# How do most young adults and immigrants to the USA enter the credit system?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-most-young-adults-and-immigrants-to-the-usa-enter-the-credit-system/732916>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 29, 2015, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-most-young-adults-and-immigrants-to-the-usa-enter-the-credit-system/732916 "2015-09-29T03:41:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-most-young-adults-and-immigrants-to-the-usa-enter-the-credit-system/732916/41 "2015-09-30T18:39:58Z")

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I haven’t been young in ages, but the first credit cards I got were from gas stations.

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**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-most-young-adults-and-immigrants-to-the-usa-enter-the-credit-system/732916/42 "2015-09-30T18:49:36Z")

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> [@astorian](#):
>
> I haven’t been young in ages, but the first credit cards I got were from gas stations.

Same here. At a combo Esso-wand car wash. Or maybe a Gulf. The proprietor said to fill out the form. So I did, and the card came in the mail a week or two later.

A little while after that, obtaining a MasterCard and any other was no problem.

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**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2015, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-most-young-adults-and-immigrants-to-the-usa-enter-the-credit-system/732916/43 "2015-10-01T17:47:37Z")

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> [@astorian](#):
>
> I haven’t been young in ages, but the first credit cards I got were from gas stations.

Somewhere around the mid-1990s, they quit issuing dedicated credit cards for gas stations and department stores, etc… and moved to co-branded real credit cards with discounts.

I remember- I wanted to go the route of getting a gas station card and working up from there, so that there was little temptation to buy a TV or something stupid, but all they had when I went to look were things like “Shell Visa cards with 5% of your gas purchases back!”

I do find it interesting that places like Target have apparently come full circle and are offering specific Target cards nowadays.

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