Credit Cards for Teenagers

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By stevelast


Do Your Teens a Great Favor and Give Them a Prepaid Credit Card

You may be surprised how positive I am in the above title.

Yes! Your teens will love having the freedom to use their cards. Preload their cards each month and then tell them that if they overspend there will be no top ups until next month.

What will happen I'll wager at first will be that they will overspend. But, the card won't pay up. That way they will encounter the embarassment of a transaction lost and a payment declined by the service provider. Not only that, they will suffer the inconvenience of no spending money for a while.

Keep an eye on them and encourage them to track their speding and their card balance, and very soon you have a responsible individual who has learnt on of life's most valuable lessons.

That lesson takes a lifetime for some of us to learn, and it is good personal money management.

I have recorded this YouTube video for you about Good Deals and Prepaid Credit


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tschier profile image

tschier  says:
17 months ago

As a father of eight I think your idea is great. Using a prepaid card would teach responsibility and self control. Each child is different and would learn their own lessons from having the card.

fivetexans profile image

fivetexans  says:
17 months ago

I like the idea of a prepaid credit card... especially for college students. It gives them a way to learn to use plastic, while at the same time not having to run the risk of incurring thousands of dollars in debt before they graduate.

MayhemMatthew profile image

MayhemMatthew  says:
17 months ago

Great idea - I will use this for sure with my kids!

prophet25 profile image

prophet25  says:
17 months ago

I probably have no need for it yet (my baby is only 6 months old) but would definitely use it when she is older -great information!

yojpotter profile image

yojpotter  says:
15 months ago

This can be a good way to teach teens about the value of saving money..I think this would be a great idea.

ksmithtn3 profile image

ksmithtn3  says:
15 months ago

Teens need to learn the right way to handle money... so sure, this is a good idea.

solarstories profile image

solarstories  says:
15 months ago

Well it is safer than carrying a bunch of cash around but doesn't have an overdraw risk. Great.

GreatGoji profile image

GreatGoji  says:
15 months ago

Although I am a bit reluctant if it is a good idea for teens to have their own credit cards, I think eventually giving them one would also be beneficial for them as they would learn how to handle their own money. And besides I agree with solarstories that it would also be less risk rather than bringing huge cash.

elizabethradisson  says:
15 months ago

I know my first experience with credit cards was NOT a positive one. I think this is a great idea for teens, and a good way to help them experience the benefits of budgeting their spending allowance throughout the month.

MorpheusG  says:
13 months ago

My son went to Europe on a trip with a group from People to People a few years ago and so we gave him a prepaid credit card so he didn't have to carry much cash. It was very convenient.

GabrielleGuichard profile image

GabrielleGuichard  says:
13 months ago

It is a good way to learn to manage money, but there is nothing about how the money "appears". Kids should not think it's magics. We all know how it goes when a whole nation thinks the house is a cash machine, that they don't need to earn money. To handle it is not enough.

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Think Hard Before You Get a Secured Credit Card or Encourage Teenagers to Use One

 

Lots of people with standard secured credit cards have suffered the misery of indebtedness, and it can be very hard and take a long time to pay back debt built up by the young, or the thoughtless. For example this happens a lot to students while at college. But, the problem of unrestained spending from credit cards hits people at all ages.

Some people are just simply bad with credit cards. They can't seem to meet their monthly payments no matter what they do. People like this are more inclined to incur credit card debt and have a bad credit rating history.

A bad credit past can hinder you from a lot of things. You could be passed over for a job in the bank because of your bad credit rating or your application for a loan may be turned down. A bad credit past does not make you look credible. It portrays you as someone who is incapable of handling financial decisions or making sound financial judgments.

If you have a bad credit past, don't despair. That's where secured credit cards come in. Secured credit cards are also called bad credit cards because they are designed especially to help those who have bad credit past.

To get a bad credit card you will need to open up an account with the credit card supplier as a guarantee that you will pay your monthly bills. You will need to maintain some cash balance there which will be gathering interest as paid by the credit card supplier. In your search for a bad credit card, you should consider the following;

  • Minimum balance: A bad credit card supplier will need you to deposit a minimum balance in an account with them. The minimum balance varies from one credit card supplies to the next. Finding the credit card supplier that provides the minimum balance you can afford will help you boost up your credit card.
  • Credit limit: This refers to the amount of money on the credit card that you can spend and is calculated by deriving the percentage of your bank account balance.
  • Extra fees or charges: You may need to pay extra money to get a bad credit card. Some bad credit card suppliers don't charge you anything to get it while others do. It's better to go for a bad credit card that has a zero charge.

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