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Should teens have credit cards?
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| Yes | 30% | 701 votes | Total: 2371 votes | |
| No | 70% | 1670 votes |
Yes
by Adam Durie
Created on: February 07, 2012
Should Teens Have Credit Cards?
As your children get older it may become tempting to protect them from the ravages of the world that they don't quite know they're going to face. After all, that is the roll of the parent right? Well yes, but it's also the role of the parent to prepare your children how to fend for themselves as responsible adults on their own. The balance of these two theories, as with the rest of parenting, can be a dreadful task to juggle.
Perhaps the most important aspect of individual responsibility you can teach to your up and coming young adult is how to handle their budget and finances. Paychecks and savings accounts are the easy party, what about when it comes to managing and controlling credit? Should teens have credit cards?
Don't wait to throw them to the wolves..
Lets face it, banks and creditors don't care about your life. They don't care about your child's life either. If anything, they appreciate it when anyone is in debt to them for the simple reason that they make money off of it. Providing your teen with the opportunity to learn proper self-control and spending habits now, while they're under the protection of a safe environment, can prevent them from digging themselves too far into a hole that they can't crawl back out of.
To be sure, a young person with virtually no credit history as of yet will generally only be approved for a credit limit that is enough to buy a couple toys here and there. It is enough to feel the pressure when the end of the month arrives, but not quite enough that they'll be filling for bankruptcy if they don't find a second job. This allows for an easier transition to the economic reality that is adulthood without quite as much risk that such a journey entails otherwise.
Equipping them with a credit score...
Another point to consider is that this is the only time in your child's life that they are able to build credit strictly through the use of their own money. After this they will have to count solely on paying their bills, honouring their payments to self- acquired debt, and the general stresses of utilities that will follow them throughout the rest of their adult life. Utilizing this opportunity in their life to acquire a positive credit rating will give them a powerful jump-start for when they are on their own.
Think about advising your teen to invest in a pre-paid credit card with a moderately low credit limit. Using this strategy will not only teach your child the benefits and risk of credit but will relieve the pressure of payments in it's entirety as it's their own money (or perhaps yours as a birthday or Christmas present). It is also a lot more difficult for the teen to spend frivolously -especially in this day and age with on-line shopping so readily available- when it's money that you've put forth beforehand.
Let Visa give you a helping hand...
"Hey Dad, I'm out of gas. Can I have twenty bucks till payday?"
"Mom, I NEED this skirt. I've had the same clothes for two weeks! I'll pay you back."
Teens are the worst people on the planet for living from payday to payday. Where do they come to when they run out of money from one too many parties? Well, you know the answer to that. Why not let a credit card help you out with your own wallet? If your teen has something to fall back on when their paychecks inevitably runs out, they can't (notice I didn't say won't) come running to you as easily. Further, they will learn the destructive nature of spending your hard earned money without thought and not planning ahead.
Most people when they're starting out in the real world live through the 'paycheck to paycheck' phase for quite some time before they learn that it can go on forever and not get them anywhere. Teaching your teen this lesson early will most definately benefit them later on in life and releive some of the pressure from you. You now have the reply to their endless requests for handouts:
"You've got a credit card, get it yourself!"
If one were to ask their children if teens should have a credit card we're all pretty sure what the answer would be. Well I agree that yes, they should, under the right circumstances. If the environment is controlled and safe, the benefits and risks are explained, and the amount of credit allowed is not too high it can be a very educational and beneficial learning experience for your teen.
Learn more about this author, Adam Durie.
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No
by R.A. Scott
Created on: September 09, 2008 Last Updated: November 30, 2010
Credit is a horrible thing. I personally detest credit and refuse to have credit cards or any other kind of credit except for my house and car. I often wonder if buying a car is worth the credit hassle. The fact is that one does not need credit cards to live in today's society. What one does need is patience however.
Teenagers have no need for a credit card. They should not be taught to rely on credit but rather they should have to learn to deal with life without that kind of financial entrapment.
Teens must learn that credit is expensive and that they will end up spending much more money on the item than they would otherwise need because of interest. Interest is a fee that everyone can free themselves from by learning how to live life without those horrid credit cards.
There are plenty of people who would suggest that teens should have credit cards so that they get used to dealing with credit and learning how to use the cards wisely. There is only one problem with that way of thinking; the idea of using credit cards. We must all learn how to deal with the world without credit cards and giving teens those vile cards is a travesty.
Banks would love you to introduce your kids to credit as soon as humanly possible. For without use of those credit cards banks would lose perhaps billions upon billions of dollars. Interest rates on credit cards are obscenely high and they lower your overall purchasing power. Teens need to know just how bad credit cards are and how much extra money they spend on those horrid interest rates.
Shouldn't teens be taught patience instead of reliance on credit? Life for me is at least as good as it is for anyone else in my tax bracket, if not better. I would suggest that life is better because I have more money to spend than others in my tax bracket. When they use credit cards and "get it today" they have all the interest associated with that because very, very few people pay off their credit cards before any interest is added. So they have interest charges being added on to interest charges as they continue to make credit purchases.
On the other hand, I have no interest to pay on any of my purchases except, as I said for housing and car, and this means I have more cash to spend than my neighbor. So when I purchased my hi def large screen TV I could, if I chose, purchase a larger model and perhaps one of better quality.
We all need to break free from this idea of using credit cards for anything and we can do this by teaching teens that the last thing they need in life is a card that keeps them indebted. It is the job of the bank to make certain you owe them money for your entire life. Far too many people use credit and find themselves in financial trouble and all the while the bank is getting richer and richer. Show your kids how they can have much more money to spend than those with credit cards and explain how easy it is to get into deep trouble using credit cards. Teach them how to be patient and save for whatever it they want. They might just thank you, the banks won't but your kids might.
Learn more about this author, R.A. Scott.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
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