Originally Posted by
RedSun
The age 21 or older thing does not make a lot of sense. For college kids who are younger than 21, they can't include their parents' income? Then how can they get the income to pay the tuition (like $30,000 or so), room and board and daily expenses? And a lot of students get CCs anyhow.
This is really a gray area of the income from parents or from spouse. I personally do not think it is wrong to say that your 20-year old son makes $40,000 in order to get his CC. Or your spouse making $40,000 to get her first CC. The parents or husband (or other earners) pay the household debts anyhow. You can say the reported income is not true, but it is the reality.
Credit Card Act addressed concerns regarding college students or whoever and debt.
https://www.creditcards.com/credit-c...d-law-1279.php
Basically under 21, the kid will need a co-signer. If said adult wants to become jointly responsible for their kid blowing a wad on credit cards, that is their business as they will be the ones also will get what's coming to them if sums aren't repaid.
Over 21 same rules for spouse and others apply; credit is granted based upon ability to repay. If the kid has no credit history, no job, he or she probably won't get a card unless they go with a secured or maybe any of the new products rolled out for college students (read low limits and often high APR).
Important take away point from all this is as we've been discussing elsewhere in forum; anyone can list any sort of employment or other income on a credit application. Bank or lender (as is their right) can also turn around an request official documentation. A college kid *could* put down no employment income, but an "allowance" or whatever from parents as "other household income", but CC/lender can say fine "show us the proof".
Spouses are a different matter, and to be frank we are specifically talking about wives/women.
Some of you may be too young to remember, but it wasn't that long ago that wives didn't exist financially or credit wise. Credit cards, bank accounts, etc.. all were under the husband's name. Yes, you had joint accounts but by and large it was assumed the man of the house was breadwinner and thus it was "his" money.
Divorced wives and or widows suddenly could find themselves with no credit/banking history of their own since all that had was tied to the husband. In fact until forced to via federal laws many banks/credit/charge card companies simply refused to grant married women credit in their own names. The woman was told to bring her husband down/have him sign the papers.
What got many women upset about the CCA of 2009 is that is seemed to push things back to the bad old days; that is a married woman having no financial identity outside that of her husband.
https://www.creditcards.com/credit-c...ncome-1282.php
Despite all the going on about equality or whatever, American women still by and large want things both ways. Treated as equals in workplace and other areas outside the home, but then rewarded and or otherwise compensated for *not* holding any other "employment" than being a wife and mother.
On the face of things granting credit to anyone without visible means to repay is not a sound business decision. But as noted above sticking strictly to that puts large numbers of Americans at a disadvantage. So the laws were revised to spilt the difference.