Student Credit Cards: Teaching Your Teen to Handle Them
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by: barrywaters
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Word Count: 561
Your teenager is about to leave for university, to learn, to grow... and to be rushed with offers for student credit cards. This is no petty annoyance. Credit card companies target college campuses, courting students with freebies and attractive promotional offers that might not be so attractive six months down the line. Companies are stunningly successful at getting students to accept cards and to use them: A study found that students left college in New York with an average of four credit cards and more than three thousand dollars of credit card debt. How can you keep the same trap from closing over the head of your own son or daughter?
* Teach them to be suspicious of appeals to their vanity. Student credit cards make students feel like theyre important by claiming that their offers are exclusive, for only the most select customers, or best of all, "a special offer just for you." The offers are really "exclusive" to a small, hand picked group consisting of every student the credit card company could find, but no one would know that without being told. Nor do the "special" offers offer anything very special. Learning to immediately discount any appeal that flatters their ego is essential to dodging bad student credit card offers.
* Teach them how to read the fine print. Credit card issuers hide the details of student credit cards terms in blocks of minute print or in long, bewildering tables, couched in jargon as dry and obscure as possible. Knowing what the terms mean and how to wade through the fine print to find the information they need is a valuable skill that will allow them to choose a credit card wisely.
* Teach them to evaluate special offers. That 0% interest rate only lasts for six months, but unless you know to look for the fine print explaining that, you might miss it entirely and think you have a pipeline to free credit for life. Teach your teen to question offers that seem too good to be true and show them the places credit card companies hide disclaimers and details.
* Show them that something isnt a bargain if they dont need it. Its natural to be tempted by sales. But its not good for your wallet. Show your teen through your own shopping habits that buying only what you need now, not what you might need at some unforeseeable point in the future, is the way to handle money. This will not only inoculate them against bad student credit cards offers, it will improve their spending habits and lower the amount of credit card debt they will carry when they graduate from college.
Sit down with your teen and a stack of offers for student credit cards, and help them pick out their first card. Theyre guaranteed to insinuate that youre babying them and losing cool points by the minute, but they will never forget financial lessons you teach them. And when they graduate with a strong credit rating and no credit card debt, ready to take on the world, theyll thank you. See more Credit cards for bad credit - Secured credit cards - Secured credit cards - Credit card applications - Low interest credit cards -
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