What originally got me thinking about this were two separate incidents at work:
One was a young man who called to complain his cc was locked out. He came in under a 60 year old man's profile. I could tell by the caller's voice he was not 60 years old. While he was talking to me I went through the credit profile (because of the way our membership works I can see the names of the people in a household) and realized that I was possibly talking to one of the card holder's sons. I asked him some very tough security questions that I knew only the actual card holder would know... finally the young man says "You must be under my dad's profile. But it is MY card". Uh-huh. The son is 17 and he was claiming a $25,000 credit card was his. I checked the son's profile as well as the father's. The only one with a cc was the dad. To make a long story short the son (who had the exact same name as his dad) had his dad's cc and was on a shopping spree at the mall. I assumed he was with his girlfriend because he had bought chocolates, jewelry, and Victoria Secret. In two hours time he had put over $700 on the card.
So I told him I couldn't unlock the card (I really couldn't... the son's was not even an AU on the card, and I could only unlock it with the father's permission). The son got very upset and said: "You mean to tell me you won't unlock MY card?"
To which I had the joy of saying: "I mean to tell you the card belongs to your FATHER and MOTHER. If you want it unlocked please have them call us at 1800---"
CLICK! He hung up on me.
I left notes all over the account explaining the situation in case the son tried to pull that again.
Not an hour later a woman called me and asked me to remove her underage children as an AU. The card was maxed out... actually over the limit... and her high utilization was affecting her kids' credit scores!
I have mixed feelings about whether I would allow my kid on a cc... personally, I think that is what secured cards are good for.
One was a young man who called to complain his cc was locked out. He came in under a 60 year old man's profile. I could tell by the caller's voice he was not 60 years old. While he was talking to me I went through the credit profile (because of the way our membership works I can see the names of the people in a household) and realized that I was possibly talking to one of the card holder's sons. I asked him some very tough security questions that I knew only the actual card holder would know... finally the young man says "You must be under my dad's profile. But it is MY card". Uh-huh. The son is 17 and he was claiming a $25,000 credit card was his. I checked the son's profile as well as the father's. The only one with a cc was the dad. To make a long story short the son (who had the exact same name as his dad) had his dad's cc and was on a shopping spree at the mall. I assumed he was with his girlfriend because he had bought chocolates, jewelry, and Victoria Secret. In two hours time he had put over $700 on the card.
So I told him I couldn't unlock the card (I really couldn't... the son's was not even an AU on the card, and I could only unlock it with the father's permission). The son got very upset and said: "You mean to tell me you won't unlock MY card?"
To which I had the joy of saying: "I mean to tell you the card belongs to your FATHER and MOTHER. If you want it unlocked please have them call us at 1800---"
CLICK! He hung up on me.
I left notes all over the account explaining the situation in case the son tried to pull that again.
Not an hour later a woman called me and asked me to remove her underage children as an AU. The card was maxed out... actually over the limit... and her high utilization was affecting her kids' credit scores!
I have mixed feelings about whether I would allow my kid on a cc... personally, I think that is what secured cards are good for.
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