The Real: “Should kids have a debit/credit card?”

[stewie_e]

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The panel on The Real (Adrienne Houghton, Loni Love, Jeannie Mai, and Tamera Mowry-Housley) discuss if kids should get a debit or credit card and when is the appropriate age to give them one. Loni feels debit cards are more appropriate while Tamera thinks 14 is a good age for a credit card with a set limit. Adrienne adds that it’s important to

Comments

[statelines]

My parents didn't have extra money laying around to pay for a credit card bill for a child lmao

I got a debit card whenever I got a job at 16 and I think that's all that's needed. What good is a credit card for a child going to do other than making them think they have unlimited access to money to get whatever they want?

[bluestoplights]

plus you need to build credit over an extended period of time. it's better just to start them out with a really low limit, teach them to pay it off quickly/completely, and to basically treat it like they would a debit card so they don't buy anything they couldn't afford with their other card. rules for just using it for gas/other necessities would probably be a good start.

that being said, that starts at like......15, not 10.

[statelines]

But what good does it do if you're paying off their credit card for them every month? A child doesn't have a job and doesn't have the means to do it themselves. If they're 17 with a job? Okay. A 13 year old who wants to just show off for their friends and pay for everything because the parents are just going to pay it each month? That teaches nothing. Especially since it's going to mess with the parents credit if they aren't paying it off for them each month.

A debit card with their allowance/gifts/whatever on it makes way more sense because once the money is gone, it's gone.

[vintage_boom]

mte! and you can get debut cards that you can use for online shopping/payments so there really is no need for a kid to have a credit card

[slaughtermatic]

you talk about a credit card as if it's an inevitable fate, what happens if you just never get a credit card in the us?

[slaughtermatic]

i meant the part where you said it'll fuck the kids up when they get a credit card in their twenties and im like, i don't know a single person in my city in my age range that has a credit card so you dont have to get one ever. all kids need to know is if they have the money they buy if they dont have the money dont buy. i'm from sweden, so it's maybe different everywhere else but here you don't "build" credit, you either have a loan that's gone bad in which case you can't pay for like a vacation or a tv spread out over months, or you don't have a bad loan and you can.

[slaughtermatic]

I feel like that should be illegal and might be without some heavy lobbying? oO sounds like the shady mall cell phone deals you get here but with the potential to ruin someones life, jfc.

[homicidalslayer]

I feel like that should be illegal and might be without some heavy lobbying?

As someone still targeted by these assholes, no, they list the interest rates at the top of the offer in nice big black bold font. They know what the fuck they're doing, it's that the recipient's don't understand how bad an interest rate of 24.8% is.

[fubukihakuryu]

you have to build credit in the United States to get access to loans (to buy a car or a house) at a good rate. The credit system is fucked in the US but getting a good score requires having a credit card or some type of loan that reports to your credit. It's just isn't taught in schools and parents aren't really good about teaching kids not to fuck around with money once they turn 18.

[slaughtermatic]

does that go for student loans and renting apartments as well? sorry to ask away but i have so little info about american life. :) me and my friends fex, we live in a moderately big city with lots of buses and we're not looking at cars nor houses any time soon, and most of us are p much gonna rent apartments forever because houses are so much work. we don't need credit for that, nor for student loans because thats a whole separate government thing. is that possible in the us?

[fubukihakuryu]

You guys have it good lol the United States is so ass backwards in a lot of things

[slaughtermatic]

thank you for all the info! holy shit yeah 7 yrs for being late is a harsh sentence! here you end up at the government collection agency and they can hound you at work and home and be total assholes for any small amount, but thats if you dont pay after 3 written warnings. once you pay it goes away after 3 years so its not as rough. ive fucked up once for just a stupid lipstick when i was younger and was pissed about the 3 years so i dont know where id be if i couldnt be late on payments i am always late and paying fees!