Should I open minor membership for my child at Navy Federal?

[Anonymous]

Hey there,

  I was curious about opening a minor membership for my son at Navy Federal - would that help him in any way when he's older?  He's only 7 right now, but I'd love to help him build up his credit/relationship with a bank as early as I can so he's in great shape by the time he becomes an adult.

Pros, cons?  My own scores are all above 760 right now according to MyFico - Credit Karma says they're over 800, so if I added him to a credit card as an authorized user at some point, it shouldn't hurt him if I keep my own scores high.  

Thanks so much!  I'd honestly love any advice that might help him out.  

[Anonymous]

You should, they usually run promos for college savings. It will help on the relationship.

[Anonymous]

I like your idea of opening a savings account for him this year, even though he is only seven.

Does he have a social security number yet?  This says:

Guidelines for Minor’s Accounts
A  membership/savings  account  will  be  opened  for  a  Minor  at  any  age;  
however,  the  Minor  must  have  a  Social  Security  Number.  A  checking  
account may be opened for a Minor 14 years of age or older.

https://www.navyfederal.org/pdf/applications-forms/NFCU97MI.pdf

I am skeptical that you will be permitted to add him as an AU to a credit card until he is much older, but no harm in looking into it.

[Anonymous]

I actually have an appt to open an account for my 9 year old this weekend for his college fund. I'll report back.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, he has a social. I wouldn’t want him to have a checking account yet anyway since I don’t expect a 7 year old to fully understand. He might like the idea of being able to choose to save money he earns though, and see it accumulate.

[Anonymous]

Let us know how the process goes.  Are you going this week?

[Anonymous]

I'd be doing it online - no local Navy Federal branches near, unfortunately!  It looks like it's just a matter of signing him up. 

[Anonymous]

My father created a bank account for each of his three kids when I was maybe 10-11.  It was an account that was just "on paper" -- i.e. the Bank of Dad.  But a nice feature that he added was that he paid us interest at 1% a month.  Now that was back when interest rates were much higher in the commercial world (mid to late 70s), so 12% annually was not wildly greater than we would have gotten in a real bank.  But the real reason I think he did it is to teach us about interest.  A ten year old can't work out 7.2% interest or 3.6%.  But 1% each month was easy, just moving the decimal place over by two places.

Having a real bank account (e.g. with Navy) is a nice step forward no matter whether your kid ever sees it, just so that he gets into some bank's system and has a history with them.

[Anonymous]

NFCU had us open them for my three children years ago when they had a promo going. $100 per child plus $100 per child for the parent. So they gave us $600 to open three minors accounts. Newborn, 2 years old and 4 year old at the time. NFCU is awesome for the entire family!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
NFCU had us open them for my three children years ago when they had a promo going. $100 per child plus $100 per child for the parent. So they gave us $600 to open three minors accounts. Newborn, 2 years old and 4 year old at the time. NFCU is awesome for the entire family!

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Umm, i going to ask for that tomorrow lol