by Tommy Koh

Created on: November 26, 2009   Last Updated: November 27, 2009

The question about whether teens should own credit cards, should be intertwined with the question of a person's mental age aka maturity. Credit cards ensue the power to unlock wealth beyond what you own currently. This links to future money which may or may not be earned back to cover the cost and interest of credit card usage itself. With such power in hand, making a link to what Spiderman's Uncle Benjamin Parker said, "With great power comes great responsibility". It is thus the discretion of the adult to understand whether or not to bestow this power upon the teen.

Being in the twenty first century, teens are widely exposed to much more information than their ancestors before. Being flooded with information and graphics of intense desires early on in life. Teens are in turn forced to mature in certain manners that ancestors do not foresee in their times. Since information about life is more widely available to them, parents or elders are also made to the position of discussing such topics with them at a much younger age which coincides with the early maturity of our teens these days.

With such trust placed on them in such a tender age, we should presume that these teens are able to handle their lives and emotions at a young age, and thus when it comes to the financial aspect of life with relations to the owning of credit cards. Parents who are comfortable with their teenage children having prior knowledge of other aspects of life should be also entrusted with this power to control their financial life. Thus the power to wield the credit card.

Having entrusted their teenage children with the cards, there could still be restrictions placed upon the cards to enforce control to not let the expenses snowball into catastrophic sizes. Having spending limits for the subsidiary cards would be a good way to control their expenses. Parents could still have the peace of mind of giving them the leeway of acquiring a credit card at a young age and not be so concerned about the bills when they come.

Entrusting young people with the responsibility of the matured is a good way to let them learn to manage their own life at a young age and in turn learn to think like one mature person as they grow to become one. Values with relations to rationing money left at their disposal, of allocating resources to the best of use is what they could inculcate from having control of their finances, which would not be clearly displayed in any other occasions.

So as we discuss whether or not teens should hold a credit card, it should be more of a question of whether the guardians/parents are capable. Moreover, they should be capable of ensuring the system they set in place can be both to the adult's and teen's advantage. In such case, both have goals to achieve, and they head towards the correct direction of growth and self understanding.

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