Credit card @ 18

alb4rtj

Hi,

First of all I am fully aware of the risks of having a credit card at a young age, however I have always been interested in managing money and feel responsible enough to build my credit score now for a head start. 

I turned 18 recently, and had always planned on getting a credit builder card. I've been trying to apply but none of them: Vanquis, Aqua, Capital, Tesco etc will offer one. 

My primary account is Monzo, and while I have high street bank accounts they don't accept me.

Does anybody know why this is or do they just not offer them to 18? I am on the electoral roll.

RBYHS

When I turned 18, 3 years ago, I wasn’t eligible for any credit cards. It took me 10 months before Cap1 accepted me. After that, all came one by one with a £200 limit. And then approving me every few months for an additional one and consolidating them together. Built a card with a £5400 limit now. 

You will find it very hard to be offered any credit card if you are unemployed or a student. 

I’d suggest getting a sim only contract on your name, maybe a catalogue account to start managing credit (Very approved me immediately with £250 and to this day it increased to £4250, or Argos card approved me with £750 and increased to £1500). These are fairly easy to get and manage responsibility as they have very big APRs. Always pay in full or before the BNPL period is over. This will start building your credit history and it will slowly and gradually open the doors to credit cards.

On the other hand, I have a friend that as soon as he turned 18, Sainsbury’s bank approved him with a 7K limit! Weird! (Seen it with my eyes) 

Remember, building credit takes time, patience and responsibility. 

[Deleted User]

Your credit score is a gimmick, no-one ever sees it but you. Your credit record is all that matters - lenders all score you internally based on their own systems. You are right to start building a good history of spending and paying off in full however.

Firstly, do you have a job? If you are a student, try for a student bank account with CC.

Have you applied for those cards or just used an eligibility checker? If the latter, was it on the lender's site or on a comparison site? If you have not applied, it's worth a single application for something like Vanquis and see if you get lucky.

In the meantime, get a SIM only mobile contract deal and ensure it's paid in full every month, this is a simple way to build up a credit history and you can try for a card again in 6-12 months. I would normally recommend speaking to your bank but I don't think Monzo do credit cards? If not, may be worth considering another bank that does have them. They could at least see your income every month going in, if working, which might help.

MalMonroe

alb4rtj said:

Hi,

First of all I am fully aware of the risks of having a credit card at a young age, however I have always been interested in managing money and feel responsible enough to build my credit score now for a head start. 

I turned 18 recently, and had always planned on getting a credit builder card. I've been trying to apply but none of them: Vanquis, Aqua, Capital, Tesco etc will offer one. 

My primary account is Monzo, and while I have high street bank accounts they don't accept me.

Does anybody know why this is or do they just not offer them to 18? I am on the electoral roll.

Hello, I would agree with RBYHS - you'll need to have a regular income before you are offered a credit card.

However, if you are a student, you can still have a credit card. My daughter went to uni straight from 6th form, 20 years ago and at freshers' week all the banks in the UK (or so it seemed) had stands, trying to sign everyone up for student accounts and most of them came with some benefit or other. She chose HSBC (she'd been with Midland Bank as a child and that's what they changed to) and she still has a current account, debit card and credit card with them to this very day. She wasn't on the electoral roll then since she still lived at home during vacations. 

I became a full time mature uni student at the same time my daughter went to uni and as a new student I applied for an HSBC student account too. I was declined! I was really upset at the time since I'd worked all my adult life and had a regular income and was on the electoral roll. Not to mention they'd accepted my daughter who had no credit history. I was good enough for Barclays though and they gave me a student account, complete with debit and credit cards.

There are risks associated with having credit cards at any and every age, I have experience of that! You don't have to be young to find yourself in a financial mess.

I'm now retired but have a state pension as well as two private ones and have been accepted for three 'ordinary' credit cards over the last few years (after having recovered from having a DRO) - Sainsbury's, Virgin Money and Tesco. My income is small but since having the DRO I have learned how to manage money and my credit cards. So it doesn't matter that I don't work any more or that my financial history includes a DRO (now dropped of my credit reports). 

Lenders won't issue credit cards to people who cannot supply proof that they are in a position to pay off balances. So I'd guess that you need to prove you have a regular income. 

If you do have a regular income, have a look at your free credit reports (Equifax (Clearscore), Experian, TransUnion to see what, if anything, is causing bother. And also, don't take any notice of the score they give you because nobody but you ever sees them. 

alb4rtj

Deleted_User said:

Your credit score is a gimmick, no-one ever sees it but you. Your credit record is all that matters - lenders all score you internally based on their own systems. You are right to start building a good history of spending and paying off in full however.

Firstly, do you have a job? If you are a student, try for a student bank account with CC.

Have you applied for those cards or just used an eligibility checker? If the latter, was it on the lender's site or on a comparison site? If you have not applied, it's worth a single application for something like Vanquis and see if you get lucky.

In the meantime, get a SIM only mobile contract deal and ensure it's paid in full every month, this is a simple way to build up a credit history and you can try for a card again in 6-12 months. I would normally recommend speaking to your bank but I don't think Monzo do credit cards? If not, may be worth considering another bank that does have them. They could at least see your income every month going in, if working, which might help.

Thanks for your response. I'm a student but at college, think you have to be in university for student cards. 

I've been putting student as occupation, but putting my income in. Should I be putting part time job?

Ive checked comparison sites as well as eligibility checkers for specific cards but they just say we cannot offer you anything. 

Will look at my phone contract when it expires with my parents, but I'm with o2 who do hard searches. Monzo don't offer CC no. 

WillPS

Don't feel in a huge hurry to get a credit card, there are plenty of ways to build a decent credit record before or even instead of holding one. Also don't fiddle the details you're using to apply as these will likely resolve in your identity being flagged by National Hunter, which will only make things harder for you. 

If you're going to university - get a student account which gives access to a credit card then. Currently the banks offering this are TSB and HSBC, but check again when it's time.

If you're leaving education, build up your credit record as much as possible - as well as mobile phones you might also find catalogue/store cards are available to you (Very in particular) - only use them to buy what you would buy regardless and pay your bill in full. 

If you want to give it another go stating the nature of your part time employment then wait at least a few months before doing so.

jay1804

The best thing to do is see if you can get the contact changed over to your name, I did this a couple days after my 18th with EE.
Like other posters have said, Argos card and or Barclaycard are good starters as they are more accommodating. Unfortunately getting credit takes time and mistakes can have long lasting affects.

[Deleted User]

alb4rtj said:

Deleted_User said:

Your credit score is a gimmick, no-one ever sees it but you. Your credit record is all that matters - lenders all score you internally based on their own systems. You are right to start building a good history of spending and paying off in full however.

Firstly, do you have a job? If you are a student, try for a student bank account with CC.

Have you applied for those cards or just used an eligibility checker? If the latter, was it on the lender's site or on a comparison site? If you have not applied, it's worth a single application for something like Vanquis and see if you get lucky.

In the meantime, get a SIM only mobile contract deal and ensure it's paid in full every month, this is a simple way to build up a credit history and you can try for a card again in 6-12 months. I would normally recommend speaking to your bank but I don't think Monzo do credit cards? If not, may be worth considering another bank that does have them. They could at least see your income every month going in, if working, which might help.

Thanks for your response. I'm a student but at college, think you have to be in university for student cards. 

I've been putting student as occupation, but putting my income in. Should I be putting part time job?

Ive checked comparison sites as well as eligibility checkers for specific cards but they just say we cannot offer you anything. 

Will look at my phone contract when it expires with my parents, but I'm with o2 who do hard searches. Monzo don't offer CC no. 

If you put it in as a student and have applied for cards, I would be careful about then reapplying immediately - if you are paid to do X then you should put X down as your job. If you are 18 and a student, even at college, you might get a student account, be worth checking

A SIM only deal is more likely be accepted because if you don't pay they can just cut you off, vs a credit agreement for a phone for example. Apply for a SIM deal with O2 after the contract ends and switch to your name. 

WillPS

Deleted_User said:
If you are 18 and a student, even at college, you might get a student account, be worth checking

This is definitely not correct, unless it's a university/UCAS listed course (i.e. a university course being offered via a college). 

alb4rtj

Just to update this for any future readers - I started a LOQBOX (basically a pretend loan to build your credit score). After a month (one payment), I was pre-approved for Capital 1 (and related eg Ocean) and Barclaycard. Went with Barclaycard for the Apple Pay support, had to temporarily link my Monzo via Transunion to demonstrate my income and then was given a £400 limit. 

Ebe_Scrooge

alb4rtj said:

Just to update this for any future readers - I started a LOQBOX (basically a pretend loan to build your credit score).

It's a shame that your score means nothing, and is not used or even seen by lenders.

Making regular repayments to a credit agreement of any sort (loan, credit card, mobile phone contract, etc.) will start to build up a favourable credit history, which is what really counts.  I do hope, though, that you didn't pay anything for the privilege of using LoqBox?