It’s tough figuring out the best way to teach a teen about handling debt, especially credit cards. There are a lot of risks for them, and they can make a mess of their credit history before they understand its importance at all.

credit cards

Some parents add their teen to their credit card so that they can keep an eye on how the card is used. They can easily see on their own statement exactly what the teen did.

The trouble is that it means the teen has your credit limit. If they go wild, you are absolutely responsible.

Of course, many teens are trustworthy, and you might not have any problems with their spending habits at all. But even so, why tie them to your credit history when they’re at a great time to start establishing their own?

Let’s make one thing perfectly clear. You should never give any kind of a credit card to a teen who isn’t ready to use one wisely. Start them out with lessons on what it means to have a credit card and how you want them to use it.

Consider starting them with a debit card. Just be sure of what happens when it runs out of money.

When you go for the credit card, you should be able to get your teen a student credit card if they are in school. This can have just their name on it, rather than relying upon your credit, allowing them to have full responsibility.

You may need to help them remember at first to keep up on the payments, and you should do everything you can to keep them paying it off rather than making minimum payments. Also try to keep their limit to a lower level, even if you have to have your teen call and ask for it. You don’t want to let your teen get too deeply in debt at so young an age.

But try to keep it mostly your teen’s responsibility. Go over the statement regularly, and make him or her pay the balance. You need to make the money real, not just bucks from Mom and Dad. Your teen can get a job to cover it. All a part of real life they really need to understand.

Getting your teen a student credit card makes a lot more sense than adding him or her to your own card. The teen years are an ideal time to learn responsibility. Don’t make it so easy that no lesson is learned.

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