How did you get your very first credit card?

[Lel]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I'm kind of curious how people usually get started on credit. For me, I was a 2nd year in college when my parents opened one up for me. It was a plain black MBNA MC with either a $300 or $500 limit. Since then, it has been my go-to card for over 8 years, and it has grown considerably.

How did you get your first?

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Years back, when I went off to college, I got a credit card through my local credit union, where I had deposited all my paychecks from working at Hardee's. It had a $500 credit limit, and it seemed like all the money in the world. I was one of only a few people at my school that had his/her own card, and it made me feel like a big shot. Fortunately, I didn't feel the need to actually use it to make me feel good, just having it was a source of pride. It was sort of like the feeling that you get when you are among the first in your class to get a driver's license.

[Anonymous]

In 1998 - my sophomore year of college - I got my first credit card.  My freshman year I had my dad's Discover (only mom my usually used the account so his card was rarely used) for emergency's.  My parents weren't too keen that I had access to a $10,000 credit limit, so they filled out a form that came with their statement about giving their child a Discover student card with a $500 limit.  Well, when the card came in the mail I had a regular card with a $2000 limit!  Needless to say I was thrilled.  I have treated it well over the years, and it is my favorite card.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

It takes about 6 months of reporting to generate a score I recall correctly.

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Ah, I see. I wonder what the scores generally are after 6 months, then ...

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One account with six clean months of payment history, typically 680-ish.  Up to 720-ish after a year or so.

[Anonymous]

Yikes, to think that some kid in college having parents pay for the card has better scores than me =/

[OMIAHEART]

My mom gave me my first Chase card when i was 17 for my highschool graduation trip to Mexico.  That was 18 years ago and the **bleep** limit is still $1000!!!  I was so scared to run the bill up (that she was going to pay) that i didn't charge on it for almost 6 months....

Needless to say i still have that Chase card (and two others)... thanks Mom!

[Anonymous]

AU for the win!

When my kid(s) turn 18, I'm making them apply for a card and I'll buy them dinner once each month for a year and then I'll make them apply for a prime card. When it comes in the mail, before I give it to them, I'm going to make them reach 500 posts on myFICO before I'll hand it over.

After reading all of the horror stories on these forums, they'll hopefully realize how fortunate they are to have a score in the 700's with a prime CC.

Can you add a child onto an account as a joint-user if they have no credit history? Is it like an AU where you can just add them? Or is it different where you have to add their name to the actual application for a card before you receive it?

[Anonymous]

My parents made me an AU on their credit card when I went to Australia/New Zealand while in High School. However it was only for that one trip.

Personally I got a Cap1 card when I was 18. It had/still has a $500 limit and I thought that was a ton of money back then. 9 years later it's still at $500, but I have many more cards with many higher CL's. If only I had stopped at that one Cap1 card!

[Susyflower]

I've been lurking around for a week or so and I'm ready to make my first post.

I got my first credit card my freshmen year of college.  It was a GTE Visa which then changed to The Associates Visa and then changed again to a Verizon Visa.  Unfortunately it was downhill from there.  I opened a Discover card, a MBNA card, and a bunch of department store cards.  Which resulted in a lot of lates and a couple charge offs/settlements back in 2001.  I just pulled an EX report and saw that there is only one baddie left from those days, a BP/Citi card, which is set to change to positive status in October of this year.  I'm so happy that I've been able to turn my credit history around.  I recently purchased a used car (my first big ticket purchase!) and was approved for an auto loan at a local credit union...saw my FICO score was around 711.  I was also approved for a $3,500 line of credit with CitiFinancial when I bought some new furniture in February, however in May I applied for a Citi Platinum Select MC and was denied due to the baddie BP/Citi card on my CR...they pulled TU.  Was very bummed about that, I wanted to do a BT from my high interest Express department store card.  Should I try to Recon?

[Anonymous]

Parents opened up a Chase Platinum with a measly $300 CL when I was 17. Then a Citi AAdvantage card with a $800 CL. I took it from there

4 years later I have $44.7k across 6 cards


thanks mom!

[Anonymous]

Hmm. I think my first was as an 'additional cardholder' on a department store card of my mother's, when I was about 13. Don't think it had any credit-building effect, as far as I know, but I could be wrong. This was in the UK (where I'm from). I then got a store card (actually a Sears card, as it turned out) for some awful clothes shop at the age of about 16... followed by another store card (a GE one) from another clothes shop, a while later. It was kind of all downhill from there.

First 'real' credit card was actually TWO credit cards - a bizarre Access (later to become Mastercard)/Visa combo (two cards, one credit line - and I say 'bizarre' because to have two cards seemed utterly pointless, as both cards could be used everywhere) from my then-bank, Midland (later to be bought up by HSBC - ugh!), when I started at university.

Luckily I've learned a bit about how (not) to handle your credit since those days!

(Links added for no readily apparent reason, mainly because looking up all those long-defunct banking/credit things has made me a bit nostalgic... as has remembering how nobody used the term 'credit card', it was always a 'Barclaycard' when I was little... ooh, I feel old now, and I'm not even old!)

Message Edited by fevmlo on 07-18-2008 01:55 AM

Message Edited by fevmlo on 07-18-2008 01:58 AM

Message Edited by fevmlo on 07-18-2008 02:00 AM