Dear Liz: You recently wrote that adding a child as an authorized user on the parent’s credit card can help your children with their credit scores.

This didn’t work for my daughter. She has been an authorized user for a few years and is trying to get her own credit card and can’t, because she has no credit reports or credit scores.

It is a shame that the honest people suffer for what has happened recently in the financial world and now young people who will pay their bills don’t even have a chance! She even has her own checking account and that doesn’t help. She is now 19.

Any advice on where to go or what to do?

Answer: The financial crisis and credit crunch have made it tougher for many people to get credit, but your daughter still has plenty of options.

You first should call the credit card company and ask if it will export your good history with the credit card to your daughter’s credit bureau files. Not all issuers will do so, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. If this issuer won’t export the data, check with your other card issuers to see if they will.

If that doesn’t work, your daughter can get a secured credit card to help build her credit history. Borrowers make a deposit with the issuing bank of $200 to $1,000 and get a card with that much credit. She can find secured card offers at www.cardratings.com and www.creditcards.com.

She should use no more than 30% of her credit limit at any given time and pay off her balances in full and on time every month.

She also might consider getting a personal loan to help build her credit. Credit unions tend to be more flexible about helping their members get started with loans, so encourage her to look into joining one of those if she’s not already a member. (To find credit unions to join, visit www.joinacu.org.)

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