18 year old struggling with credit

trulydoodle

My 18 year old daughter is trying to get a credit card to smooth out the bumps after Christmas and cannot get any credit for love nor money!!

Please help - any suggestions?

We have tried:
Credit cards with existing banks
Overdraft with existing bank
Vanquis
Capital One

Brie

Does she have a job/income?  Is she on the voters' list?  Has she tried a series of applications within a short period of time?  Does she have a mobile contract or car insurance in her own name?

[Deleted User]

If she's only 18, she may need to wait a little longer. In any case, a credit card for post Christmas bumps would be a terrible place to start. 

She needs to get on an even keel with some savings behind her before jumping into credit.

Brie

I think the other thing is what precisely is she struggling with? 

That she has no money to go to the post Christmas sales??  Well good, it's a valuable lesson to realise that we can't always get a treat we want rather than need.  No money for a holiday deposit?  Again great, learn how to save.

Or is it that she can't afford the rent, bus fares to work, food to eat most days?  So how has this suddenly happened?  Because she spent too much before Christmas?  Maybe she was too generous to friends and family?  Partied too much??  Time to learn how to budget.  

Maybe the immediate solution is a credit agreement at the bank of mom and dad where she can borrow £100 now and pay you back £10 a month for the next 11 months.  (yes charge her interest, maybe refundable if no payments are late)

sourcrates

trulydoodle said:

My 18 year old daughter is trying to get a credit card to smooth out the bumps after Christmas and cannot get any credit for love nor money!!

Please help - any suggestions?

We have tried:
Credit cards with existing banks
Overdraft with existing bank
Vanquis
Capital One

Any suggestions ? Yes, come on Mum/Dad, smoothing out post Christmas bumps with a credit card, especially at 18, is a terrible idea, it could possibly sow the seeds of bad money management for life.

Thankfully the banks have now stopped targeting this age group, in the past they were a major source of funding for them, but affordability process`s and common sense appear to have prevailed.

What does she need the money for exactly ?

Teaching your daughter better money management is a very valuable life skill, explain how she should budget properly for things she needs, much better to lend her a few quid from the bank of mum and dad, if that`s possible, rather than start climbing a very slippery slope at such a young age.

A_Lert

I address my reply to the person with the problem.

Check your credit reports. This website will tell you how. It doesn't cost anything.

If you have made applications that make "hard searches" then you need to stop applying for credit! Repeated applications and rejections will not help. If you have just done eligibility checkers that do "soft searches" then you're OK.

If you don't have income you won't get credit.

Like a previous poster mentioned, make sure you're registered to vote at the address you live at (which must also be the address you put for your credit agreement) and the credit reports confirm this.

Edi81

Good!
bumps after Christmas indicates she has overspent.