Definitely. All 3 of my kids are AU on various accounts. Wish my parents had a clue about this stuff
Yes, seems a great way to start her off but while at the same time start teaching her about the dos and dont now. Heck, bring her over to the forum lol!. If she does it right shell be set in a couple years
. Cheers
. Cheers
@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
Yes, seems a great way to start her off but while at the same time start teaching her about the dos and dont now. Heck, bring her over to the forum lol!. If she does it right shell be set in a couple years
+1
If we only give our children AUs to boost their score without teaching them how to use a credit card, they can/will get much more credit that they can handle. My 18 yo score is above 800 (no HP, AAoA of almost 2 years, low util, oldest account 2.5 years). Imagine the damage a person without information can do to own credit with a 800+ starting score (I know many banks will not give a card to someone with only AUs, but still some will give cards and with high limits)
the correct answer depends on which of the two scenarios you plan on taking:
1) do you plan to give her the card and risk ruining your own credit if she goes on a spending spree?
or
2) do you destroy the card so she just builds up a history for doing nothing?
both of these scenarios will ultimately decide how much trust you have in your daughter and if she doesn't get the card she will immediately feel you don't trust her which will impact both of you so this is something you really want to think long and hard about.
the best advice i can give you is to sit down with your daughter and give her a few choices so she can begin to make her own decisions (this is what i would do if i had kids):
1) tell her to wait until she is in college so she can get a student credit card on her own. inform her that if she does this she will establish independence at a very young age and off to a good start in her life
2) tell her she will be an AU but will not have the card
3) tell her she can work (both around the house and to get a job) to save up enough money to open up a secured credit card on her own with the saved up funds as the deposit. inform her that if she does this she will establish independence at a very young age and off to a good start in her life.
as you can see two out of the 3 choices involve her setting up independence which is something i would do if i had kids because 1) i'm not going to risk my good credit for my children if i don't think they can handle it and 2) if i add them as an AU i'm basically not teaching them to be independent.
in the end the correct way to handle this situation is too simply let them go out there and earn it themselves.
i was lucky that it was my mom who helped me jump start my credit when i was around 19-20 as she co signed for me. not every parent will do that. lucky for me a few months later i was instantly given (i didn't even ask for it) a BoA CC with a $3k CL on it because my FICO was like 700+ since i would buy everything with CCs and then pay in full every couple of weeks (i still do this right now).
@newhis wrote:
@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
Yes, seems a great way to start her off but while at the same time start teaching her about the dos and dont now. Heck, bring her over to the forum lol!. If she does it right shell be set in a couple years+1
If we only give our children AUs to boost their score without teaching them how to use a credit card, they can/will get much more credit that they can handle. My 18 yo score is above 800 (no HP, AAoA of almost 2 years, low util, oldest account 2.5 years). Imagine the damage a person without information can do to own credit with a 800+ starting score (I know many banks will not give a card to someone with only AUs, but still some will give cards and with high limits)
This is the best advice right here! Sure, make her an AU, but you have to educate her as well. If she's just an AU but has no education to back it up, it's like giving someone a loaded gun with no instructions. It has the possibility of causing some major problems.
