Uglysasquatch wrote:
idiggory, King of Bards wrote:
Uglysasquatch wrote:
Wasting your time folks. Iddiggory expects everything to be handed to people. People shouldn't have to work at anything, they should just start at awesome. It's his MO on everything.
I wasn't aware I was advocating people to just get handed good credit scores.
I'm saying that lines of credit are too limited right now for people under 21. Considering any line of credit has far more potential to hurt you than help you, that's pretty much the opposite of a hand out.
I "may" have over embellished the idea, but you have a history of thinking (and expecting) everything to/should be easy. You've been shown tons of other options available and shoot down everyone because its not an easy route. Sorry, that's reality.
So far, there are only three possible options that have been raised in this thread. The majority of options are NOT options, and have not been since 2009. Others, like utilities, are not an option for the vast majority of Americans, as very few utilities companies report to credit agencies (and there have been some movements trying to mandate they do so, specifically to help establish credit histories for people without their foot in the door).
Those options are secured credit lines, car loans, and simply meeting the minimum income for a credit card to invalidate the 2009 act.
Secured credit lines are the most realistic of those options. They're also, however, the option that doesn't have other utility separate from building credit. So relative to what they are, they're a pretty painful investment. I think they make a lot of sense as a mechanism to help you bounce back from bad credit, but it's not something I see many young adults feasibly invested in.
Though looking into it now, the landscape is already WAY different than it was just a few years ago. 2-3 years ago, none of the secured cards I saw were less than a $500 initial deposit. Now I'm seeing versions as low as $50, $100, $200, etc. I'm perfectly okay with denominations like that (as I said earlier in this thread). I just wasn't aware they actually existed now.
The other two I don't see as realistic options for someone in the 18-20 range. For students, meeting the minimum requirement for cards is likely not going to happen. And most 18 and 19 year olds can't afford, or won't be approved for, a bank loan.
Most of the other options cited are either bound by the 2009 Act, or they do not report to credit bureaus.
[EDIT]
Quote:
I think that's the problem though. He seems to be demanding that lenders lend money to people with no or little income, no history paying back loans, and no one in their lives with such a history willing or able to co-sign, at good/fair rates. Which leads us back to the "predatory lending" thing. Lending money to people just like those Idiggory describes was labeled as "predatory" because the odds were those people would not be able to pay the loan back and would end out massively in debt before they could even get started in the workforce. The regulations he supported directly caused the situation he's in.
The Act had extensive bipartisan support. I'm not going to bother defining predatory lending, because there's a fairly good lolwiki article if you actually cared. And the Act did far more than just limit who could access cards.
I also haven't once demanded that creditors MUST lend to young persons. Credit Card companies obviously didn't care about lending to people with no credit history back before 2009.
My issue is that the current state of the system is too much of a bandage job on the issue, and it needs to be properly addressed. I don't like the blanket blocking of credit cards, and I think there's a more nuanced approach here. Open up more restricted paths of access for credit card companies (like, say, limiting them to one card and with a certain limit bound by their income), and I'm confident that the companies will jump at the chance to be sending cards to 18-20 year olds again.
Edited, Aug 29th 2013 1:33pm by idiggory