Credit Card Fraud

[Highbeam]

What is "too young" to get a credit card, these days? I suspect I was 16 or 17 when I got one, likely coinciding with the need to buy gas.

I should have been more clear, we did add our kids as authorized users to our oldest credit card when they were children just to establish their credit. It works great. The children don't even have to know you did it but be sure you don't screw up and ruin your kid's credit. My father did this for me before I was even a teenager.

When my kids were of age to buy books for college they use the credit card and give it back to be placed in the safe when done. Before they are 18 YO of course.

The kids use a debit card attached to their bank account for buying gas and other children things like candy bars with their money.

After they turn 18 they could, but have not, gotten their own credit card. The companies certainly offer CCs to the college attending daughters with excellent credit.

 

[tlc1976]

I pay off my cards every month. And I forgot about my HD card that I also use for discounts on the occasional purchase. A lot of times though, I put smaller purchases on my cash back cc now that HD no longer gives a 5% discount for using their card. If I think there is a largish purchase coming up, I'll put a couple $$ on the HD card so I get a 10% coupon once I pay the bill.

My ex and I qualified for a home loan way before we qualified for credit cards. Of course we bought the house in the late 80's, when credit cards were not given to everyone with a pulse. Didn't get our first credit card until the mid 90's. Our credit history consisted of buying vehicles.

This. I too got my first mortgage in 99, when it was like the Wild West. All I had to do was show I had a job for 3 months (which is exactly what I had). I had no savings. The realtor took care of everything for me, including lining up inspection, financing, etc. They even used my 9 year old Pontiac as collateral for the house. That car I had a 4 year loan for which I had already paid off in 2 years, so that may have been taken into account. Looking back I could have really got burned, but I was a stupid 22 year old kid in a tight spot. Luckily it worked out. Worst that happened was the house needed a roof badly when they said it was good, but I took care of that myself later on.

When I went to qualify for the new house, since I still didn’t use credit cards, I went through an unconventional mortgage company. My record of 17 years still working at the same company, with no late or missed mortgage payments, electric bills, phone bills, insurance, etc. was enough to get into an FHA loan along with a housemate. And when things fell apart with her, my continued record of no missed or late payments of any kind was enough to get me into my own conventional mortgage of the going rate.

Now I’m no longer strapped with child support and all the travel expenses and such, I’m just taking that and putting it toward the principal every month, as long as I have no other pressing issues. In 5-10 years I hope to have it paid off.

 

[Ashful]

You did well buying in '99, if your area did anything similar to ours. I bought my first house in 1998, and then watched the value of it double over the next several years, before settling back down after the 2008 meltdown to around 1.6x what I had paid. Meanwhile, friends my age who decided to wait and save more found the market prices running up more quickly than they could ever save.

We waited until a buyer's market to upgrade to a larger house, knowing we'd take a small hit on the sale of our first house, but saving nearly triple the amount of that loss on the purchase of the second house.

 

[tlc1976]

You did well buying in '99, if your area did anything similar to ours. I bought my first house in 1998, and then watched the value of it double over the next several years, before settling back down after the 2008 meltdown to around 1.6x what I had paid. Meanwhile, friends my age who decided to wait and save more found the market prices running up more quickly than they could ever save.

We waited until a buyer's market to upgrade to a larger house, knowing we'd take a small hit on the sale of our first house, but saving nearly triple the amount of that loss on the purchase of the second house.

Most of the surrounding areas, including where I am now, never stopped increasing. Because it’s a popular vacation area. One statistic says 40% of the houses around here are vacation homes.

I got really really lucky with this place. The sellers could have sold it to wealthy vacationers and made a lot more. But they built it as a family and said they wanted it to go a family of full time residents. I could tell when they saw both our kids running up the stairs excitedly. I’m keeping the original vibe of the place because I like it. I paid 125k and right now it’s supposedly worth 250-300k. The rathole modular down the road sold quickly for 155k recently. I’d never afford a decent house around here anymore. Good thing I’m not going anywhere. I was going to wait until my kid graduated to find a better place, but when my mate was looking for the same, I seized the opportunity. And I’m glad I didn’t wait.

My old place wasn’t in a desirable spot. 10 miles from town, beat up rural road that wasn’t plowed often, worst community water I’ve ever had. And had a ridiculous HOA that kept adding rules and increasing the dues that were already higher than any other HOA I knew of in the area. House prices were pretty high in 99, there were only 3 houses below 70k within 30 miles from work, I paid 65k. It stayed stagnant after that. By the late 00s crash, the HOA said 38 houses (out of about 75) were for sale, so I didn’t even bother trying to sell. They typically sat for 3 years too. In 2016 we had a new company in the area who could really move houses. I owed 46k and after some dickering I sold it for 53k, good enough to break even at the end of the day. The next owner redid the a lot of the interior, and sold it for 90k. Most of the houses out there always went for about 40-130k, but I don’t know about lately.

 

[Ashful]

Unrelated to credit card fraud, but I hear such horror stories about HOA's. We don't seem to have many of them around here, even in the newer developments, at least that I've seen. We live in a development, and there were bylaws put in place by the developer about what could be built here (minimum lot subdivision size, min house size, min garage bay count), but that is it. No HOA, and now even the bylaws have expired.

 

[begreen]

It's a changing world. Underground crime is not only raiding credit cards but also checks. This hit an acquaintance in NYC recently with bill payments made by checks in the mail that were intercepted, the ink cleaned, and the check rewritten to the criminals.

Cases of check fraud escalate dramatically, with Americans warned not to mail checks if possible

Check fraud is back in a big way, fueled by a rise in organized crime that is forcing small businesses and individuals to take additional safety measures or to avoid sending checks through the mail altogether.

apnews.com

 

[Highbeam]

Unrelated to credit card fraud, but I hear such horror stories about HOA's. We don't seem to have many of them around here, even in the newer developments, at least that I've seen. We live in a development, and there were bylaws put in place by the developer about what could be built here (minimum lot subdivision size, min house size, min garage bay count), but that is it. No HOA, and now even the bylaws have expired.

It's a fine line. The developer usually puts in place "CC&Rs" which are codes, covenants, and restrictions enforced by an HOA because no government can enforce such silly rules that aren't laws.

We purposely excluded all homes with CC&Rs or HOAs when we bought our current home. This is risky because there is nothing stopping your neighbor from doing pretty lame things that are legal but seriously damage your home value or quality of life.