Legal age is "18", Good or Bad? (Credit Score / Credit History Issues)

[Deleted member 473940]

Hey guys Before you read ahead; do you think 18 should be the legal age? Being 18 is grown up enough to handle the world out there?

So for a while I wanted to talk about this. Well, obviously in the UK, legal age is 18. Some places such as certain clubs obviously state 21.
But anyway, that is not why I opened the account.

Basically, when I first turned 18, I kept getting credit card advertisements on my name through post. I applied for a couple and started using them. For a while, repayment and everything went ok, but I started using them heavily and wasnt able to make minimum repayments on time. After some time, I was referred to collection agencies to pay the money back. I went on a repayment plan and took me literally less than 5 months to pay everything off.

However, that whole repayment thing has come back to bite my ass. I CANNOT EVEN OPEN A CURRENT ACCOUNT WITH BANKS!

Let me explain what happened.

I was with Lloyds TSB(just Lloyds now) for the whole time. I was never pleased with them. THIS MONTH I finally decided that before my next student finance drops, I will pay off whatever direct debits I have, pay off anything that needs to be paid off, close my Lloyds account and go open an account with Barclays or HSBC.

I sort out all the bills and everything, close my account.
Go to Barclays, only to find out that my credit score is so bad that I cannot even open a Current Account! EVEN STUDENT ACCOUNT IS BEING DENIED! They were willing to give me student account without the benefits(such as the interest free overdraf).

After some investigation, I found out that my credit score and credit history is poor due to the things I have done back when I was 18. I really think its a huge punishment to me! At that age I was such a fool and obviously fucked up.


Whats your opinion on the 18 legal age law?
Whats your opinion on my situation?

 

[Foxi4]

In Poland 18's been the legal age for as long as I remember and we're doing perfectly fine. In fact, it might be a bit too high for some thing.

 

[Deleted member 473940]

In Poland 18's been the legal age for as long as I remember and we're doing perfectly fine. In fact, it might be a bit too high for some thing.

whats your take on the credit card issue? lol

 

[WiiCube_2013]

Depends how mentally stable a person is regardless of age. A man of 32 who acts like a 10 year old can't be left by himself because he's incapable of taking care and would probably end up dead, starving, slave or homeless.

Recently I opened an account at Halifax (although I've got one with Barclays) and everything went smoothly so you could give them a try.

I tried HSBC like last year or so and they told me that my credit wasn't good or something but that's bullshit, I don't owe anything to anyone much less being negative.

 

[emigre]

No disrespect but you fucked up there with your finances to an extreme level. You're not the only person to be in the financial dog doo but that's how responsibility goes. There are people in their fucking 30s who mismanage money.

All you can do is sort out your finances and improve your credit rating because that can (and probably will) fuck you up when getting a mortgage/loan.

 

[Foxi4]

whats your take on the credit card issue? lol

What emigre said. You're responsible for your finances, it's up to you whether your credit rating is good or bad.

 

[WiiCube_2013]

I read a bit of this - http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/credit-rating-credit-score

But here's the thing, I can't think of a reason why my credit score would too be negative as when I was 18 I didn't ask for loans, mismanage my money or whatever.

 

[mightymuffy]

- it's rather fitting (I'm currently not using AdBlock) that the sponsored link above me on this very page is from Experian! They (and similar companies) sound like a complete waste of space, but for your current predicament they'll be a whole lot more help than you'd think...

Legal age of 18 is fine by the way, and not really the problem here like has been already said - I suspect if it was 21 and you got all those cc ads/pound signs rolling in your eyes you'd have ended up in the same situation you're in now. Pretty sure you'll not make the same mistake again ehh.... In my opinion, take the 30 day experian trial as they help immensely (apparently, I don't have first hand knowledge, but my kid bro does), and take the student account from Barclays too - keeping yer shit in order on that will also help, I suspect they'd have no trouble upgrading you to a current sooner or later if you do....

 

[Deleted member 473940]

Thing is, apart from those 2 credit cards, I havent had any issues whatsoever.
I have been reasonable with my spending, no direct debit bounces, no payment issues, no unplanned overdraft. Everything has been clean!
Agh it takes 7 t 10 years for the bad reports to be deleted -.-

 

[Gahars]

Thing is, apart from those 2 credit cards, I havent had any issues whatsoever.

...Yeah, but those are huge fucking issues. That'd be like someone saying, "Besides the corruption and coverups, Richard Nixon's administration was squeaky clean!"

It sucks that you were financially irresponsible, but you're an adult and you have to deal with the consequences of your actions. Them's the breaks.

 

[Plstic]

This is why I only use cash so I can track what I spend.

 

[WiiCube_2013]

This is why I only use cash so I can track what I spend.

Notch made $2.1 billion so he can make a big ass bed made outta caaash. So nice swimmin' in cash.

 

[Haloman800]

Vote UKIP. Nigel Farage will fix your credit score

Spoiler

and make gollywog's real

 

[cdoty]

Hey guys Before you read ahead; do you think 18 should be the legal age? Being 18 is grown up enough to handle the world out there?

So for a while I wanted to talk about this. Well, obviously in the UK, legal age is 18. Some places such as certain clubs obviously state 21.
But anyway, that is not why I opened the account.

In the US (at least), this is usually the age where you can be charged as an adult, and things remain on your permanent record.

How many people have done stupid things at 18 (or even 21)? Do you really want some stupid lack of thinking to haunt you for the rest of your life? That is what happen when you turn 18.

 

[Sicklyboy]

Thing is, apart from those 2 credit cards, I havent had any issues whatsoever.
I have been reasonable with my spending, no direct debit bounces, no payment issues, no unplanned overdraft. Everything has been clean!

Agh it takes 7 t 10 years for the bad reports to be deleted -.-

It's kind of funny, because those are all things that won't affect your credit score in the first place (aside from payment issues) because those all deal with cash. :/

As others have said, yeah it's a pain in the ass, but you're an adult now. If you can't handle the rules you're going to meet consequences. One or two fuck-ups is enough to mess you up big time, as you can see. Late payments are no joke, once you start fucking with someone's money they're gonna start fucking with you, the bigger the business the worse it is - case in point, banks.

You see that it takes 7 years for the bad records to drop off. So make sure that in that 7 years, you don't have any more mishaps. Manage your finances well, budget yourself, set limits for what you can spend in a month and don't frivolously spend your money. Make all of your payments on time, EVEN IF THEY'RE THE MINIMUM. Don't apply for any new cards for 6 months to a year, as those all are hard pulls on your credit report and too many hard pulls make you less and less likely to be approved for a card/account. Work on getting your finances in good standing and getting your credit score back up.

Mint.com and YNAB (You Need a Budget, available on Steam) are great resources to track your spending and accounts and help you plan better, or even at the very least as is the case with Mint.com it keeps track of all of your accounts in one place and paints you a pretty clear picture of your current finances. And if possible, get a better job. I don't know what you're working or making now, but a few extra dollars an hour can make a ridiculous difference. I went from living paycheck to paycheck on my last job ($9.53/hr after 4 years, retail) to being able to have a comfortable amount of extra money on hand after benefits and bills and shit ($13.25/hr + OT and paltry monthly bonus, warehouse job)

I've got 3 cards - Amazon store card (only usable on Amazon), CapitalOne Visa, and Discover. The Amazon card I rarely use, when I do I charge enough to it to get 6 months or a year of financing, and completely avoid interest if I pay it off within that time. CapitalOne and Discover are both high use cards, the CapitalOne card has been almost maxed out for as long as I've had it, 3 years, because a low paying job and always running into car troubles kept me putting money on it. The Discover card too, however that has a higher limit and has been my main card due to the decent rewards system on it. My job change has switched me from barely being able to keep up with the cards and having virtually no bills to almost paying the cards completely off in a matter of weeks and adding more bills (changed auto insurance, picked up my own phone bills, benefits at work again, working on moving out on my own next probably).

And for what it's worth, check out www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance. It's a great subreddit to talk about finance woes and if nothing else, do what I do and just read what other people have to say and you can get some good ideas of things to do for your own unique situation.

Good luck dude

PS - this is all from the perspective of an American and how the system works here in the US. I'm not sure how different if at all it is in the UK but it sounds like it's pretty similar.

This is why I only use cash so I can track what I spend.

With the kind of benefits you get form buying with credit and the major safety net it can act as if you're down on your luck or in an emergency, that's just retarded. If you don't spend more than you have, it's the same as using cash. Just keep up with your bills.

 

[gifi4]

There have been quite a few good and informative posts in this thread already.
I'm gonna add this tidbit that can come in handy:
There are places where you can apply for a loan/CC/etc. that don't take your credit history in to consideration. You simply get charged ridiculous interest rates. Using a service like those are going to be necessary to pull your credit rating back out of the red.

 

[Sicklyboy]

There have been quite a few good and informative posts in this thread already.
I'm gonna add this tidbit that can come in handy:
There are places where you can apply for a loan/CC/etc. that don't take your credit history in to consideration. You simply get charged ridiculous interest rates. Using a service like those are going to be necessary to pull your credit rating back out of the red.

That would be a "secured card", if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Minox]

I never understood the point in getting a credit card - it encourages spending more than you can afford and offers no significant benefit as far as I can tell. Most countries nowadays offer debit cards which more or less acts the same way as a credit card other than the fact that purchases are declined when you're out of money meaning that you will never spend more than you have.

 

[nando]

I got terrible credit but it has nothing to do with being financially irresponsible. I've never made a late payment in my life. I payed all my student loans quickly and even my first car cash. And that's my issue. I'm denied credit because I'm financially low risk and basically hard to make money off of.

One creditor actually told me that the reason they denied me is because my spending is way lower than my income. I avoided credit cards when I was young when they were really preying on me. If I had taken a credit card then and made minimum payments, my credit score would be a lot higher.
Basically I have to take a high rate crazy stupid credit card and lose a lot of money to build my credit. The system relies on people making poor Financial decisions.

 

[loco365]

I do have a debit card myself, but I always keep within my means, as well as actively refusing to have overdraft protection on my account. It's quite rare that I ever go into overdraft (No more than $20), but one thing I probably won't do is have a credit card. If anything, it'd be a secured card so that I'd have to put money onto it first, just like a savings account, before I could make use of it. I also keep up with all my payments, and pay them ASAP, far before the due dates, so that they're just out of mind and I know it's tended to.

I know that those small things did get back at you in the end, but I'm pretty sure you can fix it slowly. My mother had to declare bankruptcy a few years back because my father (Who's separated) left us in a major financial situation. She already has an incredible credit score. It'll just take some elbow grease to get your credit score back to the positive end of things.

I'd give you some tips on where to start, but I don't look like a complete know-it-all right now, plus, I'd simply be stating the bleeding obvious. As for the legal age thing, I'd think that it's fine as is. I think people should be responsible for their actions - Including their financials.