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"She/he knows the price of everything and the value of nothing". Ring any bells? This is the ultimate price we pay for allowing our children to indulge in the seductive world of consumerism, from the moment that they are born. No, we should not make things any worse by handing out credit cards when they are still in their teenage years. This argument is really a no-brainer. Why on earth would any parent want to foster a habit of buy now, pay later in their children? The potential problems are endless. Debt is destructive (witness the current collapse in the USA sub prime housing market and the global repercussions). It is all too easy to forget that behind the headline is a catalog of human misery. Debt hurts.

As adults we are expected to have the sense to seek out advice on our fiscal decisions, and especially when it seems that our backs are to the wall. We know that accumulating more debt (robbing Peter to pay Paul) can only keep the wolf from the door for so long. Yet we still manage to end up in trouble. Right now in the UK, after bracing ourselves for the come-down after our end-of-year jolly with the plastic, we are now feeling the pinch from the global credit crunch. We have been warned, but who wants to listen when we can throw caution to the wind and have it anyway? Yes, we forgot that the day of reckoning will come.

Is this the model we wish to present to our children? Is there really anything in it for them in the long-term? I doubt it. Instant gratification is quite simply just that; acquired and gone in an instant. The only winners are the credit card companies. This much is certain. Credit is a business; at best an expensive life-line. When aimed at teenagers it becomes unethical. The argument goes that if we allow our children to gain experience in financial management by giving them a teen credit card, we are doing them a great service. Not in my book! If all goes well they are hooked. If all goes wrong, what is the worst lesson that they can learn? There is no house to lose, no dependents to worry about and no county court judgment (yet) to blight the future.

Teen credit cards do not give teenagers a realistic understanding of the perils of spending what you don't earn. They can't because it would be illegal. So what's the point? The point is this. Let us (the big lenders) quietly seduce the next generation of consumers (the big spenders?) by pretending that credit is this easy. Much better, surely, to nurture patience, saving and the ultimate pleasure of spending that which is rightfully yours to spend because you have earned it. OK, it's trendy to waive your plastic, but choose a debit card. It's real-life. You need to have the money first and when you spend it, it is gone. Your teenager will be more likely to think a little before the spend, and "value" may become a little more than a notion associated with price.

Say no.

Learn more about this author, Jan Renders.
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