Well for starters, those credit cards that are typically offered on university campuses don't have those outrageous 10K+ credit limits. They start you off small with credit limits like $2.5K. I remember my first credit card that I got at 18 was with a credit limit of just $2500. And the interest rate that they had was competitive to what was in the market. Honestly the pitfall is just not paying back on time. To me personally, I feel it's way too exaggerated. What's the big deal? You just pay by the due date and you get zero interest, zero!! You are an university student, a student in higher learning institutions (back in my days, universities is a big deal!!). if you can't even handle something so simple like making a payment on time all the time, then how are you gonna handle everything else?? Credit cards is not just for establishing credit. It is also a helpful way to help you save, like I said before, allowing you to put the money that you would otherwise have to spend right away into savings for one extra month to earn interest.
I think this is a "Robinhood thing", I cannot imagine this happening at a real brick-and-mortar broker. So young, so sad. And NO, 20 is the best time to trade options and learn but owning that kind of bread. How the fuck? How much did he start? Was he naked calls? puts, did he trade huge size. What happened to the margin department and monitoring (risk management)? Hell, I have lost 27 k in a day, trading TSLA options 20, 30 contracts at the time but it was always clear that I was zigging when TSLA zagged...
I did read the whole story as it may be a cautionary tale for options traders. The fact that he was allowed to put that size of a spread with that much cash in his account is amazing if not unusual. I did not do the math(margin math on options spreads is not my forte) but I am sure some of the ETs finest did.
Credit card is not the issue here. This woman does not know how to spend money and has no concept of budget, doesn't know how to create a budget and how to keep a budget. She is spending money where she shouldn't be and spending money more than she should. She will have financial problems no matter how much money she has and even if she's on all-cash.
There is no age to trade options. However, if you are trading with a brokerage firm, they might require their customer to be above 18 for opening an account.
%% Some Payday Loan Companies are spreading thier risk/reward; free money orders, make a bit on the float...........................................................................................Some annuities are almost as bad with all the fees + fine print penalties.