topic Re: Recommendations: Credit Card for 18 year old? in Credit Card Applications

Recommendations: Credit Card for 18 year old?

lord_kinbote — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 15:06:10 GMT

Morning.

I added step daughter to my Amex / Citi / Barclay cards back in 2014 as an AU and now that she has turned 18, I am trying to obtain her a credit card. In Janaury when she turned 18, I attempted Chase Freedom but the application was declined. I just signed her up for MyFICO 3B this morning and the FICO scores are as follows;

EQ: 740

EX: 780

TU: 757

Inquires:

EQ: 1 - Chase

EX: 0

TU: 1 - Chase

I really do not understand why her scores are this high with no credit history, but any recommendations on cards would be appreciated. I tried Chase pre-qualify and capital one pre-qualify sites and nothing shows up. Thanks in advance for the help.

Re: Recommendations: Credit Card for 18 year old?

SecretAzure — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 14:59:52 GMT

A secured card is always a good place to start. Although, her scores are suspiciously high. Is it possible she is an authorized user on somebody's card? Or maybe she has a school/auto loan. Alternatively, she could start with an Amex Green (charge card) but I would rather a Discover It (Student) or BoA secured card before a charge card.

Re: Recommendations: Credit Card for 18 year old?

CreditDunce — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 15:06:48 GMT

I think Chase ignores AU and store accounts with their internal score. Perhaps she should try Discover? Or she could app for a card from one of the CCC's you have added her as an AU (Amex, Barclay, etc).

Re: Recommendations: Credit Card for 18 year old?

KSK1912 — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 15:08:00 GMT

@babson wrote:
Morning.

I added step daughter to my Amex / Citi / Barclay cards back in 2014 as an AU and now that she has turned 18, I am trying to obtain her a credit card. In Janaury when she turned 18, I attempted Chase Freedom but the application was declined. I just signed her up for MyFICO 3B this morning and here FICO scores are as follows;

EQ: 740
EX: 780
TU: 757

Inquires:

EQ: 1 - Chase
EX: 0
TU: 1 - Chase

I really do not understand why her scores are this high with no credit history, but any recommendations on cards would be appreciated. I tried Chase pre-qualify and capital one pre-qualify sites and nothing shows up. Thanks in advance for the help.

Those are nice scores, but always keep in mind that the credit file itself will override the scores in this case. Does she have a job, income? Don't go after the big lenders yet. Score may be good but the very thin credit file will prevent her from getting approved as most lender can overlook the AU accounts. Right now, seems like Amex has opened gates of approval after losing their accounts costco and the hotel chain they are about to lose due to it being purchased by another franchise (i forgot its name). Amex seems to be accepting thin files with no baddies. I think she should be good for a BCE or Everyday card with no annual fee and nice. It is definitely a good brand to get and soft pull cli's. That is one card i can think of. Sometimes you may not get any offers but it does not mean that you will not be approved for it. Try amex pre qualify and see if anything comes up. Please update the post with the results so others can benefit from your experience as well. She is in a good spot to start and hopefully with couple nice approvals, i can see her hitting 800 mark just within a year or so. And one more thing. Amex only pulls Ex, so just incase she is denied, she will have only 1 inq on Ex, and more importantly, being an AU on another Amex account, any denial may just mean a soft pull which she will not even get an inq hit at all. With amex, i am sure you may know it, but if you have an account and you apply for another card, it is a hard inquiry only if you are approved, if not, then no inq, only soft pull. I would definitely take advantage of it. Good Luck!

Re: Recommendations: Credit Card for 18 year old?

lord_kinbote — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 15:09:21 GMT

@SecretAzure wrote:
A secured card is always a good place to start. Although, her scores are suspiciously high. Is it possible she is an authorized user on somebody's card? Or maybe she has a school/auto loan. Alternatively, she could start with an Amex Green (charge card) but I would rather a Discover It (Student) or BoA secured card before a charge card.

Yes, I stated that I added her as an AU back in 2014 to my Amex / Citi / Barclay SM cards. No other history. She does not want Amex because she has ran into problems using my BCP card at two stores (nails and Cato). I am looking for a MasterCard or Visa.

Re: Recommendations: Credit Card for 18 year old?

lord_kinbote — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 15:16:29 GMT

@KSK1912 wrote:
@babson wrote:
Morning.

I added step daughter to my Amex / Citi / Barclay cards back in 2014 as an AU and now that she has turned 18, I am trying to obtain her a credit card. In Janaury when she turned 18, I attempted Chase Freedom but the application was declined. I just signed her up for MyFICO 3B this morning and here FICO scores are as follows;

EQ: 740
EX: 780
TU: 757

Inquires:

EQ: 1 - Chase
EX: 0
TU: 1 - Chase

I really do not understand why her scores are this high with no credit history, but any recommendations on cards would be appreciated. I tried Chase pre-qualify and capital one pre-qualify sites and nothing shows up. Thanks in advance for the help.

Those are nice scores, but always keep in mind that the credit file itself will override the scores in this case. Does she have a job, income? Don't go after the big lenders yet. Score may be good but the very thin credit file will prevent her from getting approved as most lender can overlook the AU accounts. Right now, seems like Amex has opened gates of approval after losing their accounts costco and the hotel chain they are about to lose due to it being purchased by another franchise (i forgot its name). Amex seems to be accepting thin files with no baddies. I think she should be good for a BCE or Everyday card with no annual fee and nice. It is definitely a good brand to get and soft pull cli's. That is one card i can think of. Sometimes you may not get any offers but it does not mean that you will not be approved for it. Try amex pre qualify and see if anything comes up. Please update the post with the results so others can benefit from your experience as well. She is in a good spot to start and hopefully with couple nice approvals, i can see her hitting 800 mark just within a year or so. And one more thing. Amex only pulls Ex, so just incase she is denied, she will have only 1 inq on Ex, and more importantly, being an AU on another Amex account, any denial may just mean a soft pull which she will not even get an inq hit at all. With amex, i am sure you may know it, but if you have an account and you apply for another card, it is a hard inquiry only if you are approved, if not, then no inq, only soft pull. I would definitely take advantage of it. Good Luck!

Thanks for the info. She had some issues with Amex, but I may try just to get an account established. I will let you know the results.

Re: Recommendations: Credit Card for 18 year old?

CYBERSAM — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 15:21:11 GMT

try Discover and CapOne QS!

if they both failed for some reason you can get DCU, they known to issue CC to younger people with not much of income and no credit history.

Re: Recommendations: Credit Card for 18 year old?

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 15:25:28 GMT

I would suggest a card that has a very low limit. Not that I'm judging the credit card spending habits of your child, but personally I would plan for the worst with my children no matter how responsible they seem. At least then I know I can pay off the entire balance and lesson learned. A 10K pill would be much harder to swallow than a $500 one.

As far as cards, Capital One seems pretty laxed on their credit file criteria - maybe a Quicksilver card?

Another option would be a local credit union credit card - mine doesn't seem to even take into account other things in your credit file. They purely use credit score and have set tiers for each card:

680 - Platinum

620 - Gold

580 - Classic

Re: Recommendations: Credit Card for 18 year old?

lord_kinbote — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 15:25:14 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I would suggest a card that has a very low limit. Not that I'm judging the credit card spending habits of your child, but personally I would plan for the worst with my children no matter how responsible they seem. At least then I know I can pay off the entire balance and lesson learned. A 10K pill would be much harder to swallow than a $500 one.

As far as cards, Capital One seems pretty laxed on their credit file criteria - maybe a Quicksilver card?

lol, you do not have to worry about that. She does not like to spend her money, she much rather spend mine! We pay for her gas/food. She works part-time at Malco Theaters, as she is in school. I did the pre-qualify and Captial One and nothing came up, not sure if that matters. I am about to go do Amex to see if they approve.

Re: Recommendations: Credit Card for 18 year old?

baller4life — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 15:25:30 GMT

Discover loves thin files!

Re: Recommendations: Credit Card for 18 year old?

SecretAzure — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 15:44:16 GMT

My apologies for ignoring half of your post OP. I'm at work and was really excited to find out more lol. Visa or MC pretty much shrinks your choices down to Capital One or one of the easier major bank cards "Chase Slate" would probably be an instant approval with those scores. Cap1 has a bunch of cards she could probably get approved for. Remember that with Cap1 it's going to be 3 hard pulls. If you don't mind, then that's a good place to be.

I know you're not looking at Amex because of the situation but BCE and ED from them grow at a crazy fast rate when compared to other cards. Discover It also grows pretty fast. Know that you're losing those perks by choosing Cap1.

Re: Recommendations: Credit Card for 18 year old?

lord_kinbote — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 15:51:42 GMT

Ok, I just applied for the Amex BCE and she was approved with a 2k starting limit. I would like to add a Visa or Master Card, but may give it some time as I would prefer to stick with Prime lenders. However, I like the DCU recommendation as that might come in handy for her at a later date to secure a car loan. I am going to try that in a bit and I will report back.

Re: Recommendations: Credit Card for 18 year old?

fltireguy — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 16:10:23 GMT

@babson wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I would suggest a card that has a very low limit. Not that I'm judging the credit card spending habits of your child, but personally I would plan for the worst with my children no matter how responsible they seem. At least then I know I can pay off the entire balance and lesson learned. A 10K pill would be much harder to swallow than a $500 one.

As far as cards, Capital One seems pretty laxed on their credit file criteria - maybe a Quicksilver card?
lol, you do not have to worry about that. She does not like to spend her money, she much rather spend mine! We pay for her gas/food. She works part-time at Malco Theaters, as she is in school. I did the pre-qualify and Captial One and nothing came up, not sure if that matters. I am about to go do Amex to see if they approve.

She can't do a pre quail on any site, you have to be 21

Re: Recommendations: Credit Card for 18 year old?

KSK1912 — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 16:12:49 GMT

@babson wrote:
Ok, I just applied for the Amex BCE and she was approved with a 2k starting limit. I would like to add a Visa or Master Card, but may give it some time as I would prefer to stick with Prime lenders. However, I like the DCU recommendation as that might come in handy for her at a later date to secure a car loan. I am going to try that in a bit and I will report back.

Awesome. I wish i would have posted what i wanted to, but after seeing your post about not wanting an amex, i decided not to.

Hope you did get this sign up offer below.. I think you did the right thing. One inq on Ex, and a great card witha nice limit for her that will grow very quickly with the proper usage. Congrats to her and you. IF you guys travel, check the Amex PRG with 50K MR points / $1K spend. a great offer and it is a charge card. She could apply for it and you guys can use the points.

Re: Recommendations: Credit Card for 18 year old?

lord_kinbote — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 17:32:08 GMT

@baller4life wrote:
Discover loves thin files!

Just tried Discover and she was approved for a Discover IT with a starting limit of 1k. So in with Discover and Amex now. Thinking about trying Citi. I will report back!

Re: Recommendations: Credit Card for 18 year old?

Creditplz — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 17:44:49 GMT

Check if she has any Pre-Q offers from Citi, Chase, Capital One, Amex.

Re: Recommendations: Credit Card for 18 year old?

Creditplz — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 17:46:23 GMT

Op I ignored that too!! Sorry.

Re: Recommendations: Credit Card for 18 year old?

lord_kinbote — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 17:51:41 GMT

@Creditplz wrote:
Check if she has any Pre-Q offers from Citi, Chase, Capital One, Amex.

Yeah, someone pointed out that you must be 21 to receive pre-qualify offers. Anyway, I tried Citi and this is the message I received:

"Thank you for applying for a Citi credit card. Your application for the Citi Double Cash Card was received on 04/08/16. We are currently processing your application and will be in touch within 1 week. We look forward to the opportunity to serve you."

So it looks like a potential denial for the Citi DC. I will wait it out. Anyway, I am done apping. Was able to get her approved for Discover and Amex today, so 2 of 3 ain't bad. Thanks for the help guys and I will let you know once I receive confirmation from Citi.

Re: Recommendations: Credit Card for 18 year old?

lord_kinbote — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 17:59:05 GMT

@babson wrote:
@Creditplz wrote:
Check if she has any Pre-Q offers from Citi, Chase, Capital One, Amex.
Yeah, someone pointed out that you must be 21 to receive pre-qualify offers. Anyway, I tried Citi and this is the message I received:

"Thank you for applying for a Citi credit card. Your application for the Citi Double Cash Card was received on 04/08/16. We are currently processing your application and will be in touch within 1 week. We look forward to the opportunity to serve you."

So it looks like a potential denial for the Citi DC. I will wait it out. Anyway, I am done apping. Was able to get her approved for Discover and Amex today, so 2 of 3 ain't bad. Thanks for the help guys and I will let you know once I receive confirmation from Citi.

Actually, looking around on the myfico forums, this may not be a denial. From what I read, they may need to verify some information. I will sit tight and wait for an email and/or keep checking the application status. If I ask my step-daughter to call in, she would be freaked out. So I will see if I can handle the process via email first. I have had her on my Citi DC since 2014, so maybe that will help out a bit.

Re: Recommendations: Credit Card for 18 year old?

KSK1912 — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 18:00:28 GMT

@babson wrote:
@Creditplz wrote:
Check if she has any Pre-Q offers from Citi, Chase, Capital One, Amex.
Yeah, someone pointed out that you must be 21 to receive pre-qualify offers. Anyway, I tried Citi and this is the message I received:

"Thank you for applying for a Citi credit card. Your application for the Citi Double Cash Card was received on 04/08/16. We are currently processing your application and will be in touch within 1 week. We look forward to the opportunity to serve you."

So it looks like a potential denial for the Citi DC. I will wait it out. Anyway, I am done apping. Was able to get her approved for Discover and Amex today, so 2 of 3 ain't bad. Thanks for the help guys and I will let you know once I receive confirmation from Citi.

That's awesome. If anything, wait about 6 months to add the third card, (3 cards is mentioned to be the best for maximum foco scoring) and by then she will be golden for most lenders if not all. I am happy she got the Amex. Congrats on Discover as well.