The Move to 21
Tuesday, October 6, 2009 by Kelly Sutton ;)
Image courtesy of flickr user TheTruthAbout...
Unbeknownst to most of our generation, the drinking age was--kind of recently--below the age of 21. In fact, it wasn't until the National Minimum Drinking Age Act that the United States mandated that all states change the legal purchase age to 21. Before then, it varied by state. I remember my mom telling me an anecdote of students from WSU driving across the border into Idaho to pick up booze on Friday nights. The age limit for more and more things is trending upwards and the latest thing is credit cards.
Credit Cards, No Longer All Ages
If your parents have been receiving a slew of credit card offers in your name, it's probably because the credit card companies want to lock you in before they legally no longer can, without your parents' consent. The recently passed Credit CARD Act of 2009 will limit raise the age that one can own a credit card, starting February 22, 2010. If you are younger than 21, you'll need a parent or guardian to co-sign on the card. Credit cards already granted will not be affected.
Denying Rights or Protecting Against Irresponsibility?
While we are all for creating a little mischief, credit cards give me the heebeejeebies. For some reason, spending money via a credit card is exactly like procrastinating a paper: we all know it's bad, but we still do it. You can usually procrastinate and still get an A on the paper, but every once in awhile you'll hear a tale of someone misbudgeting their time and screwing themselves.
Some university presidents have banded together recently to form the Amethyst Initiative to re-lower the drinking age back down to 18. We say hell yeah.
While I personally would be an advocate of greater personal responsibility, this bill does make it more difficult for credit card companies to do shiesty things like arbitrarily raising interest rates, falsely advertising cards and more. For that reason, I'm cool with it. Yeah, it's crappy that you can no longer get a credit card at 18.
So until the bill goes into effect on February 22, make sure you read all of the fine print on that card. And be ready for the rates and terms to change the day you graduate. It's just the way student cards work right now.
What do you think about the Credit CARD Act of 2009? Should we be given a great degree of freedom or is the 21 age-limit a good thing?
Reader Comments (6)
I think it's a great thing - credit cards can be just as dangerous as alcohol. So in turn, I think the additional years of life experience that a person can get by waiting until 21 to obtain a credit card will hopefully teach more financial responsibility to a generation that has been raised on excess and HELOCs.
This raising of the credit card age is absolutely bulls*!t. I thought it was ridiculous that as an 18/19 year old in the military I couldn't buy beer. Raising other buying/selling/getting ages to 21 is going too far. If you want to push the limit, change high school to 6 years and the voting age to 21. Then we will be considered adults at the age of 21. Perfect.
I am all for the Amethyst Initiative. Make Everything 18. There is no reason that the CC age should be 21.
I have had a CC since 18 and my credit score is 750.
Yeah, it's really weird how the US gov't is creating a weird purgatory of rights. Sure you can vote, but you can't drink or own a credit card.
While I don't like the age limit being raised, everything else on this bill makes it hard to turn down. Such a difficult decision: do you not support the bill on principle of one article or do you let it go through knowing that the remaining 20-or-so articles are something that's been needed for too long?
It should also be noted that if you can proved you have a steady income, you will be exempt. This bill mostly applies to people between the ages of 18 and 21 without access to steady income (usually students).
Their adults, they should be responsible enough to have a credit card. If they overspend, it is purely their fault, not just the credit card company's. We can keep making excuses for them like the card company tricked them or whatever, but when it comes down to it, if y0u don't spend, you don't have to pay it back. Anyway, this will make me ineligible for about eight days until I turn 21 in March.
interesting post, i believe that additional life experience is necessary.
I'm all for increasing the credit card age to 21... if (and only if) employers, landlords, insurance companies, and car loans will stop looking for credit history when determining whether to give things (jobs, apartments, lower insurance rates, car loans) to new graduates. Oh wait, you're not going to do that? Then don't take away the ability to actually build a credit history. Kthxbye.