Jun 17, 2008 3:36 pm US/Central
Ill. Mom Shocked When 6-Year-Old Gets Credit Card
Woman Says She Sent In Application For Young Son Just To Test System
AURORA, Ill. (CBS) ―
This past spring, Bennett Christiansen applied for and received his first-ever credit card.
There's only one problem: He's six.
CBS station WBBM-TV in Chicago reports an Aurora mom was somewhat amused last April when she received a credit card application addressed to her then-5-year-old son. As a test she had young Bennett Christiansen fill out the application and she sent it in. She was stunned when Bank of America sent her kid a shiny new card with a $600 limit.
Amy Christiansen said her entire family had been receiving credit card applications addressed to each member of her family, including Bennett, who has since turned 6, and Christiansen's 3-year-old child.
Christiansen said she decided to allow Bennett to fill out a credit card application from Bank of America. He accurately wrote in his birthday in 2002, his annual income of $0, and the fact that he is an "other," that is, neither a homeowner nor a renter. He signed his name in writing that was obviously that of a child, she said.
A short time later, Christiansen said she received a credit card with Bennett's name on it.
Christiansen was left baffled, and troubled by the ease with which the application was apparently accepted.
"I would hope that somebody would look up the credit card application before a credit card is issued … people get credit card denials all the time," Christiansen said. "How can somebody who is an adult who has a job get a credit card denial, and a child who has no income and no assets get one? I would certainly hope they would have some sort of review process."
Someone reviewing the application would not have had a hard time determining it shouldn't have been approved, Christiansen said.
"I would think that they should at least, at the very minimum, look at the income and the birth date of the people applying, and use some sort of common sense," she said.
Christiansen added that if parents received credit cards in their minor children's names, they could conceivably max them out with no consequences, since the credit record would not be tracked for a child that young.
"If parents wanted to, they could just do anything they wanted to in their children's name – one, messing up creditors big time and two, messing up their children," added Christiansen, who works as an attorney in the Will County Public Defender's office.
Bank of America spokeswoman Betty Reiss was not immediately able to comment on Christiansen's specific case, but said issuing cards to children was not the bank's policy.
"We do not knowingly solicit or grant credit to a minor," Reiss said.
Christiansen said she herself has not yet followed up with Bank of America, but plans to do so.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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