Overall, pretty weak arguments for getting a credit card in college. Get it before they make you prove your income? Oh, no! Not that! College kid (KID), with no job, no money, and living in the land of temptation…. yeah, get him a credit card.

BUT so long as you are responsible. So long as you are educated. If this, if that. Yeah, yeah, yeah….

You don’t need a credit score. You don’t need a credit card. You do need to pay your bills on time. You do need an income. You do need to build up cash savings. You can absolutely rent apartments with no credit score (you’ll rate as a C, unlike trashed credit which will get you a D or F), you can buy a car (cash, used – the right way), you can get a mortgage (manual underwriting, not the monkey powered auto underwriting, Fannie). Don’t believe the myths, conform not.

I don’t want her to get in trouble with a CC, but the potential for emergencies is great.

But I also 1,000% agree that in my experience 99.99999999% of young people (under the age of 30) can’t handle credit cards. Not that too many over 30 can handle them either.

I don’t have an answer other than to say the *prudent* use of credit can be a good thing even if it is for a depreciating item and/or costs you more over the long haul (with interest) than paying cash now. To me it’s also an issue of “cash flow”.

*IF* you can discipline yourself to pay off your debt out of current income rather than cash reserves it *might* be better, depending on many variables.

I could advocate someone not worrying about building good credit if they are lucky enough to have a parent or close family member that would co-sign for larger purchases they make in the future. Unfortunately, not everyone is that lucky. I know an argument to that is that you shouldn’t purchase anything that you can’t afford to pay for in cash, but sometimes things (like medical emergencies) come up and you might be stuck like chuck if you have bad credit and not enough savings to cover it.

I got my cc early in life (after sophie year) and haven’t hit credit card debt yet.

I would argue that a responsible person would be responsible with CC’s, provided they are educated.

Thanks for mentioning my article. I know this is a topic we have differing opinions about, but we both agree that not everyone should have a credit card. Credit is a tool, and one that should be used with caution. A good analogy is Credit Cards and Guns – both are useful tools that provide a service, and both can be abused with devastating results.

Is credit necessary to buy a car? No. Buying with cash is usually a much better option. But is credit a necessity in today’s American society? Pretty much. It would be incredibly difficult to purchase a house without a strong credit history, and many vendors, landlords, and utility companies run a credit check before renting out a home, allowing someone to enter a cell phone contract, or get utilities without paying a hefty deposit.

I agree you shouldn’t let FICO and its co-conspirators dictate how you run your financial life… but you also have to know when it pays to play along. And having a strong credit history can make some parts of life easier. And as long as you use credit cards responsibly, then there is nothing to worry about.