From an individual standpoint, it's a good idea. From the system perspective, it's a terrible idea. The idea behind having to develop a long, good credit history is that you have to prove worthy of it. Starting a child's credit history when he's a toddler and then handing him the card when he's a teenager bypasses any and all responsibility learning. It also cheats the credit card companies into thinking the user is a responsible credit user when in reality the user just has never used the card before. The child could all too easily wreck the credit history as soon as he gets the card. I'd love to assume my potential kid would be responsible enough at age 16 to handle a $30,000 credit limit but that's just unlikely. My parents added me as an authorized user (and thus started my credit history) to their cards when I was 16. They set the limit on my card to something like $300 at first and over time they increased the limit when I showed I was responsible to handle it. They shielded me from all the high interest rates, fee's and all that other crap while still making sure I was responsible enough to handle each limit increase. -Dan
Yeah, but she doesn't take American Express, if you catch my drift - and I think you do... I don't even know what that means.
Uh, I have 3 from that long ago. And even if he didn't still have that card, he could still call and get a receipt. DD
Not anymore, the three bureaus have changed the way they score piggybacking off someones credit like you are doing there, it will prevent any positive score for your kid as an authorized user.. I think I remember reading that it was going to be put in place last September...
I don't think it's a surprise that he would have the same credit card for 10 years. However, I can't imagine that it would be possible for either the credit card company or the country club to maintain records of transactions from 10 years ago.
