Over the years as I've spoken to groups of college students and high schoolers about credit and debt, I've noticed younger and younger people obtaining credit cards.
Now a survey of Junior Achievers (...and proud we are of all of them) shows that 11 percent have credit cards. The story was picked up in several places: here's MSNBC's coverage.
MSNBC is also running a poll, and so far 75% have responded that teens obtaining credit is a bad idea. The other 25% think it will teach them valuable financial management skills.
I'm in the latter group. I don't think kids as young as 13 should get a full-fledged credit card, but why not a prepaid credit card? That's how a lot of people provide cell phones for their teenagers, so why not do it with money, too? The younger you can teach a kid to use credit wisely, the less likely they'll find themselves in trouble with debt later in life.
I use an Ecount prepaid card as a budgeting tool. They also have a special card just for teens; if you've got a teen who needs to learn better money management skills, check out that product.
A neat program for younger kids (3-12) is Financial Peace Jr. from Dave Ramsey (www.daveramsey.com). His views and programs are a little hard core for some but the kids kit is very cool and can teach great money management skills to the younger generation. Maybe my daughter won't be QUITE as stupid as I have been.
Posted by: Craig | May 27, 2005 at 01:45 AM