Nowadays almost all Americans have credit cards in their life. Plastics are a very important part of the American life. Even teenagers dream of having a card even though they are not even 18 yet. Every parent id concerned about his/her child's future and about a credit history that their kid will have by the time he/she enters the adult life. Financial stability is what every parent wants for the children.

Majority of the credit card offers is for those who are already 18. Does it mean that it is only at 18 that one can start building up his/her credit history? Not necessarily. There are some credit card offers that are available for teenagers.

My daughter Lisa has got a credit card. Most parents that I know feel it is not right. My daughter and her classmates were travelling together. It turned out that those kids who didn't have plastics experienced some financial trouble. You know what it means when children go travelling. Certainly, they didn't rent a car or something like that but they were eating out almost in every cafe that was on their way. Pretty soon, most of kids ran out of money. I knew that my daughter was OK with a plastic in her pocket.

I have added Lisa to my credit account. In order to add her as an authorized user I just had to call my credit card company. There is another option as well - someone older can just cosign for the under-eighteen consumer.

Doing so, both a kid and his/her parent should be very careful. Any wrong actions of a kid will harm credit history of a child and, on the contrary, a parent may spoil a kid's history-to-be.

Prepaid credit cards are very suitable for the young adults. These plastics can be used everywhere as long as there is money on the account of a cardholder. Some companies, for example Visa, have good credit cards for customers at the age of just 13. Certainly, kids need their parents' permission. You need to read all the "terms and conditions" thoroughly and check if there is a possibility for clients under 18.

Minors can't just have a card of their own because they are not allowed to enter into any kind of legally-binding contracts yet. Kids' credit cards need to be attached to their parents' account.

Most adults don't like the idea of kids having credit cards. The main argument is that they are not responsible enough in the money matters. Some parents are afraid of getting a bad credit history because of children's irresponsibility.

If you do not feel that your child is "grown up" enough in money matters then better wait until he/she turns 18. Student credit cards are ideal to start with.

Personally I feel that my daughter has obviously become more responsible after starting to learn how to use a plastic. She is only 16 but she knows the basics of credit cards already. The best way to learn to use credit cards wisely is to try that in practice. Why not start that early in life then?

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Comments

wayne, 07:36 AM, November 09, 2007
i'm a student, i have no job yt, and still i got student flexible rewards mastercard and i should say this one's just great.

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