Bank of America Issues 6 Year Old A Credit Card

Listen here. A woman was getting credit card offers for all members of her family, including a three year old. She had the 6 year old fill out the application and send it in. The application clearly listed his birthday as 2002, his income as $0, and his status as "other" rather than homeowner or renter. BOA granted him a card with a $600 limit. As Dave Ramsey says, this is the same industry that goes before Congress bitching and moaning about how much money they're losing and they need tighter bankruptcy laws.
I keep wondering how the "Debt Industrial Complex" got so loose. 1992 wasn't that long ago, and in 1992, when I was 18, I could not get credit to save my life. Nobody would give me credit, for the reason "you don't have an established credit history." No kidding, how the heck did they expect me to get a credit history? I used to belong to Security Service Federal Credit Union in San Antonio, TX. I think I still have $5 in savings there but I've long since closed my other accounts. I went to visit Security Service when I was home on leave to see if I could get a credit card from them to establish a credit history. They told me that if I saved up $500, I could probably get a secured Visa. It took me a year to save up that money, but I came back on leave about a year later with $500 to set aside for a secured Visa. Then they told me that my income had to be a certain amount. I think it was $1200 a month. At the time I was an E-4 making just over $1000 a month in base pay. This time I tried another tactic, the good old fashioned "Oh, sure, I can die for my country but I can't get a SECURED VISA card from my federal credit union, which I have been a member in good standing of since I was 13." That actually did the trick, and I got the card. A year later, I was able to have the $500 put back in my Savings account.
I wish Dave Ramsey had been around back then. Looking back, I should have just left debt alone. I should have just taken my dad's 1987 Hyundai Excel with me into the Navy rather than buying a Mazda truck.Kids, remember this: Debt is bad. Say it with me.