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My son is 19 years old, has a good head on his shoulders and is very fiscally responsible for his age (he's sitting on several thousand in his checking account after building for a couple years and working full time while going to a local college). We've discussed a lot about credit, trying to teach him the ins-and-outs that I wish I had known. I AU'd him on several cards a couple months ago - AmEx BCE for the future *D when he gets his own, a couple of USAA Visa/MC (He's a full member with his own login/insurance policy for over a year now), and a comenity Beall's account. All of these are 100% in good standing and decent limits with low/no util. This week we app'd for a USAA Student Mastercard, approved for $300. Also hit them up for a USAA Visa, but no joy (reason returned as "insufficient credit history, kinda expected but worth a try). Went ahead and got him in at NFCU with my referral and opened a savings account as well as getting an approval for a NFCU Visa nRewardsa at $1500. He's wanting to move a couple grand into savings at Navy Fed as well. Gave him both barrels about treating NFCU right and having a financial ally for life. He still lives at home and comes to me with questions so I'll have a good chance to keep an eye on his fiscal behavior. So, at this point, he's sitting on two unsecured "real" credit cards 100% in his own name, plus the above AU's. I'm thinking it's a good time to let it ride for 6+ months to build his file a bit. Told him maybe after the new year take out a loan secured with his Jeep (he owns it outright) just to add a little installment loan history to his file mix. Anything else we should look at doing right away? I'm sure we're a couple years out from a *d'able AmEx of his own (his income right now is only around 15k) - so that's a mid-long term goal... Thoughts? I just wish I had gotten the same head start at his age. I'm almost 40 and just now figuring out the credit game.

I have an 17 year son and a 15 year daughter. I was thinking of adding them as AUs on one of my credit cards to start their credit files going. Neither of them would actually get the card. As soon as they each get a part time job, a checking account, savings account, debit card, and IRA are next. I am going to teach them how to make responsible financial decisions (something my parents didn't teach me when I was younger). Which one would you recommend adding them to: Capital One ($1250) Chase Freedom ($1500) Barclay Rewards ($3000) Lowes ($800) I PIF monthly, don't carry balance, and keep utilization to 1% (all lessons learned on this forum). Thoughts?