What? Here is the story.
My 18 year old daughter and I spent the day at the community college she plans to attend in the fall, because we are good with money and know we cannot afford a four year college. This is why my FICO score and my husband's FICO score are both above 800. Our only debt is our house and our new car. Nothing else, no student loans, no medical bills, no credit cards, etc. We do have several credit cards in our wallets with nice limits, but we pay them off every month. We like to use them as much as possible and collect points for free stuff. We are currently saving points for airline tickets to Lake Tahoe in 2011.
Mandy and I stopped by the bank on our way home from the college day. Her bank where she has several thousand dollars saved and where I also have an account and have several thousand dollars saved, they do not allow kids under the age of 18 to have a debit card or checking account. Now that she has turned 18 I wanted her to get a checking account, a debit card and a credit card. I want her to start to build credit and learn to pay bills. It is hard to figure out money and no matter how many things people tell you, the skills come from handling money.
I was planning to co-sign for Mandy's credit card. We asked what was the smallest limit they offered and it was $300. We filled out all of Mandy's information, she earns more than a thousand dollars per month at her job and has a savings account with several thousand dollars, a history with this bank but no credit. We filled out my information, I make a little under a thousand dollars per month at my part time job. They looked us up and said that I cannot co-sign a loan for Mandy because my house payment plus my car payment each month add up to more than what I earn each month. Even though both of those items the house and car are in both my husband and my name, they will not let me co-sign for a $300 credit card for my daughter because I don't personally earn enough money, my husband has to sign for the credit card. So if he were deployed right now we would not be able to borrow any money. They cannot look and see how much my husband makes even though we are both liable for the payments.
Does that make sense?
I just wanted to point out to the universe how the credit crisis is effecting women. All women who have chosen to be the primary care giver of the family, if you chose to put your family first and career second, you are no longer able to borrow money based on yours and your husband's finances you have to have his permission to borrow money. No matter if you have been with a bank for year and paid every bill on time for years, no matter if you have a credit card in your purse from that bank allowing you to borrow thousands of dollars. Two of my friends with older kids who do not work said that they were able to co-sign for their kids credit cards w/o their husband's signature last year or in years previously. Another one of my friends who does not work told me that last year she borrowed money and bought her husband a car as a birthday present w/o his signature. Now, I was not allowed to co-sign for $300.
It feels so scary. What if I wanted to divorce my husband? What if he didn't want to help me? Would I be able to get an apartment? Would I be able to get utilities in my name? It is very scary. I was so proud of my credit score too.
I am trying to raise money for the American Cancer Society by walking in the Relay for Life on April 24th. Our team will walk for 12 hours in a relay, if you would like to sponsor me Click Here. They money goes to fund research, pays for cancer prevention education, and helps people who have been diagnosed with cancer in programs that help with things like reimbursing gas money or buying wigs etc. Hope you can help!
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4 comments:
Since the recent crisis, we haven't been able to get any credit either! We have a 0 balance card, credit score's over 800, no debt (except our mortgage)! What gives? Now that we spent a lot of our savings buying this house last July, we thought having another credit card, for an emergency, would be a good thing. Thankfully, we haven't needed it.
Hmmm, I don't think the bank person had it quite right. It is my understanding that if you are married and file taxes jointly, under "income" you should list household income (income from all sources = your income plus your husband's), especially if your hold joint credit (car/house/credit cards) already.
It helps if your husband's paycheck is deposited into a joint account because you can reference that account if you needed proof of income.
You can look at it two ways - when you are married, what's his is yours (and vice versa). Or, you can consider your "income" as what you make at your part-time job plus your "salary" for being the primary child care provider.
The other option is to have your daughter apply for a secured credit card. Basically, this means she makes a deposit into an "savings" account that is the equivalent to her card limit. After a set amount of time (it used to be 6-9 months, dunno what it is now), the card becomes a normal credit card and she can withdraw all of the amount in the savings account.
I am surprised to hear this.
me too also surprised!! that's why i always save my money to ignore these problems.
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