Mom takes out a credit card in her daughter’s name, refuses to pay the $500 balance she racked up that was due September 1st: ‘She wanted to build a payment history.’

Why would she take out a card in her daughter’s name and not pay it off?

It’s wild to me that you can open a credit card for someone under 18. A minor shouldn’t be able to borrow money from the bank like that, because they don’t fully understand the consequences of swiping plastic. Because minors can get credit cards, the inevitable happens. Their parents take out credit cards in their names once their credit gets so bad that they can’t get approved for any new credit cards. In any just society, it would be illegal to put your 3-year-old’s name on a credit card and use it to pay the gas bill, but we do not live in a just society. In this society, banks want you to rack up as much credit card debt as possible, because that means more money for them! They will give a credit card to nearly everyone who breathes, even a 6-month-old baby who couldn’t possibly use it responsibly on their own. 

Some parents take out credit cards in their child’s name and use them to build their child’s credit. Although that can help build a higher credit score later in life, it can ruin a child’s financial life if done improperly. If they put a bunch of charges on a card in their kid’s name and forget to pay it off, their kid could be barred from getting their own apartment, even though their credit score isn’t their fault. 

The girl in this story is just getting started in life, and her mom is already trying to clip her wings. Luckily, she found out that her mom took out a credit card in her name and was able to nip it in the bud before it got even more out of hand than it already was.