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<p>If you are an authorized user on the account, it will affect your credit history.</p>
<p>That makes sense, jym and dietz. Thanks! </p>
<p>Fwiw, at my school’s credit union, college students get a credit card pretty much no matter what. I don’t know a single person who has ever been turned down. I wonder if that’s fairly common at universities around the country.</p>
<p>[Adding</a> daughter as authorized user can help build credit history](<a href=“Experian's Official Credit Advice Blog”>Experian's Official Credit Advice Blog)</p>
<p>Experian says otherwise jym626.</p>
<p>One of the reasons H and I prefer to use CC’s instead of debit cards is the additional level of security in case of fraud. I check our transactions several times a month and just recently discovered an obviously fraudulent charge (well, okay, I did ask H if he was trying to surprise me with a $2.5k piece of jewelry which he purchased during a secret trip to Australia, but, no he had not done such a thing). The card company was able to immediately close the account and have new cards to us within 48 hrs. </p>
<p>If such a situation had occurred with a debit card it would have been much more difficult to close a checking account and then reissue checks and ATM cards. It is also my understanding that it would be much more difficult to recoup the lost $$. D uses her debit card for all her personal purchases and to be honest…it still makes me nervous.</p>
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<p>I totally agree. I never use debit card because I think you have 72 hours to dispute fraudulent charges. With a credit card, you have months to dispute charges.</p>
<p>thats interesting, romani. Back before 2010 the credit card companies used to set up tables during freshman orientation and hand out cards like candy. Now, with the new regulations, IIRC (and you may want to do a search for old threads on this topic), students under 21 were having to have a cosigner unless they could demonstrate sufficient savings or confirmed income to qualify for the card.</p>
<p>We were trying to help out the Costco employee who was trying to sign up folks for the AmEx Costco credit card (which I have found VERY helpful & a great way to save on gas & lots of other things). We had D sign up & to our surprise she got a credit card, as posted above, even tho she does NOT have a full-time or part-time job. We think it’s a good way for her to build a credit history and like that it has no annual fee and gives her cash back, which is always a nice thing, especially 3% on gas! </p>
<p>She’s very happy to have her own CC, so that she can see what her charges are & they don’t get confused with other users of a joint or authorized CC. She will call in to pay it off every month. So far, our kids have always been very responsible about how they handle any funds that come into their possession, whether by their labor, gifts or other legal means.</p>
<p>CCs are also used if renting a car or for other things that might otherwise require a significant deposit.</p>
<p>I BELIEVE that you can still help your kids build credit if you are a JOINT applicant instead of having them be an authorized user, but am not positive about these details, especially with the changes in the law. As I said, we were pleasantly surprised that D was able to get her own CC, even tho she has no job & has only worked for one summer and 3 semesters part-time.</p>
<p>“I BELIEVE that you can still help your kids build credit if you are a JOINT applicant instead of having them be an authorized user, but am not positive about these details, especially with the changes in the law.”</p>
<p>I just ran a credit report on my older son to check on that. He is not a joint applicant for any of our cards, but is an additional card holder on 3 of them. The report claimed that he had a credit limit of about 80K between all 3 cards, with no late payments, low balance…and that one of them he’d had since he was 8 years old (ha, yeah right!)</p>
<p>So I think this is correct, as the prolific poster stated, “If the student is an authorized user on their parent’s credit card, then that will benefit the student and increase their credit scores.”</p>
<p>Now the report did not have his score, that would have cost extra I think. But based on the accounts shown, it was looking pretty good for him. I’ll let you know if I ever find the score. Seems much better to hang onto your parents cards, not that it would be bad to get your own, but now we’re going to think long and hard about cancelling those others that the kids are on.</p>
<p>The forum seems to have been stuck on $200 in allowance a month for a few pages. My first is going away to college next year. He will be taking a credit card. I’m paying tuition, room/board, books, etc. In addition he is getting $600 a month for spending money. Several of his friends have mentioned their families will expect them to pay for all expenses outside of the basics. Many more of his friends will be given an essentially unlimited amount of spending money.</p>
<p>Our S just out of college was offered gold AmEx with annual fee waived for first 2 years, which he accepted. He has pretty much gotten every CC he’s applied for. I also believe you have to generally pay for your credit score, EXCEPT if you get turned down for credit (& sometimes even when you get it), you can get your score. We got ours when we applied for & got our HELOC.</p>
<p>D says she averages about $100/month on groceries & about $100/month on bills–including eating out & sundries. It is up to what the students are doing.</p>
<p>[Free</a> FICO Credit Score + Check Your Credit Report Online | myFICO](<a href=“http://www.myfico.com/]Free”>http://www.myfico.com/)</p>
<p>You can get your free fico score here, but you have to sign up for a free 10 day trial. After you get the score, just call up and cancel and you won’t be charged anything.</p>
<p>“Our S just out of college was offered gold AmEx with annual fee waived for first 2 years, which he accepted.”</p>
<p>Does this come with any airmiles? I might have to start looking into that, as I suppose my kid might not have to declare that his job is only for the summer, and the pay is pretty decent. Sometimes Amex has those deals where they offer the 40K airmiles to targeted applicants, we’ve been waiting for that.</p>
<p>“Me prolific? NOW I have a chip on my shoulder.”</p>
<p>Hey, there’s worse things to be called than that. I might try that FICO thing. I like free, and I’d be curious about what kind of score you can get via your parents card.</p>
<p>I prefer not to give payment info to get something “free” like a credit score, but that’s just me. S did get a deal where he got 50K points for a new sapphire card, which he redeemed to reduce cost of a plane ticket.</p>
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<p>It’s legit. Done it a couple of times and was never charged.</p>
<p>50K points is an awfully good deal, especially if there’s no annual fee. Might have to look at that.</p>
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<p>How much is the fee after 2 years?</p>
<p>Not sure on fee’s cost–none of my business since it’s his card. I think he plans to cancel, as he has many other cards & excellent credit; he may see about rolling it over into a Costco AmEx, unless there’s some fabulous benefit he comes to love from that card. One of his cards he’s had as an authorized user on my account since he graduated from HS in 2006.</p>
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<p>Just curious, because I got an offer the other day and the fee was $175. </p>
<p>If you cancel a card, it will greatly decrease your FICO score.</p>
<p>Actually, it might decrease it for a short while, but since he has so much other credit. I will suggest that he try rolling it over to another CC and/or raise his limit on his other CCs. I really don’t believe closing CCs when you have others with high credit limits, no debt and pay everything on time regularly will dramatically affect your FICO store for any period of time.</p>
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<p>I am just going on personal experience. My FICO score went down about 30 points when I closed it and that card didn’t have a high credit limit. I always pay off my balance in full and I have other high limit cards. Just be careful, that’s all I’m saying.</p>