The words “teens and credit cards” might be giving some of you anxiety already! The thought of giving your teen or your child access to a credit card which essentially has unlimited spending capabilities (yes, up to the credit limit of course) can give some of you pause or a little bit of anxiety. Knowing that it was already stressful enough giving them their own phone or access to their own social media accounts, access to money is a totally different animal. So, if you are wanting to help teach your kids that financial responsibility a little bit early on, what can you do?  

With credit cards, most kids cannot get those until the age of 18 but there are a couple of ways around that. You can be a cosigner as the parent on some credit cards or your child can become an authorized user on your credit cards. Those two options can help your kids build a little bit of credit history and in turn make it a little bit easier for being accepted on their own credit card or personal loans or things like that later down the road.  

But, if you don’t want to go the route of a credit card yet, there are some very interesting options for debit cards that are specifically designed for kids and young families that are becoming available. Feel free to visit – https://www.investopedia.com/best-debit-cards-for-teens-5079369 – where Investopedia has done some research and put together a list of a bunch of different debit cards that are specifically designed for families and for young kids. Some of these cards have apps that are associated with them that allows the parents to put both a spending limit in place and an approved store list, so they can only go to certain stores. You’re essentially building in that bowling lane buffer for them to bounce between, which helps give them a little bit of financial responsibility with your oversight still intact. Some of the other ones allow you to essentially give them an allowance based on meeting certain criteria for chores, where you can refill their debit card as they meet your criteria that you have set. So, there are some really interesting options to be considered.  

If you are trying to figure out how to teach your teens some financial responsibility while they’re still under your roof, your protection, and your caring eye, some of these debit cards might make a lot of sense. This way you’re not having to wait until they hit 18 and are either off at college or wait until they’ve graduated college for them to try and figure out how to navigate these credit cards that can be something easily taken advantage of when you first use it because you’re not used to having a swipe it and forget it type of mentality. As always, y’all have a good one!