topic Re: 19 year old son was approved for Amex Gold in Credit Card Approvals

19 year old son was approved for Amex Gold

donze724 — Fri, 24 Jan 2025 22:29:07 GMT

Excited that my 19-year-old son has been approved for the Amex Gold card based on his own credit! Over the past two years, he has been an authorized user on my Amex Skymiles, Capital One Platinum, and Discover IT cards, and it has definitely paid off. He's also making minimum payments on a student loan—even while in deferment as a full-time college student—so the installment plan will reflect on his credit report. So far, so good! He understands the importance of not using credit cards for substantial purchases unless he has the funds to pay them off in full.

Re: 19 year old son was approved for Amex Gold

quickstep_knoll — Fri, 24 Jan 2025 22:49:53 GMT

Congrats to him. That's definitely an interesting first primary card.

Re: 19 year old son was approved for Amex Gold

GZG — Fri, 24 Jan 2025 23:08:26 GMT

congrats to DS on the great approval!!

Re: 19 year old son was approved for Amex Gold

Dcowboy08 — Sat, 25 Jan 2025 00:15:40 GMT

Grats to the boy... Now when can we expect grandkids?

Re: 19 year old son was approved for Amex Gold

cashorcharge — Sat, 25 Jan 2025 00:51:43 GMT

That’s Terrific!! Congratulations on his Approval!!👏🏼🍾🥂

Re: 19 year old son was approved for Amex Gold

StrongerReturn2018 — Sat, 25 Jan 2025 05:05:14 GMT

Congratulations to your son.🎉

Re: 19 year old son was approved for Amex Gold

12njoy — Sat, 25 Jan 2025 17:41:08 GMT

Teaching him well. My daughter got this same card 3 months ago with a starting limit of 2k and just did the 3X CLI to 6k.

Re: 19 year old son was approved for Amex Gold

CreditAggie — Mon, 27 Jan 2025 02:36:22 GMT

Congratulations on DS Amex Gold approval!

Re: 19 year old son was approved for Amex Gold

ptatohed — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 02:22:46 GMT

I never would have thought of a $325 AF card as my first card when I was 19!!!

Re: 19 year old son was approved for Amex Gold

Realist — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 02:50:48 GMT

Nice job teaching him well, definitely on the right track.

Is there any specific reason why he choose to pick a higher AF card out of the gate? I'm actually curious to know if it was strategic, desire, or random choice? We went a similar route with one of ours, we had a number of kids we helped out over time, but with only a $40'ish annual card. Now for ours that single card line naturally grew to $20,000+. And they're just kids to boot. So.... back in my day.....

Congrats. Sincerely.

Re: 19 year old son was approved for Amex Gold

donze724 — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 03:49:20 GMT

Great question. Also adding @ptatohed to this reply. The AF is offset by the benefits for Dunkin ($84), Uber Cash ($120) and the dining credit ($120).

Re: 19 year old son was approved for Amex Gold

ptatohed — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 08:42:02 GMT

Thanks for the reply @donze724 . I see. But it still seems a little complicated for a first card. When my oldest turns 18, I think I will encourage him to select a simple 2% CB card and call it good. (At 14, he's an AU on a few of my cards, hopefully establishing a credit history now).

Re: 19 year old son was approved for Amex Gold

donze724 — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 12:35:08 GMT

I appreciate the thoughts and pragmatism.

Okay....okay, I guess we did not think it all the way through and got caught up in the moment. Probably should have first done some research here

@ptatohed wrote:
Thanks for the reply @donze724 . I see. But it still seems a little complicated for a first card. When my oldest turns 18, I think I will encourage him to select a simple 2% CB card and call it good. (At 14, he's an AU on a few of my cards, hopefully establishing a credit history now).

Re: 19 year old son was approved for Amex Gold

12njoy — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 12:49:41 GMT

@donze724

I think the card is worth a first card even with a $150 AF. As I said, I got the same card for my 19 year old daughter. Just take a moment and think of the points redemption. Next think of the money your 19 might waste or spend friviously in the course of a year. Rather that be dining out, clothes, electronics, etc. I'm sure if you look at that even on a monthly basis, it's more than $12.50 a month which prorated out for a year would be the AF without the points redemption. IMO the benefits outway the AF especially considering if your 19 year old is anything like the typical 19 year old, they're wasting that amount in other areas anyway.

Re: 19 year old son was approved for Amex Gold

markhs777 — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 21:27:02 GMT

Nice.. at that age I would whip out my Orchard card and thought my dates would be impressed.

Re: 19 year old son was approved for Amex Gold

BallBounces — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 22:06:46 GMT

@donze724 wrote:
Great question. Also adding @ptatohed to this reply. The AF is offset by the benefits for Dunkin ($84), Uber Cash ($120) and the dining credit ($120).

I am sure you understand each of those benefits are proportioned monthly. To reap them all will require 3 "swipes" every month, certainly totaling more than the credit amount each month. This will create a cash flow requirement, lets conservatively say, of $60 to cover them on a monthly basis.

Is that impossible, of course not! But for a 19 year old, Paying $325 a year for the privelege of having to make three purchases a month totaling $~700 a year to get reimbursed for the up front $325 charge is not something I would generally advise. Some might though!

Heck, I am an older, higher income dude and I am about ready to pitch that gold card in the bin after this recent AF increase. Last thing I need is to be eating more doughnuts.

Re: 19 year old son was approved for Amex Gold

BallBounces — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 22:09:53 GMT

@12njoy wrote:

I think the card is worth a first card even with a $150 AF.

What about with a $325 annual fee?

Re: 19 year old son was approved for Amex Gold

BudC2 — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 22:34:34 GMT

I'm not trying to be insulting to anyone that has one of these high AF cards, but I don't get the allure and certainly not the reasoning for having one. 4x points on supermarkets and restaurants. I'm 61 and could never justify eating out or buying that much in groceries to cover the cost of a $325 AF. I can't imagine a 19 year old doing that with the income a 19 year old would have. 3x points on airline tickets. Do you people fly that much? I can get 3x cash back on groceries and dining out with a Savor one and pay no annual fee. Even with an Amex BCE. What am I missing here? Then there's the higher AF of an Amex Platinum or whatever the next higher card is. The only AF card I'm even considering is Navy Fed's Flagship and that's only because I can get Amazon Prime free with a $45 AF. That saves something like $94/yr on Amazon Prime. With respect, please explain.

Re: 19 year old son was approved for Amex Gold

12njoy — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 22:44:13 GMT

@BallBounces wrote:
@12njoy wrote:

I think the card is worth a first card even with a $150 AF.
What about with a $325 annual fee?

My apologies to you, the group and OP. I misread the thread. My Daughter has the Delta Gold Amex card which is $150 AF after the 2nd year. 1st year no AF. The sub was 80,000 points which IMO is well worth the $150 AF for the 2nd year. I was wondering what all the bluff was about and now I understand

Re: 19 year old son was approved for Amex Gold

BallBounces — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 23:02:39 GMT

@12njoy wrote:
@BallBounces wrote:
@12njoy wrote:

I think the card is worth a first card even with a $150 AF.
What about with a $325 annual fee?
My apologies to you, the group and OP. I misread the thread. My Daughter has the Delta Gold Amex card which is $150 AF after the 2nd year. 1st year no AF. The sub was 80,000 points which IMO is well worth the $150 AF for the 2nd year. I was wondering what all the bluff was about and now I understand

And of course SUBs can fundamentally change the math! No AF, easy SUB, 80,000 miles .... Dad might get that for daughter to fund the trips home from college if he is buying a ticket or two off the bat ...

It's a different thing than the Gold with $350 AF and no mention (or reason to think an independant 19 year old would run through a gold charge card SUB on their own).