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.

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