If my mom gets me a credit card at age 17 will that help me start building my credit?

Question

If my mom gets me a credit card at age 17 will that help me start building my credit?

Answer 1

nope. any credit reporting would go on her account. you cannot hold a credit card in your name until you are 18.

Answer 2

Only if your SS# is attached to it. Just because you get 1 card, you will not get a credit score of 850. It will be a good start. To have 3 or 4 open lines of credit will do you good as long as you do not miss payments.

Major credit card - Visa, MC, Amex

Store credit - Target, Wal-Mart, Macys

Cell phone

and even a service bill - home phone, utility, cable.

All these will help you get a good score the longer they are active and in good standing. It is not an overnite thing. It takes time.

Answer 3

Any and all credit built with the card would be under her name, and therefor reflect her credit, not yours. You can do some other things to lay the groundwork for building credit, such as starting a savings account or checking account (or both), getting a cell phone or other monthly billed account in your name, etc. These are small things that help build credit.

    When you're in college, or of college age if you don't attend, you'll get offers left and right for credit cards. Sign up for one then - they'll approve almost anyone with almost any credit. Just be careful using it so that you don't go overboard and end up defaulting on it and ruining your credit before you even build it!

    If you want more credit building tips, check out this eBook: http://bilsmith.niesong.hop.clickbank.ne... - a friend of mine recommended it to me, he used it when he filed for bankruptcy and it helped him raise his credit score something like 200 points in a short amount of time doing simple things like the stuff I suggested above.

    Good luck, and remember to be proactive about your credit score while you still can be.