When you're 19 and a college freshman, your parents tell you "don't get a credit card, it's a bad idea."
But you're 19, and therefore, know everything.
So, you get one.
Or two.
Or three.
And then you proceed to buy things, and pay the low monthly balance of $20 a month... and then you keep buying things. $100 there... $100 here... and you think it's free money.
Until you realize you're 19, stupid and in way over your head.
Sure. $1600 isn't that much in the grand scheme of credit card debt.... but when you're a sophomore in college without a job- it's a shit ton.
So, you're a junior, you live off campus, you get a job, you work, you get paychecks, you pay rent and bills and for gas and for booze... and at the end of the month you realize, oh, shit, I don't have the minimum monthly payment of a low $20 a month.
And then you miss your first payment.
So, you pay twice the amount the next month- but you don't get to eat or drive, really, because your dumb ass bought 970 pizzas (figuratively) when you were 19 because your friends were hungry and you had plastic in the form of Mastercard.

So, now you're 25.
You're looking to get a new grown up apartment.
But when you were 19, you ruined your credit.
So, you need a cosigner- but your parents are so tired of bailing you out, that they say no. HELL no- we aren't cosigning for you. They delicately remind you "We have XXXXXX amount of parent loans for you and we're not doing it anymore. Remember the last time we cosigned for you? You spent rent money on things that weren't rent, and we had to bail you out and we're not doing it again."

So, even though you're a savvy, smart, wonderful 25 year old grown up who pays her bills on time now, because you're not an idiot anymore, you're stuck.
So, you beg your landlord "No, I have a job and I work 30 hours week and I have 8,000 bucks in student loans coming in for both semesters, so I don't need a cosigner."
He obliges, because he's wonderful.

However, you studied abroad this summer.
It was wonderful, the best experience of your life.
BUT. You still owe $2,200 for your wonderful semester abroad.
You currently have $12 your mother gave you to have your car inspected.

So you apply for private loans and get denied, because your 19 year old self really needed those Victoria's Secret bras. (Nevermind that they still exist today and you can still wear them....)
So, your parents won't cosign.
So, under the direction of your mother- you ask her brother, your uncle.
But he and his wife decide no, sorry, it's not appropriate to step in where your parents wouldn't.

Back to the beginning.
You need a cosigner. You don't have one. No one will do it because you're a liability.

But wait! The winds of fate have change- your uncle WILL do it.
Unfortunately though, even his perfect credit won't get you this high security loan.
So you add Gramma's name...
But everything was in grampa's name.. and Gramma doesn't have a credit history.
So, that doesn't work.

So, you change the kind of loan you're asking for.
Still no dice.

Uncle presents three options:
Open a credit card and put the balance on the card and pay it off with your fall student loan.
Get a credit-worthy 2nd cosigner.
Call financial aid and beg them to take a large down payment and set up a payment schedule after that.

So, you try to open a credit card.
But you can't. Because you were 19 and bought sushi and jeans and didn't pay it off at the end of the month like you said you were going to.
You email financial aid because you're too much of a weenie to call because you know they'll say no. (Plus, you reason, that the woman you emailed is the VP of FinAid and she knows her stuff.)
But a 2nd cosigner? You'd have more luck designer the next space shuttle. (Which you can't do, because you're bad at math....)

So, you're here now. Wondering if you're going to get to take classes.
Wondering if you're going to have to be one of the thousands of students a year who drops out for a semester to pay for the semester previous.... and you have just one semester left.

So. now it's up to you to build your credit. With the card companies who won't give you the time of day.
Because our economy is SO good!


So. you don't give up, of course, because giving up is lame.
But you also need to evaluate your next step- because classes start in one week...

'You mean impossible.'
'No, impassable. Nothing's impossible.'
--Alice in Wonderland