Teenage Credit

[Anonymous]

New to the forum.  Great info from my first experience.  Wondering if anyone can share helpful ideas of how I can assist my 20 yr old college student gain credit.  Any ideas will be appreciated

[Tuscani]

Welcome... You can add him or her as an AU to one or several of your cards (assuming you have good credit).. Keep in mind the rules for this are changing soon:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&thread.id=4008

Couple other options:

- Secured card

- Student card

- Secured personal loan

[Anonymous]

The CCCs often set up booths on campus to sign up students for CCs.  They'll even get a free T-shirt, woo hoo!

Message Edited by masdeocho on 06-18-2007 12:08 PM

[Anonymous]

LOL  LOL  OH yeah, that was the begining of all my future woes.   My Citi Bank Student Card, literally in in the lobby of the dining hall.

My recomendation would be since not know how responsible your child is with money.   But I would do the secured card route.   It is the safest way, and it will help with being responsible and if any mistakes are made, which trust me, if you took a poll from everyone here of when they started to get into debt problems, it was in college.  

I would go the secured route. 

[Anonymous]

Military for me, if you default, they get your credit report and then sick you commander on you. OUCH!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Yeah, this being a corporate-owned country, those in the military are subject to special sanctions if they don't pay their bills...not entirely sure how that works, but I think it's perceived as being disloyal to capitalism or something like that.

[Anonymous]

not sure it is that bad TNWM. More like a CA running to tell your mommy you aren't paying your bills.

[Anonymous]

If he currently has a checking account with his bank, he should apply for an unsecured credit card particularly for college students usually with a $700-1500 limit. If he pays the bill on time, does not accrue a SUBSTANTIAL outstanding balance, keeps utilization to a minimum, and only has a few inquires on his report, in 6 months your son's score should be around 690-750. Thats a start right there. Make sure he only has 1 credit card and monitors his credit score and report to insure a great score.

[Anonymous]

Tuscani,

Thanks for the suggestions. 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the great idea.