Getting A Credit Card (when you're under 18)

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Sep 12, 2009
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I'm helping my younger brother get together enough money to buy a nice place in Montreal for when he goes to University next year.

...For the past month or two I've helped him get his first campaigns going and they're going alright. But it's to the point now where he's (read: I'm) sending myself weekly wires from the (joint because he's under 18) bank account between ourselves because I pay for all his campaigns on my AE.

So it's an audit waiting to happen now (even the bank people look at me funny wiring over what they make in a month to myself every week from his account).

I know there's a lot of young guys on here. So have any of you gotten a CC and if so from where, etc? I know you can get a PayPal debit card that works as a Mastercard, but they don't offer them in Canada anymore, and last time I checked any AE charge cards needed a 100k spending per year minimum.
 


If you're talking about a credit card it needs to be off a joint account from my understanding until one is 18. For a debit card there are some banks that will issue them and accounts to 17 year olds however it's pretty uncommon. What you can do is set up an account under the company name and just have you as the secretary, there for your name is technically not on the account and not listed as an owner.
 
DollasnCents said:
If you're talking about a credit card it needs to be off a joint account from my understanding until one is 18. For a debit card there are some banks that will issue them and accounts to 17 year olds however it's pretty uncommon. What you can do is set up an account under the company name and just have you as the secretary, there for your name is technically not on the account and not listed as an owner.
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When I was in highschool and working at a bank part-time, I opened up my account there when I was 16 and got a debit card that processes through VISA. I still don't actually have a credit card. He could do that.

Another option would be to have him buy a pre-paid VISA and just have everything go to his PayPal account and also tie that card to the account. I haven't done this method personally. You might even look into PayPal's card.
 
I currently am 15 years old and have had a credit card since 13. My dad set it up so that he is the overseer of my account but the credit card still has my name on it. Im not sure which bank you have but my card is from HSBC and depending on how much money you have (over 1mil) they will treat you like royalty
 
BMO had a prepaid mastercard at one point. Not sure if you need to be over 18 because you load the money onto the card anyway but that may be an option.
 
Yeah man you can do it, but technically for legal terms it will be "your" account because should it go negative, unpaid, etc. it will be on your record. It can have his name and everything on it because I know some parents that do it (here is the one visa has Visa Buxx | Personal | Visa USA)


I think where you will run into a problem though is spending because I know with am, at least in my experience and since you've been around longer you can probably relate to this more, but there will be a cash flow problem. I think these cards that are linked to your account have spending limits, because normally parents give these things to kids to teach them about money, like giving them $20 a week for allowance, not dropping $10k a month into an ad network lol. Anyways, I would probably just get your own credit line and let him use that. My cousin had terrible credit and I wanted to teach him but not hold his hand, so I had a secured credit card with $1.5k/month on it and told him to go make it work.
 
damn.. i wish i had family members showing me how to bank... its been more like me teaching my older siblings myself. Anyway... whats wrong with him having a debit card for the time being? Or are you just trying to use the leverage available with a cc? Best advice is to go up to one of your banks and ask them what sort of options you can consider most likely resulting in both of you sharing a joint account like mentioned earlier
 
Capital One gave me a credit card when I was 16. $300 limit. Kept building up my credit from there.

This let me build up enough history to get approved for a nice mortgage loan when I was 18, a car, and several credit cards/loans I've needed for business.
 
Thanks for the responses everyone.

mark9510 said:
I currently am 15 years old and have had a credit card since 13. My dad set it up so that he is the overseer of my account but the credit card still has my name on it. Im not sure which bank you have but my card is from HSBC and depending on how much money you have (over 1mil) they will treat you like royalty
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I'm know the branch manager of HSBC here so I'm going to pop in and talk to him about doing this.

Thanks!
 
Get him a secured card for $5k to begin with. Wait for 6 months (pay it off regularly) and you will see his credit rating get better.
 
I got a card for $1k from Shell BMO mastercard when I was 17

apply to a few gas station cards in store and should be approved
 
For most of you who are saying "I had a card when I was...", keep in mind that it wasn't that long ago that Obama signed into law the Credit Act, which makes it very difficult for anyone under 21 to get a credit card.
 
I'm from Canada. I had CapitalOne prepaid credit card when I was 17. Their customer service sucks and overall it's not the best pick but hey its your first real credit.

Did he get accepted already ? Because if he did you can just go to any branch and apply for a normal credit card with proof of acceptance...
 
It's going to be tough getting anything over $500 -- even with a prepaid. My GF works at TD and the banks are very stingy with younger folks. It's funny because they'll give a 17 year old college student a massive line of credit, but not a CC of the same value.
 
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