Teenagers and Credit Cards
Teenagers claim that they have a lot of things they need that would sometimes require hundreds to thousands of dollars. Parents can buy those things for them or go to the mall with their teens and shop. But it won’t stay like this for the entire teenage years of their children. There might come a time that parents won’t have a choice but to give their teens the benefits of the plastic cards. This means handing them a real credit card and not pure cash.
Many parents don’t trust their teens to handle the card. They claim that these teens might end up having tons of debt by buying things that they think they need but in reality they want. But teens especially those who are away from home and live in dorms, the college or university students that is, may need the plastic, other parents would say.
Giving credit cards to teenagers will require deep thinking and critical analysis. There is no book that would advise parents to not issue the cards. The decision lies on the parents.
Parents make the decision so parents make the lecture. The lecture part is one of the most critical part in giving credit cards to teenagers. But before telling the children about financial management, parents should do a little research as well. Though they have their own credit cards, parents have to know some facts about it. They should be aware of the advantages of the cards and the disadvantages. Even topics such as credit scores and credit reports should be included in syllabus of this the mini-course. Many experts are aware that there are many customers who are not aware of their credit scores let alone check their credit report. If teenagers won’t know about these, they’ll be late in knowing how their credit card use will affect their future.
Parents say that giving credit cards to their teenagers promote responsibility. While young, teenagers will know how the plastic works and how their transactions will affect certain aspects of their financial life. What credit reports are or what credit scores do to their future. Knowing this will soon make it easy for them to deal with their own expenses and parents won’t have to deal with their children’s bill too much anymore. The downside, still according to them, is that parents can’t monitor their children’s spending too freely or their expenses even. Many frustrated mothers claim that their children visit porn or gambling websites without them knowing it. The credit cards grant the children an anonymous attribute that would allow them to visit any adult website using the credit cards.
Experienced parents and credit exports advise parents and teenagers to have full knowledge of credit card management. Parents should know more about their own credit score and share what they learned to their children. Parents should also teach their children about interest rates. Though many hate Math, the numbers being computed here is money that will be spent for spending money. Finally, parents and children must learn how to budget. Above all, budgeting is the key to personal credit responsibility.
