Because I'm at work in a retail store where I'm the only person here... I have customers constantly coming in and I don't have time to get into something with Verizon over the phone.
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Apple/Verizon wouldn't sell me a phone because I'm 'too young'
- Thread starter cowbellallen
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Because I'm at work in a retail store where I'm the only person here... I have customers constantly coming in and I don't have time to get into something with Verizon over the phone.
I posted my last response before I saw Cow's explanation as to why he isn't able to call Verizon.
So, in a nutshell, we have a visit to Apple, a call to Apple, a closed Verizon store, an "unable to talk on the phone with Verizon", and lots of time on the internet.
Call me cynical, but I ain't buying it. But, best of luck to you. Maybe you'd be better off having your parents upgrade all of you, since your current cell phone is a Verizon phone.
So, in a nutshell, we have a visit to Apple, a call to Apple, a closed Verizon store, an "unable to talk on the phone with Verizon", and lots of time on the internet.
Call me cynical, but I ain't buying it. But, best of luck to you. Maybe you'd be better off having your parents upgrade all of you, since your current cell phone is a Verizon phone.
Thanks for the tip. I've never really even known what a credit score was until recently, but I'll go to my bank and talk with them about getting a credit card.
Credit is important in this day and age
I would get a card asap and treat it like a check book.
The more history you get under your belt, the better rates you will get when you make some real purchases, like homes and cars, etc
What 23 y/o doesn't know what a credit score is? How could you not know?
Best advice so far. Put your credit card infront of your debit card in your wallet, use it for everything and make sure to pay off the ENTIRE BALANCE each month. My CC and my debit are both through BofA so I try and transfer money from my checking account to my credit account each day so I don't have to do one large transfer at the end of the month. DON'T SPEND MONEY YOU DON'T HAVE. That's what a lot of people think credit cards are for, if you can get rid of this mentality you'll be set for life. Always check your net worth (checking account balance) - (credit card debt) = net worth (for the purposes of this exercise). If you have a negative networth you're doing it wrong.
It happens. Chill.
OK, here's the scoop. In this day and age, like it or not, having a good credit score is important.
Not having a score (which is really really rare but it looks like it happened here) or having a bad score will impact:
* Job offers
* Health Insurance rates
* Auto Insurance rates
* Interest rates offered
* Background checks
* Mortgages
* Universal default
* ....
Note that I said "score." I'm talking about the FICO score. You do not learn your credit score through annualcreditreport.com (which is the right place - the place with the damn TV ads is free credit report . com), you have to buy it from FICO (Fair Isaac).
Now, the OP may have what's called a "thin file" or again no file at all, if that's the case you won't be able to get a score from FICO as they won't have any way of verifying data, as there's nothing to verify. This causes a chicken and egg problem, so going to your bank is probably a great move. They know you there and can verify that you are you, and they're probably be happy to set you up with a credit card.
Trying to be debt free? Having a CC is not in conflict with this goal. As others have posted, just pay the bill off in full every month and there is no debt.
The keys to having a good credit score are this:
* No late payments, ever
* Long credit history
* High amount of credit
* Low utilization
The OP won't be able to do anything about the first two except be patient (and not ever, ever miss a payment).
Having a high amount of credit will also take a while. I'm uncomfortable with this part of the scoring as it reeks of a popularity contest amongst those who offer credit, but there you go.
The last part is something that the OP can control once he gets the card. Utilization is the percentage of credit offered to credit used. If the credit line is $1,000 and there are $100 of charges on it, that's 10% utilization, which is nice and low. The FICO scoring mechanism gets "nervous" when it sees people bumping up next to their credit limits.
In sum:
Get a credit card.
Use it sparingly, but use it.
Pay it off every month in full.
There's more to this than that, but the above steps will get the OP going in the right direction.
I walked into an Apple Store at age 19 and started a new line of service with AT&T and bought a brand new iPhone without any problems whatsoever. However, I had already had a credit card since I had turned 18, so perhaps I had some credit history to go off of(the CC companies were very generous with my credit limits as well).
Another fairly easy card to get is a gas card. I think that's the first credit card I got back in the day.
I agree with what some others have posted -- the lack of any credit at 23 probably threw some flags at the store but the employees definitely mishandled it. They may have been worried that you were using a fake identity
. It's unfortunate that they treated you like they did, but as others have said, try the Verizon store where the employees might be better trained for this. Most likely you'll be asked to put down a deposit. As you've said, this is a phone, it is not a car, or house, or a $5000 loan. The good thing from it is that you now know about the need for a credit history. You will be amazed at how much will depend on that, from the obvious of loans, cards, etc to the not so obvious of applying for employment or renting an apartment.
smithrh beat me to it & said it better
I agree with what some others have posted -- the lack of any credit at 23 probably threw some flags at the store but the employees definitely mishandled it. They may have been worried that you were using a fake identity
. It's unfortunate that they treated you like they did, but as others have said, try the Verizon store where the employees might be better trained for this. Most likely you'll be asked to put down a deposit. As you've said, this is a phone, it is not a car, or house, or a $5000 loan. The good thing from it is that you now know about the need for a credit history. You will be amazed at how much will depend on that, from the obvious of loans, cards, etc to the not so obvious of applying for employment or renting an apartment.smithrh beat me to it & said it better
That Willowbend store is "my" Apple store too, as I live not too far from there. Just last week I was in there to recycle an old 2G iPod Nano and noticed how much older all the Apple employees were. I'm talking 50's and 60's. The lady that helped me was talking about her grandchildren.
Nothing against "older" people, but as long as I've been going to Apple stores, most of employees have been hipsters in their 20s and 30s.
Getting back to the OP, I'm wondering if it was one of these "golden" employees who denied you an iPhone. You young whipper-snapper.
Did you try the Stonebriar store?
Nothing against "older" people, but as long as I've been going to Apple stores, most of employees have been hipsters in their 20s and 30s.
Getting back to the OP, I'm wondering if it was one of these "golden" employees who denied you an iPhone. You young whipper-snapper.
Did you try the Stonebriar store?
I don't get why they even have to check your credit card history in the first place... I mean, if you don't pay your bill for a month they shut off your service. End of story. Sorry OP
It's not your "credit card history," it's your credit score.
You forget, I think, that you're being handed a $500-600 phone for $200. Essentially AT&T or Verizon is extending you the difference as credit, which is balanced against your future payments, which are contractual.
True, but why didn't they just ask him for the difference as a deposit? Like $400, not $1000.
I agree, they should have done this.
My guess is that the "no score" thing threw the sales staff for a loop, and they didn't handle it all that well, and made up the "you're too young" line on the spot.
I'd wager that someone not having a score is pretty rare, so there's not a good escalation path for it, or procedure for store staff to follow.
Also, I highly doubt this is Apple's policy, I suspect that this requirement is from the subsidizers, aka Verizon and AT&T.
The point is that he should have been offered the option to put down a deposit. If his problem was that he had been told he needed to pay 50 gazillion dollars for a deposit then the solution might be to have his parents buy it (put it on their plan) but for this issue that's not (yet) the solution. He was not given that option & so has other ways to resolve it as yet.
How do they calculate the credit score? Do they base it on your income and non-payment-records (if any), or do they base it on what kind of neighborhood you live in?
I agree with everything you've said, except I would like to add to the part about "low utilization".
It's not that you have to have a low utilization at all times, it's that you should be at a low utilization percentage when you're about to have a credit check done.
I use my CC for practically everything (so I can rack up points). I make charges that add up in the thousands monthly, but I have a very high credit limit (so my utilization percentage is pretty much always low). I pay off my entire credit card bill in full when it is due each month. However, when it comes time for me to do something that requires a credit check, I make sure to pay off my bill in full a few days in advance of the credit check, even if it is in between due dates. That way, when the check is run, it will show a very low utilization percentage.
It's based partly on credit payment history, partly on how long you have had credit, partly on how much credit you have available (are your cards maxed out), & partly on how recently you have opened credit. It has nothing to do with your income, nor where you live. This site has a good overview: http://credit.about.com/od/creditreportscoring/a/creditscore.htm
http://www.capitalone.com/creditcar..._1010_CARD_TGUNS10_CCBRWSTU_C3_26_T_CP67019AW
Apply for this card. Almost everyone gets accepted for this card who have no credit.
Apply for this card. Almost everyone gets accepted for this card who have no credit.
If they declined you, credit law requires a letter telling you why. Be sure to ask for that. The letter entitles you to a free copy of your credit report.
You're entirely correct - I had to leave a *lot* of details off, or else I would have had a multi-volume book to post!
In the end though, I figured out that it wasn't worth my time to worry about squeezing out the last few points on my score, but if you want to bury yourself in a topic, this one is just about endless, mainly because the actual scoring mechanism by Fair Isaac is highly secret and proprietary.
Oh, and did I mention Fair Isaac actually has a new scoring model... oh, wait, I don't care any more... lol.
It's nice to see that there is actually another responsible spender in this country!
I thought I was alone.......