advice for my GF about Discover it student

[Anonymous]

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@Blurbz wrote:

Frankly, I'm with her.  I think secured cards should be the last resort.  It sounds like she's got other options to build:   If you trust her enough, make her an AU and give it a while to get her going and then she'll be fine to apply for some lower end prime cards.  She has student loans; are they in deferrment or is she paying on them?  If she's paying them, that'll help too.

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yeah, she is a au on my bce, and she is still in school so she isnt paying the loans off yet, and yeah I am going to talk to her about getting a walmart card in a few months, before even going for the DIscover it student, which I would probably consider a lower end prime card considering its for students

and yeah I trust her.

[09Lexie]

CU= credit union

[Anonymous]

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@09Lexie wrote:
CU= credit union

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oh sorry, should have known that, and she might actually bank at a credit union, I'm not postive 

[09Lexie]

She might want to start there. Some will have student visas, started cc's or even let her secure a card with a savings account/cd

[Anonymous]

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@09Lexie wrote:
She might want to start there. Some will have student visas, started cc's or even let her secure a card with a savings account/cd

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 sounds like a good idea, do you think she would be able to get a walmart cc after having my amex report for a few months? (because I'm not sure if she banks at a CU (haha thanks for filling me about what that means) but if she does, I will tell her about getting a card from there, but just looking for options to tell her)

[bs6054]

And just the required word of caution..

If you are married, it is still very messy, but at least in theory responsibility for credit card debt can be sorted out in a divorce.  Credit card issuers may not care (and say you are both individually and jointly liable) but there is some process involved.

With girlfriend/boyfriend, not so much.

Which is not to say don't make her an AU (and certainly not a reason to get married!) but be aware that there is a risk that your credit could be trashed if things don't work out.

Just trying to spread a little joy into the world....

[Anonymous]

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@bs6054 wrote:

And just the required word of caution..

If you are married, it is still very messy, but at least in theory responsibility for credit card debt can be sorted out in a divorce.  Credit card issuers may not care (and say you are both individually and jointly liable) but there is some process involved.

With girlfriend/boyfriend, not so much.

Which is not to say don't make her an AU (and certainly not a reason to get married!) but be aware that there is a risk that your credit could be trashed if things don't work out.

Just trying to spread a little joy into the world....

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I'll will be marrying her eventually just too young right now, but  if we did break up, I would just take her off as an AU no harm done

[bs6054]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@bs6054 wrote:

And just the required word of caution..

If you are married, it is still very messy, but at least in theory responsibility for credit card debt can be sorted out in a divorce.  Credit card issuers may not care (and say you are both individually and jointly liable) but there is some process involved.

With girlfriend/boyfriend, not so much.

Which is not to say don't make her an AU (and certainly not a reason to get married!) but be aware that there is a risk that your credit could be trashed if things don't work out.

Just trying to spread a little joy into the world....

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I'll will be marrying her eventually just too young right now, but  if we did break up, I would just take her off as an AU no harm done

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OK, but you are not thinking of the cases where warnings apply:  far from friendly breakups, where the other party has charged up to the limit on all your cards and walks away, and maybe used the ATM to empty your bank accounts.   Removing as AU doesn't solve this.

Now this almost certainly won't apply to you, but it is this sort of scenario that makes "experts" suggest being very careful with making people AUs.

[Blurbz]

If I remember correctly, AMEX allows the primary card-holder to set credit limits for their AUs.  Do that to mitigate your risk (and to see what it's like on the "other side" for once!).

[Anonymous]

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@bs6054 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@bs6054 wrote:

And just the required word of caution..

If you are married, it is still very messy, but at least in theory responsibility for credit card debt can be sorted out in a divorce.  Credit card issuers may not care (and say you are both individually and jointly liable) but there is some process involved.

With girlfriend/boyfriend, not so much.

Which is not to say don't make her an AU (and certainly not a reason to get married!) but be aware that there is a risk that your credit could be trashed if things don't work out.

Just trying to spread a little joy into the world....

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I'll will be marrying her eventually just too young right now, but  if we did break up, I would just take her off as an AU no harm done

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OK, but you are not thinking of the cases where warnings apply:  far from friendly breakups, where the other party has charged up to the limit on all your cards and walks away, and maybe used the ATM to empty your bank accounts.   Removing as AU doesn't solve this.

Now this almost certainly won't apply to you, but it is this sort of scenario that makes "experts" suggest being very careful with making people AUs.

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right, I do understand that, she does only have access to this one card and not my bank accounts, I could come up with enough money to pay off the card, take her off as a AU, and then sue her for the money I had to put toward the card