7 ms·

>you are trusted by definition I felt pretty "trusted by definition." Citi gave me a credit card with a $3,000 limit as a college freshmen. A few years later I

>you are trusted by definition I felt pretty "trusted by definition." Citi gave me a credit card with a $3,000 limit as a college freshmen. A few years later I had an $8,000 limit card and a $10,000 limit card. I bought my car certified-pre-owned under a program that writes favorable low-cost loans to recent college graduates with no or limited credit history (with an offer letter or paystubs). You just aren't trusted with housing-sized amounts of money until you demonstrate responsibility with smaller dollar values first. >basically creating debt and then paying it off This depends on your definitions a little bit. You don't need to carry a balance and you certainly don't need to pay interest. You just need to create low but nonzero utilization on a credit card, pay it off every month, and not do anything else that might screw up your credit. I suppose you have debt in the interim between making the charge and paying it off, but most people don't consider it to be "credit card debt" if it goes away between statement cycles.

ThomPete 10y ago
You are american you have a history and your parents have a history. This is not something that you can have different opinions about it's how the US credit history system works by definition. Not saying one is better than the other, it's just how it works in the US.
- SystemOut 10y ago
  How do my parent's credit history have anything to do with my credit history in the US? Are you talking about co-signing for loans or possibly how a child can get a card under their parents' name? I didn't think either of those had any impact on the child's credit score.
  - TeMPOraL 10y ago
    Given what I hear about US banks, this seems like a most obvious variable to include in computing the credit score. Which leads me to my question - is there an official/exhaustive list of what exactly is considered and how, or is that a banking secret?
    - superuser2 10y ago
      The factors are, in decreasing order of weight: - Credit card utilization (balance as a percentage of available credit at last statement close) - On-time payments (you just have to pay the minimum required by the date specified for it to count) - Derogatory marks (collections, bankruptcies, foreclosures and liens) - Average age of accounts (this favors older people who have been using credit a long time but not opening a lot of accounts recently) - Total number of accounts (also rewards a mixture of types - car, student, credit card, mortgage, etc) - Hard inquiries (very slightly dings your score if you're currently looking for credit, punishes you harder if you're desperately applying to everything you can find because this indicates financial emergency and therefore high risk). https://www.creditkarma.com/article/credit-score-factors https://www.creditkarma.com/article/credit-score-factors If you use CreditKarma, it'll explain all this and how the values on your credit report fit in to the averages.
    - nommm-nommm 10y ago
      The exact FICO algorithm is proprietary. They do give some information about what it entails. I am in no way affiliated with freecreditreport.com, it's just a site I find incredibly useful. It's now owned by Experian and it gives you your Experian FICO 8 credit score. They break down each part of your credit score and grade you on each. (A-F) There's other sites like credit karma that do similar but they use vantage score which is also known as FAKO score and isn't used by lenders but is a good indication of what your FICO score may be.
  - superuser2 10y ago
    Being an authorized user on a parent's credit card does build credit history for the child. I did not have that, or any cosigned loan.
    - ThomPete 10y ago
      But you are an american right? You spent your whole life in the US? So you have a history with a bank I am assuming. I don't understand exactly why I am being down-voted. The system is at it is it's not something I made up.
      - saryant 10y ago
        Retail banking history is not a factor in credit scores.
        ThomPete 10y ago
        I am well aware of that and I never claimed it did. I wasn't talking about credit history but about history as in, a customer in a bank for years. These are also factors for how easy/hard things like this is.
        saryant 10y ago
        Having a history with a bank has no impact whatsoever on your credit report.
        ThomPete 10y ago
        This has nothing to do with your credit report or your credit history. This has to do with your chance of getting a credit card to begin with. There is a difference between being a US citizen having had bank account most of your life and then being a foreigner who just got yours. Not sure why you keep insisting I am saying something else than I am.
        10y ago
  - ThomPete 10y ago
    You and your parents history in the US in general can have a an affect on whether you can convince a bank to give you a credit card or not not on the credit score. I am not talking about credit card history but about history of being a US citizen, having a bank account etc. I think a lot here are missing the point. The question is not about your credit score but about getting the credit card to begin with. Once you get the card they assign you a credit score but in order to get it you have to start building debt (and as a foreigner I had to do that with my own money)
    - Broken_Hippo 10y ago
      Ok, here is the thing. Your parents credit score doesn't affect yours. At all. IT doesn't help you get a credit card, nor bank accounts. Unless: Someone has them cosign for a loan or credit card. This is somewhat common with a first car loan or some student loans, but less common with credit cards. They won't be able to do that if they have a low score. Otherwise, you are basically on your own. The credit stuff you would have experienced coming here is what many 18-year olds hav to deal with. Some older women find themselves in a similar position - the accounts were all in their husband's name.
      - sithadmin 10y ago
        >Your parents credit score doesn't affect yours. At all. IT doesn't help you get a credit card, nor bank accounts. Perhaps one's parents can't help in any formal way, but for me, my parents' creditworthiness and relationship with a local bank helped get me my first credit card. Right before I left home for college, I applied for a credit card with my local bank, and was initially declined. When I asked for reconsideration by the branch manager, he looked into the situation and indicated that he couldn't do anything to assist. When my mother found out I was declined, she took me back to the branch, and asked the branch manger to reconsider the credit decision. Upon a review of my parents' standing with the bank, the branch manager overrode the previous decision and I was given a Visa card with a moderate ($1000 USD) limit. My mother wasn't even asked to co-sign on the account, provide any kind of guarantee, or be associated with the credit card in any way.
- gaur 10y ago
  Please punctuate.
hellogoodbyeeee 10y ago
It sounds like you are at least ten years out of college. Federal regulations have changed and now it is more difficult for a college student to access credit cards
- superuser2 10y ago
  No, pretty recent. After the regulation change.
- theseoafs 10y ago
  Not really, I got my first card just a couple years ago in college, and the process couldn't be easier, I just applied online with my bank.
- lettergram 10y ago
  I work for Capital One and their target customer is actually people without credit scores. As far as I know, it's the only company that actually targets these customers as the primary revenue stream and also makes money. The way it works, is they usually only give someone a $500 limit, then double the limit every 6 months If you pay monthly. Once you get a job you can get a bump to $2000 limit with the 1.5% back easy. You just need to get a job for that. I'm 1.5 years out of college and have access to ~100k in credit cards with a score of 750. I started with a score of 540 1.5 years ago. It's really not hard at all.
  - frognition 10y ago
    Why in the world would you want 100k of credit?
    - nommm-nommm 10y ago
      I have about $150k limit on my cards combined. It would be a lot higher but I asked most of them to lower my limits. I just have a lot of cards. If they want to give me bonuses for signing up I will take them. Free money.
popmystack 10y ago
>Citi gave me a credit card with a $3,000 limit as a college freshmen. How old are you? Just a few years ago, despite making a very decent amount of money and having no marks on my credit, it took an entire year for me to get a credit card. Reason: lack of credit history. A lot of people have similar stories. >This depends on your definitions a little bit. The part where you spend money that isn't yours and then pay it off later. That's debt. Personally, I've learned the game so to speak and now continually get out outrageously good offers for cars, credit cards, home loans, you name it. I have a about $90k~ worth of available credit to me on my CC's alone. But despite having an incorrect black mark for a medical bill that's reported by _ONE_ CRA (the others removed it after I gave them proof that the debt wasn't valid, Experian refuses to listen and because it got reviewed once they won't review it again), I get better offers now than I did when I had a squeaky clean record. It's an absurdly backwards system. Get debt to get more debt. Hope CRA's don't fuck anything up. Credit card management has no indication how I'll manage a loan (whether a house or car) due to the nature of spending and utilization, but financial institutions treat it as such. Quite frankly we need "stricter" credit laws across the board. 1. Start out with a "default" score at the very least. 2. Cap interest rates on CC's (20% APR is stupid). No reason a CC should have an interest rate of above 12%. 3. Don't allow medical debts to be displayed in pulls from CRA's. If the institution really wants to see "everything", make them pay a decently high fee for it. They must also explicitly state that in their loan consideration for you, they took into account medical debt. Craft laws around whether or not financial institutions should be able to consider these debts, depending on the loan being offered. 4. Prevent employers from pulling credit history. Your finances are not their business. 5. Prevent landlords from pulling credit history. They are not loaning you money. If they want to pull your credit history, then they need to also contribute to it positively (i.e. report payment history during the length of your lease, accurately).
- chipperyman573 10y ago
  >Prevent landlords from pulling credit history. Your finances are not their business. I disagree, if you have a terrible credit history, leasing to you may be very risky. They aren't loaning you money, but they are trusting that you will have the money every month to pay them with.
FireBeyond 10y ago
"I felt pretty "trusted by definition." Citi gave me a credit card with a $3,000 limit as a college freshmen. A few years later I had an $8,000 limit card and a $10,000 limit card." As a recent immigrant I felt pretty untrusted. In my late 20s, despite being able to show a year of income in the six digits, no overdrafts, I had to go to four separate banks before finding one that was willing to give me a $300 limit card.
- nommm-nommm 10y ago
  You can get any store credit card easily. Your limit will be like $400 but it's enough to get you a history.
  - Shivatron 10y ago
    As a Canadian expat, my experience was nearly identical to FireBeyond's upon moving to the US. As you suggest, I was able to get a store credit card, then it was over a year (during which I never used the store card at all) before I was even considered for a regular credit card. If that's not symptomatic of a broken process, I'm not sure what is...
    - nommm-nommm 10y ago
      I honestly don't think it's broken. If I'm going to loan you money it makes sense that I'd like you to have a history of successfully managing debt and access to debt. You are more risky if you don't have a history. It makes logical sense. Is it fair? I don't really think so, but its at least logical.
      - ThomPete 10y ago
        Yet other countries have no issue doing it differently. So there are other ways than the US one.
- randombacon2 10y ago
  Find a secured credit card. I was able to get one from USAA with a $5,000 limit (you just deposit $5,000 in a CD to cover it). Not many people realize this, but you do not have to be in the military to bank with USAA (you do if you want their insurance products, but not for banking).

ThomPete 10y ago

You are american you have a history and your parents have a history. This is not something that you can have different opinions about it's how the US credit history system works by definition. Not saying one is better than the other, it's just how it works in the US.

SystemOut 10y ago
How do my parent's credit history have anything to do with my credit history in the US? Are you talking about co-signing for loans or possibly how a child can get a card under their parents' name? I didn't think either of those had any impact on the child's credit score.
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  Given what I hear about US banks, this seems like a most obvious variable to include in computing the credit score. Which leads me to my question - is there an official/exhaustive list of what exactly is considered and how, or is that a banking secret?
  - superuser2 10y ago
    The factors are, in decreasing order of weight: - Credit card utilization (balance as a percentage of available credit at last statement close) - On-time payments (you just have to pay the minimum required by the date specified for it to count) - Derogatory marks (collections, bankruptcies, foreclosures and liens) - Average age of accounts (this favors older people who have been using credit a long time but not opening a lot of accounts recently) - Total number of accounts (also rewards a mixture of types - car, student, credit card, mortgage, etc) - Hard inquiries (very slightly dings your score if you're currently looking for credit, punishes you harder if you're desperately applying to everything you can find because this indicates financial emergency and therefore high risk). https://www.creditkarma.com/article/credit-score-factors https://www.creditkarma.com/article/credit-score-factors If you use CreditKarma, it'll explain all this and how the values on your credit report fit in to the averages.
  - nommm-nommm 10y ago
    The exact FICO algorithm is proprietary. They do give some information about what it entails. I am in no way affiliated with freecreditreport.com, it's just a site I find incredibly useful. It's now owned by Experian and it gives you your Experian FICO 8 credit score. They break down each part of your credit score and grade you on each. (A-F) There's other sites like credit karma that do similar but they use vantage score which is also known as FAKO score and isn't used by lenders but is a good indication of what your FICO score may be.
- superuser2 10y ago
  Being an authorized user on a parent's credit card does build credit history for the child. I did not have that, or any cosigned loan.
  - ThomPete 10y ago
    But you are an american right? You spent your whole life in the US? So you have a history with a bank I am assuming. I don't understand exactly why I am being down-voted. The system is at it is it's not something I made up.
    - saryant 10y ago
      Retail banking history is not a factor in credit scores.
      - ThomPete 10y ago
        I am well aware of that and I never claimed it did. I wasn't talking about credit history but about history as in, a customer in a bank for years. These are also factors for how easy/hard things like this is.
        saryant 10y ago
        Having a history with a bank has no impact whatsoever on your credit report.
        ThomPete 10y ago
        This has nothing to do with your credit report or your credit history. This has to do with your chance of getting a credit card to begin with. There is a difference between being a US citizen having had bank account most of your life and then being a foreigner who just got yours. Not sure why you keep insisting I am saying something else than I am.
        10y ago
- ThomPete 10y ago
  You and your parents history in the US in general can have a an affect on whether you can convince a bank to give you a credit card or not not on the credit score. I am not talking about credit card history but about history of being a US citizen, having a bank account etc. I think a lot here are missing the point. The question is not about your credit score but about getting the credit card to begin with. Once you get the card they assign you a credit score but in order to get it you have to start building debt (and as a foreigner I had to do that with my own money)
  - Broken_Hippo 10y ago
    Ok, here is the thing. Your parents credit score doesn't affect yours. At all. IT doesn't help you get a credit card, nor bank accounts. Unless: Someone has them cosign for a loan or credit card. This is somewhat common with a first car loan or some student loans, but less common with credit cards. They won't be able to do that if they have a low score. Otherwise, you are basically on your own. The credit stuff you would have experienced coming here is what many 18-year olds hav to deal with. Some older women find themselves in a similar position - the accounts were all in their husband's name.
    - sithadmin 10y ago
      >Your parents credit score doesn't affect yours. At all. IT doesn't help you get a credit card, nor bank accounts. Perhaps one's parents can't help in any formal way, but for me, my parents' creditworthiness and relationship with a local bank helped get me my first credit card. Right before I left home for college, I applied for a credit card with my local bank, and was initially declined. When I asked for reconsideration by the branch manager, he looked into the situation and indicated that he couldn't do anything to assist. When my mother found out I was declined, she took me back to the branch, and asked the branch manger to reconsider the credit decision. Upon a review of my parents' standing with the bank, the branch manager overrode the previous decision and I was given a Visa card with a moderate ($1000 USD) limit. My mother wasn't even asked to co-sign on the account, provide any kind of guarantee, or be associated with the credit card in any way.
gaur 10y ago
Please punctuate.

hellogoodbyeeee 10y ago

It sounds like you are at least ten years out of college. Federal regulations have changed and now it is more difficult for a college student to access credit cards

superuser2 10y ago
No, pretty recent. After the regulation change.
theseoafs 10y ago
Not really, I got my first card just a couple years ago in college, and the process couldn't be easier, I just applied online with my bank.
lettergram 10y ago
I work for Capital One and their target customer is actually people without credit scores. As far as I know, it's the only company that actually targets these customers as the primary revenue stream and also makes money. The way it works, is they usually only give someone a $500 limit, then double the limit every 6 months If you pay monthly. Once you get a job you can get a bump to $2000 limit with the 1.5% back easy. You just need to get a job for that. I'm 1.5 years out of college and have access to ~100k in credit cards with a score of 750. I started with a score of 540 1.5 years ago. It's really not hard at all.
- frognition 10y ago
  Why in the world would you want 100k of credit?
  - nommm-nommm 10y ago
    I have about $150k limit on my cards combined. It would be a lot higher but I asked most of them to lower my limits. I just have a lot of cards. If they want to give me bonuses for signing up I will take them. Free money.

popmystack 10y ago

>Citi gave me a credit card with a $3,000 limit as a college freshmen. How old are you? Just a few years ago, despite making a very decent amount of money and having no marks on my credit, it took an entire year for me to get a credit card. Reason: lack of credit history. A lot of people have similar stories. >This depends on your definitions a little bit. The part where you spend money that isn't yours and then pay it off later. That's debt. Personally, I've learned the game so to speak and now continually get out outrageously good offers for cars, credit cards, home loans, you name it. I have a about $90k~ worth of available credit to me on my CC's alone. But despite having an incorrect black mark for a medical bill that's reported by _ONE_ CRA (the others removed it after I gave them proof that the debt wasn't valid, Experian refuses to listen and because it got reviewed once they won't review it again), I get better offers now than I did when I had a squeaky clean record. It's an absurdly backwards system. Get debt to get more debt. Hope CRA's don't fuck anything up. Credit card management has no indication how I'll manage a loan (whether a house or car) due to the nature of spending and utilization, but financial institutions treat it as such. Quite frankly we need "stricter" credit laws across the board. 1. Start out with a "default" score at the very least. 2. Cap interest rates on CC's (20% APR is stupid). No reason a CC should have an interest rate of above 12%. 3. Don't allow medical debts to be displayed in pulls from CRA's. If the institution really wants to see "everything", make them pay a decently high fee for it. They must also explicitly state that in their loan consideration for you, they took into account medical debt. Craft laws around whether or not financial institutions should be able to consider these debts, depending on the loan being offered. 4. Prevent employers from pulling credit history. Your finances are not their business. 5. Prevent landlords from pulling credit history. They are not loaning you money. If they want to pull your credit history, then they need to also contribute to it positively (i.e. report payment history during the length of your lease, accurately).

chipperyman573 10y ago
>Prevent landlords from pulling credit history. Your finances are not their business. I disagree, if you have a terrible credit history, leasing to you may be very risky. They aren't loaning you money, but they are trusting that you will have the money every month to pay them with.

FireBeyond 10y ago

"I felt pretty "trusted by definition." Citi gave me a credit card with a $3,000 limit as a college freshmen. A few years later I had an $8,000 limit card and a $10,000 limit card." As a recent immigrant I felt pretty untrusted. In my late 20s, despite being able to show a year of income in the six digits, no overdrafts, I had to go to four separate banks before finding one that was willing to give me a $300 limit card.

nommm-nommm 10y ago
You can get any store credit card easily. Your limit will be like $400 but it's enough to get you a history.
- Shivatron 10y ago
  As a Canadian expat, my experience was nearly identical to FireBeyond's upon moving to the US. As you suggest, I was able to get a store credit card, then it was over a year (during which I never used the store card at all) before I was even considered for a regular credit card. If that's not symptomatic of a broken process, I'm not sure what is...
  - nommm-nommm 10y ago
    I honestly don't think it's broken. If I'm going to loan you money it makes sense that I'd like you to have a history of successfully managing debt and access to debt. You are more risky if you don't have a history. It makes logical sense. Is it fair? I don't really think so, but its at least logical.
    - ThomPete 10y ago
      Yet other countries have no issue doing it differently. So there are other ways than the US one.
randombacon2 10y ago
Find a secured credit card. I was able to get one from USAA with a $5,000 limit (you just deposit $5,000 in a CD to cover it). Not many people realize this, but you do not have to be in the military to bank with USAA (you do if you want their insurance products, but not for banking).