 score is now 725

[HiiiPoWeR]

Sorry I misread. I suggest adding him as AU with a warning to only use the card in emergency. 

[Anonymous]

I can confirm that AMex allows you to set any limit you want for an AU's card.

[MakingProgress]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I can confirm that AMex allows you to set any limit you want for an AU's card.

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That I didn't realize. Maybe I'll change my kids cards from the QS to my BCE.   Can you change that limit quickly in case of an emergency?