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Comment by sparky_ | Hacker News Reader

Millennial here.

Opened my first credit card, a Discover student card, at 18 whilst in college. My credit limit was something awful, $1000 if I recall correctly. But the credit impact was immense.

By charging a hundred bucks or two, and never carrying a balance, I already had a 4 year long positive credit history upon graduation. Fast forward a few years, and I was able to take out a mortgage at 25. The Credit Union that granted it explicitly stated that said length of responsible credit card membership was the deciding factor.

It doesn't take much to build a credit history while you're young, and even $50 or $100 per month in your student years is enough to get a serious leg up.

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Yep, same. I got a Discover card when I went off to my first internship at 19. I kept that card, and only that card, until I was about 27, when I finally added a Visa for Southwest points.

Paying off every single bill on-time and in full (except for one month when I'd just moved cross-country and hadn't got my first paycheck yet) meant that I received nothing but benefits from the credit card, and ended up with a credit score over 800 when I finally decided to buy a house this year.

As a student, the Discover card was great because there were no yearly fees (what student wants to spend $100/year on that?) and it gave 1% cash-back, which was a nice little bonus a couple times a year that I could apply directly to the current bill.

I know quite a few people who refuse to get a credit card, because they apparently think they'll just be unable to control themselves and rack up $10,000 in debt the first month. I guess the voices in their heads tell them to spend. They tend to be a little surprised when they try to get a home loan and realize that, sans credit history, they have no chance.

Conversely, people like me who were stupid at 18 and let a $400 credit card go into collections are completely screwed for a decade. I can't even get a cell phone contract, much less a mortgage. I believe strongly that the legal age of majority should be raised to 21.

> the legal age of majority should be raised to 21

I think we just do an absolute piss-poor job of training people to be competent adults. Delaying adulthood even further is not the answer - not when people have historically led nations and raised children at ages that we would now consider the same acts a felony.

>not when people have historically led nations and raised children at ages that we would now consider the same acts a felony

My argument has more to do with the physical development of our brains than any social reasoning. A major reason for the 21 drinking age is that your prefrontal cortex is simply not fully developed until well into your 20s, leaving people to make terrible decisions without the ability to fully comprehend them.

The age 18 majority made sense in a world where people needed to get married and raise families and enter the workforce as soon as possible, but we no longer live in that world (in the US at least). The better option is to extend "childhood" a few more years, along with compulsory post secondary education which includes proper training to be an adult.

Interestingly, you can get the benefits to your credit rating without actually using the card at all (beyond the couple transactions per year required to keep the account active). In fact, this is an optimal strategy: One of the factors in your credit rating is how much of your available credit you use. Bizarrely, even if you pay your balance in full every month, a large balance:limit ratio still counts against you. So spending no money is better than having enough income to spend lots of money without holding debt long term. If you want to put all your spending through the card for the side-effects without being penalized for using too much money responsibly, you have to pay down your balance before the billing date.

Basically: credit ratings are crazy bullshit.

similar story, but when I was older.

I got my first credit card when I was ~24. Coming from a 0 credit score (literally, no records), I had to do a $1,000 limit card, backed by a $1000 savings account I couldn't touch, with a $50/yr annual fee. Even my own bank, who knew my income and cash on hand (historically), wouldn't approve me for anything aside from this card. Around the same time, I had to get a cosigner on a used car loan, because even putting 50% down in cash, South East Toyota Finance wouldn't do better than 14% interest, lol.

It really didn't take long to build a credit score up though. 3 years later and Im well in to the "excellent" range, and had no issues getting a home loan a year ago.

What if you fucked up at some point, accrued some debt, eventually paid it all off, and then do what you did? Is the recovery period for credit short or are you screwed for quite some time?

Millennial here. This is mostly correct though you are very wrong about a few things.

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