high school

Student Credit Cards:
Is a Student Credit Card Appropriate for Your High School Child?

If you have a child in high school, he or she may have come to you asking to be permitted to apply for a student credit card. You may be debating whether or not you should arrange for your high school student to have a student credit card. There are both pros and cons to permitting your high school aged child to obtain a student credit card.

Perhaps the biggest positive element associated with getting a credit card for your high school student is that your child will have available to him or her an emergency source of money. Emergencies certainly can happen when we least expect them. And, your child can face an emergency situation in some instances in which you are not readily available or directly around. Therefore, if your child does have access to a credit card, the emergency situation can be resolved or dealt with at least on some level.

If your child is going on a school trip, a credit card can also be very useful. You do not want your child traveling on a school trip – or on some other type of trip – with a bunch of cash in his or her pocket. By using a credit card, your child will be able to take care of all trip related expenses.

Another benefit of allowing your high school aged child to use a credit card rests in the fact that you child actually can start building a solid credit track record. Having a credit history is very important to a person entering adulthood. Of course, your child really can start building his or her credit history while a college a student and it is not absolutely necessary that this process start while your child is in high school. The key is that the credit card you’ve obtained for your child be used in a responsible fashion. If the card is not used in a responsible fashion, the card can end up doing more harm than good for your child.

On the negative side, it can be very easy for a high school aged child to abuse or misuse the credit card obtained for him or her. It can be very easy for an adult to rack up a high credit card balance – and it can be even easier for a child to do the same. Therefore, you must make certain that you monitor the manner in which the credit card is being utilized all of the time.

You will want to establish specific rules about when, where and how the credit card will be utilized if you will be permitting your high school aged child access to a student credit card. If these rules are not followed to the letter, you are going to have to be firm in discontinuing your child’s ability to use the credit card in the future. Only by establishing these rules, and enforcing them, can you be certain that the student credit card will be used in an appropriate and responsible manner.