Got no credit history?Follow

There should be no issue getting a joint account. Anyone 18+ who can find a reputable co-signer should have little issue getting credit. Idiggory is talking about non co-signer options.

No, assuming that you're the principle on the account, it helps your credit rating.

Of course, if you default then it screws over both parties on the account.

To be fair, we're assuming a parent/guardian that any place would WANT co-signing. If you have parents who can't manage money, Chase Manhattan is unlikely to be impressed by their offer to co-sign your Visa application.

Sure! DKP, Cambodian Riels, Turkmenistanian Manats, Oxygen molicules, Batcoin is a truely universal currency exchange medium. Completely flexable exchange rates! Batcoin is the only virtual currancy that actually makes you feel rewarded for turning in a stack of rabid weasle pelts and getting a handful of them back!

Wow. So let me get this straight. You aren't saying I'm wrong about the negative effects of Obama's credit card reform. And you aren't saying I'm wrong about the predictability of the negative effects of Obama's credit card reform. Instead, you're arguing that maybe, on some entirely unrelated subject, I might have been wrong with some other prediction?

Um... Grats on what has to be the weakest response ever then, I guess.

the topic just brought up a funny memory is all. Sorry you were so butthurt to hear about it

Ok, not really. Because it was funny. How's our long national nightmare of debit cards not being accepted anywhere working out for you like you so sagely "predicted"?

Unrelated (cover your eyes, Gbaji), I noticed last night that the search function looks to be fixed. So kudos to the Powers That Be for that.

So far, there are only three possible options that have been raised in this thread. The majority of options are NOT options, and have not been since 2009. Others, like utilities, are not an option for the vast majority of Americans, as very few utilities companies report to credit agencies (and there have been some movements trying to mandate they do so, specifically to help establish credit histories for people without their foot in the door).

Those options are secured credit lines, car loans, and simply meeting the minimum income for a credit card to invalidate the 2009 act.

Secured credit lines are the most realistic of those options. They're also, however, the option that doesn't have other utility separate from building credit. So relative to what they are, they're a pretty painful investment. I think they make a lot of sense as a mechanism to help you bounce back from bad credit, but it's not something I see many young adults feasibly invested in.

Though looking into it now, the landscape is already WAY different than it was just a few years ago. 2-3 years ago, none of the secured cards I saw were less than a $500 initial deposit. Now I'm seeing versions as low as $50, $100, $200, etc. I'm perfectly okay with denominations like that (as I said earlier in this thread). I just wasn't aware they actually existed now.

The other two I don't see as realistic options for someone in the 18-20 range. For students, meeting the minimum requirement for cards is likely not going to happen. And most 18 and 19 year olds can't afford, or won't be approved for, a bank loan.

Most of the other options cited are either bound by the 2009 Act, or they do not report to credit bureaus.

[EDIT]



The Act had extensive bipartisan support. I'm not going to bother defining predatory lending, because there's a fairly good lolwiki article if you actually cared. And the Act did far more than just limit who could access cards.

I also haven't once demanded that creditors MUST lend to young persons. Credit Card companies obviously didn't care about lending to people with no credit history back before 2009.

My issue is that the current state of the system is too much of a bandage job on the issue, and it needs to be properly addressed. I don't like the blanket blocking of credit cards, and I think there's a more nuanced approach here. Open up more restricted paths of access for credit card companies (like, say, limiting them to one card and with a certain limit bound by their income), and I'm confident that the companies will jump at the chance to be sending cards to 18-20 year olds again.

Edited, Aug 29th 2013 1:33pm by idiggory

Except that, in the context of an 18-20 year old, that landscape of options is extremely different. Maybe not now that securing a card is actually reasonable. 3 years ago, it was an absurd down-payment.

I'm happy to see that there's a legitimately affordable option secured option now. Because that wasn't the case for at least 2 years after the act was passed. What I'm a fan of is lowering the hurdles that bar 18-20 year olds from getting a credit card. Obviously, that doesn't force lending companies to lend to them. If they don't want, to, that's fine.

The issue I have is that secured cards are the only option because of legislation that is too far-reaching, not because it's what the lenders want to limit it to. I'm all for protections and limitations, laws for transparent lending, etc. Hell, limit someone to one $200 card at 20% APR before they're 21 unless they can prove a sufficient income for all I care.

If the lender is willing to take that risk, cool. Works for everyone.

[EDIT]



Which is why I only denoted a credit card as the realistic option for credit building.

Edited, Aug 29th 2013 1:39pm by idiggory

And if it was possible someone 18-20 to get that sort of card now, I wouldn't have any serious issue with the current system.

So this whole 3D printer thing, I've actually ran into an economic niche I might be able to leverage, but i don't really know if I want to get into the plasticmonger buisiness of providing raw materials. Currently, 5lb worth of plastic filiment spool sells for around $75. A 5 pound sack of plastic pellets and die sufficient to make colored plastic costs about $16. Electricity to convert it to filiment is about another 8-ish? if that, and a good machine to do the conversion in bulk runs about $450 as a one time purchase. It seems like I could do small batches of wierd or unusual color combinations at a discount, undercut most everyone else, and still make about $50 worth of profit (shipping costs would be paid by the buyer, etc.). Mathmatically, at least in the short term it makes sense. I know enough about the process to know I can do it successfully and make a decent product, and I know I would make money doing it. But my brain is rebelling against it because I don't want to give up more of my already saturated free time (2 jobs plus side jobs of fixing computers) to sit in my garage making plastic spaghetti when i could be doing something more interesting.

What I shoud do is rent a space somewhere, hire some minimum wage minions, and make them do it for me. But I don't have the slightest clue or inclination on how to run a buisiness with employees.

So yeah. Nothing to do whatsoever with the topic at hand, but I posted it here anyways.

One of the machines could probably do on average between 3-5 pounds worth of filiment an hour (around 20 inch per minute if I were making ABS plastic), with another 5-10 minutes required for winding the produced filimant onto the spool and preparing for sale. I guess the machine is actually running around $600 at the moment. but you could easily build multiple machines into a single controller http://www.filabot.com/collections/filabot-systems/products/filabot-wee-kit-welded

I could probably build something from similar parts for between $300-$400 ish. The controller would be a big chunk of that, the motor and the thermocuple is most of the rest of it.

There seems to be a pretty healthy demand for it, especially in larger size spools, so I'd probably be able to sell all I cared to make. A 2 lb spool sells for $35 usually, so there is profit on smaller lots too. There is a decent existing customer base, but I'd expect prices to start falling dramatically in about 2 years when alot more people start making the filiment. but between then and now I "should" do this economically. at the same time, I don't really want to. I'd rather be playing with the 3d printer itself.

It's less the saving $500 part and more the holding $500 as collateral part.