In my last post I mentioned helping my son with his
spend. Today, I’d like to detail how I
got him to the point where he earned a premium credit card. My family look at me with raised
brow with the way I spend and set up reward accounts for all. They've come to
accept it more as the kookier things mom does then the actual benefit of what I
do brings forth.
My son used to get annoyed with me because “junk” email was
taking up his inbox. The junk email he
was referring too were monthly statements from various travel partners, Delta,
Club Carlson, Hyatt that I set up on his behalf so he could earn points. Let me rephrase that so I could earn points
for him.
It wasn't until I quickly
acquired him a free ticket to Orlando so he could spend spring break with his
girlfriend and her family rather than him shell out $375 of his own money for a
ticket where I finally got his attention. Fast forward two years and our goal for
this summer was to get this college aged kid a credit card in his own
name. He has credit cards where I have
added him as an authorized user so I could acquire more points but he has none
in his own name. With college students, acquiring credit isn't what it used to be, the banks are much stricter even though
my son has a job at school and what he earns can hardly be called
income. I tried over spring break this
year to have him secure a Chase Sapphire preferred card; denied, even after I
pleaded with the reconsideration line representative nicely. Then I read an article where student loan
checks can be considered income for credit applications. I
immediately had my son’s bank account set up so that he would automatically
have $20 a month deducted which would go toward paying his student loans. We also set up where his tax refund would go
toward his student loan, then I waited.
He came home this summer and in July we tried for a Chase Freedom card,
no points associated here but again denied.
This reconsideration rep while not budging on giving my son the credit and
said again this was a premium card, I couldn't see how but he did try to steer us toward another card and I wasn't having any of it. Again, we waited.
Then as if by magic, the mail came with a Delta American Express offer for 35K after $1000 spend and no annual fee in my son’s
name…BINGO!!! I reviewed the material
and rather than fill out the application online we called because this mailing
was tied to a number where Amex must have prescreened those for the targeted
offer. There were questions about his
income but when he proved that his students loans were being paid automatically
from his checking account and that he had a school job, we were in. The application was approved. Now granted 35K is not a lot of points for a
sign up bonus (actually, I won’t apply for anything under 50K) but I didn't
care, he earned his own points owning card!!! Amex only gave him $1000 credit line, which is
perfect, but funny thing how the spend limit and credit line are the same. Now he has a $1000 spend limit to meet. Within a few days the card came and
we went over the basics about his responsibility pertaining to credit, paying
on time etc., and we started to spend.
We aren't at the $1000 level yet only $170 more to go until he can have his
Delta points but we still have 2 months remaining. The arrival of the card coincided with him
needing to order his school books so it all worked out. He knows he is not to carry a balance and
must pay the card in full each month. He
also had some Delta miles from a previous flight so now he know the value of
those reward programs I signed him up for initially. He even has 4K Club Carlson points that I
earned for him for free from a promotion they had last year. Soon my college boy will have enough for a round-trip
flight and 1 night in a category 1 Country Inn and
Suites. Ah, it’s great when they follow
in your footsteps.
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