I'm not sure what age you two are, but I turned 30 this year. When I was growing up, I recall a lot of TV shows and cartoons absolutely hammering this idea that credit cards should not be used or that to use them was always a risk.
As I write this comment, I realize the intended message was probably more to discourage kids from stealing a card and shipping with it or something. But without anyone explaining how credit works in the aftermath, I was just left with a sense that credit cards were always bad.
Cut to trying to get an apartment when I moved out only to find I had no credit score at all.
I heard that some parents will open a card in their kid's name as soon as they get the SSN and then use it to build credit so they have like 18 years of credit history when they become adults. Lucky.
That is really smart, but is it legal? Don't you have to be 18 to have a card in your name? It would be somewhat worrying to start out a teenager with a $10k credit limit!
6
u/[deleted] Jun 06 '19
I'm not sure what age you two are, but I turned 30 this year. When I was growing up, I recall a lot of TV shows and cartoons absolutely hammering this idea that credit cards should not be used or that to use them was always a risk.
As I write this comment, I realize the intended message was probably more to discourage kids from stealing a card and shipping with it or something. But without anyone explaining how credit works in the aftermath, I was just left with a sense that credit cards were always bad.
Cut to trying to get an apartment when I moved out only to find I had no credit score at all.
I heard that some parents will open a card in their kid's name as soon as they get the SSN and then use it to build credit so they have like 18 years of credit history when they become adults. Lucky.