Building Credit History for Child

[Anonymous]

Morning, proud Father of a one month old Daughter. I want to establish her credit history ASAP. Do I have to wait until she is 18 to sign her up for a card? Obviously I have to consign as she currently has trouble holding up her head ;-) Thanks, wim

[Anonymous]

The stories I've read and heard of people having been an authorized user since the age of 1 are plenty.

You could try going that route.

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

The stories I've read and heard of people having been an authorized user since the age of 1 are plenty.

You could try going that route.

---

+1. I would assume that any credit in her name will require her to be 18, but you can add her as an AU at any point to most cards. But then again, it won't make much difference until she plans on applying for her own credit; so I'd add her to your best cards maybe 1 year prior to establish a profile? Maybe also plan on having her cosign a car as soon as a lender will let her?

[pizzadude]

Do you have an AMEX ??  My advice would be to make her an additional cardmember on an AMEX charge card ~ you can do this for children @ 15 yrs old.    Whether you give it to her to use or not is your call of course, but it will establish her member since date with AMEX, and any new cards that she opens with them in the future will backdate to the year. 

[Anonymous]

With USAA I got all of my kids checking accounts to establish there credit or at least start with a debit card then once they have had that for a while when they go to apply for a credit card some day they have some history with a checking account which I'm sure looks good to USAA. 

[AndySoCal]

You can do this but it is not  awise thing to do at this point. Do search the internet on child identity theft.  There is not value to it now and it does not help.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the comments. Means a lot.

[Anonymous]

---

@pizzadude wrote:

@Anonymous you have an AMEX ??  My advice would be to make her an additional cardmember on an AMEX charge card ~ you can do this for children @ 15 yrs old.    Whether you give it to her to use or not is your call of course, but it will establish her member since date with AMEX, and any new cards that she opens with them in the future will backdate to the year. 

---

Is this confirmed? I was under the impression that Amex only backdates to your first solo account...

[morganirish]

Perhaps the best way to help her with good credit is teach her not only about how important it is to have good credit but a savings account for her future. 

[Revelate]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

@pizzadude wrote:

@Anonymous you have an AMEX ??  My advice would be to make her an additional cardmember on an AMEX charge card ~ you can do this for children @ 15 yrs old.    Whether you give it to her to use or not is your call of course, but it will establish her member since date with AMEX, and any new cards that she opens with them in the future will backdate to the year. 

---

Is this confirmed? I was under the impression that Amex only backdates to your first solo account...

---

Pretty well confirmed that is their current policy based on postings here on the forum.

They changed their policy to fix the Member Since date as to when the AU (AC - Additional Cardholder in Amexese) was added to the account rather than backdating it to when the original opening date of the tradeline.  This certainly is the case for family members, it's probably a little hit or miss for others though, and like anything regarding Amex backdating, sometimes it's a challenge for them to find the account information regardless.