Reply to Adding 18 year old as authorized user on credit card - yay or nay- for building their credit score

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Adding 18 year old as authorized user on credit card - yay or nay- for building their credit score"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'll have to look into it.  I added my son when he was 16.  He's been used it through high school and college and he just graduated from college.  He doesn't have any credit cards of his own yet and uses a debit card for his personal charges.  I'll report back on whether it made any impact on his credit.[/quote]

PP here. OK, I just ran a credit check on my son who has been an authorized user on my card since he was 16 (22 now).  He has a credit rating of 756 and it shows a total debt of $11K (which is our current AMEX balance).  I guess he does have credit!!  This was not what I expected to find.
[/quote]

So your debt is reflected on his report? That may not advantageous when he needs a car loan on his own, as his debt to income ratio will be affected by your debt.[/quote]

Exactly. Also, way to infantilize your adult children. DH and I were never on our parents' cards and (gasp!) were able to buy houses and cars, and have always had excellent credit. 
[/quote]

Someone had to have co-signed for you to get you started. It's easier to do when your kid is at home, or still under your guidance.  I grew up afraid of debt. All cars were paid for with cash (so low budget end of their life vehicles) A friend of mine got me started on a small credit card when I was 22, just to build up credit. My sister had a credit score of ZERO at age 30, where I had to cosign an auto loan for her, and then encourage her to refinance under her name only a year later.  These are life lessons that need to be taught, so you might as well start the conversations and process when they are at home.[/quote]

You do not need to co-sign an 18yo’s credit card when that adult has a job.

Your anecdotes do not sway me in the least. Did I say have no credit till age 30? No, I did not. My once-18yo got a card and charges everything to it and pays it off every month. Has for 2 years, but I don’t know their credit score because it’s not my concern. I give DC a lump sum for  college, so it encourages budgeting and planning. I do not pay rent or groceries or utilities directly.

Thus, I do not believe in infantilizing 20 year olds. I also don’t need to put a 13yo on my credit card because my kids had debit cards they learned to manage at that age. Doing everything for your kids means they don’t learn it themselves.

[/quote]

This is just cutting off your kid's nose to spite your face (or something like that).  I also gave my kid a lump sum for college and he's doing great managing his money, including paying off his share of the credit card that is in his name and linked to mine.  He has a high 700s credit score, because it shows the 30 year history of the card as his.  There is no other functional difference between this and him having a different card in his own name, other than the fact that he gets a higher credit score.

When I graduated from law school and started a high-paying job in BigLaw, I couldn't get credit to buy furniture because I had so little credit history. It was stupid, but that wouldn't have been the case if my parents had just put me on as an authorized user on their card.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics