Here’s a bit of preparation we learned about the hard way. Get the lad a credit card NOW! Don’t give it to him, just get the card in his name. Once or twice a month he should use it to buy a pair of sox or a meal out. Then he should pay off his balance as soon as the statement arrives. The point is that right now the credit card companies are throwing credit at him and he should get on board while he can. (They assume Junior will charge it up recklessly, and the parents will be good for the debt.) But once he graduates from college, he becomes a serious credit risk. He won’t be able to get an auto loan. He may have trouble getting an apartment. And he certainly won’t be able to get a credit card. All because he doesn’t have established credit. But you can get that established now while he is a desirable cardholder. You just have to keep his use of the credit under control. We learned this lesson the hard way with our son-in-law, so now all of my kids (even the one in Africa) have one credit card.

Of course, you may have already thought of this.

The combined debit/credit cards probably don’t count. He’s had one of those for three years now. I’m assuming that student credit cards come with a modest credit limit? That’s something neither I nor his Dad had thought of. Good idea.

I’m assuming that student credit cards come with a modest credit limit?

Don’t bet on it.  I’ve got cards with $10K limits; my income would say I should have no more than $1K.  The CC companies have very little incentive to worry overmuch about credit risk these days.

I don’t know if you can talk card issuers down from the limits they want to offer, but it might be worth a try if it worries you.

“Bergamot” as captcha?  What the heck (or who the heck) is/was that?

I assume they still have them, but when younger son (now 28) went off, he had a credit card with a limit of something like $375.  Enough to get what you needed or for some emergencies, but not so much that it could not be paid off.  Worked really, really well.

And yes, establishing some kind of credit now is ever so helpful.  We even had car payments put in his name once even though we were helping with the payments, but it gave him yet another credit reference.

Yeah, I could conceivably be a little concerned if he got a credit card with a $10,000 limit. Or even $5000. Because, y’know, college students may find themselves in situations where impulse wins and the next morning they decide it would be better to run away to Mexico than explain to Mom how the balance came to be $5000 for which they have no recollection. Or something like that. Not sayin’ it would happen....but....y’know....

$500 seems quite enough. If he blew through that much in a month, he’d be toast anyway.

Bergamot is an herb, also known as Oswego Tea and Bee Balm. Very pretty flowers that bees and hummingbirds just love.

Cyn - I’ll check with the bank tomorrow and see if they have any student type credit cards with low limits. If not, I’m sure they’ll have some idea who might.

Or maybe just run away to Mexico on the $5,000.

Thanks for the plant information; I’m rarely completely at a loss, but that one got me.

Ah.  This time it’s marjoram.  That one I know.

It’s interesting that he’s not ready to talk about leaving yet.  Usually they just can’t wait.

I was surprised, too, Cassie. But a large portion of it was feeling that *I* was too excited about it. It’s one thing to be excited himelf, but when dear old Mom seemed a little too excited, that felt too much like ‘here’s your hat, what’s your hurry’. Now that we have that cleared up, he’s been talking a lot more about it. He’s definitely looking forward to it and, I think, even beginning to put some mental distance between himself and home. Once he’s there he will be in his element.

heehee, it is that ad that used to be on tv, may still be, where the parents pretend to be all sad and then as soon as kid is out of sight, they race up the stairs and start measuring his room for all the changes they plan to make.  He probably saw it.  LOL

Yes, he’s seen that ad and it cracked me up. He wondered if that’s what I was going to do and I said, “You bet. I have great plans for your room!” He didn’t think that was very funny. ;)