I was wondering if this was possible, i’m only a 15 year old kid who can’t spend 5$ on steam cause I don’t have a credit card lol. And parents don’t trust the advance tech we have.
Would love to have this feature available coz me and my friends would really like to party up on ranked games…
This is a huge change for I suspect a vast minority. Most people will eventually spend at least a little bit and it’s a good way to keep people from being harassed.
same situation as you, even the age lol. My friend actually got me a £10 steam voucher from Game and I used that to give me 10 pounds on my steam account to buy some games, and was able to add friends. My parents didnt have to put in the credit card, and it all worked out well.
As others have said, best solution is just find somewhere near you that sells steam gift cards and use that to put some money on your account. Heck, maybe even ask for one for Christmas 
OH YEAH the steam cards, totally forgot about those xD
Thanks people, I’ll go get some myself cause I saw some in a gaming store :UU
You can actually get friends on steam without payments. They need to add you. But unfortunately you won’t be able to chat with them until you (bought) and activated your first game.
But. There are numerous sites, for example www.tremorgames.com [spoiler]Not advertising, just wanna help the guy so he don’t need to spend money[/spoiler] and others. Play some bad puzzle flash games for achievements and redeem a cheap-ass game for 99 upwards points. Wait a day or 2 for the key, activate it in steam. The system marks you as a non-freeloader and you can add friends.
If that somehow doesn’t work and you actually need to buy a game from steam store and not just activating a steam game key, then you can spend money on a steam gift card. But I would try the free method first. I mean, it’s just for the friend function.