Student Credit Cards

Student Credit Cards

There are many things we need to learn as we grow up and one of the biggest decision in anyone's life is to have children.Have you ever stopped to think about how massive the responsibility is for parenting our children? Unfortunately many people do not think about the responsibility and do not take the job seriously. There are many children that get very little guidance from their parents so they turn to others or rely on themselves. If being ready for the parenting responsibility was a pre-requisite to having children I think the world population would be quite small.

I have learnt a lot of things from the way I was brought up, some of which were good and some that I would like to forget about. I know I am not a perfect parent but I have taken the job seriously. I want my children to know many life skills prior to going off on their own. I have taught my two sons and my daughter how to cook, clean, shop and manage money. We have had a great deal of fun in the process. I have also taught the children the importance of being a good member of the community. When my oldest son was a senior in high school he started receiving applications for student credit cards. My first impulse was to throw away the applications. Then I realized that the student credit cards would be a convenient way to make sure that he had the things he needed and it would also be a great lesson in financial management. We sat down and looked at the services of the different companies offering student credit cards. We picked the two that had the lowest interest rates as well as a monthly spending limit. He filled out the applications for both and I co-signed them. He was accepted by both companies and sent student credit cards.

I have always tried to advise my kids to the best of my knowledge and ability. We talked in length about what the student credit cards could and could not be used for. He had a scholarship that covered tuition and books. He was involved in a part time job on campus that would supply him with some spending money. The student credit card was to be used if he needed repairs on his vehicle as well as gas, to pay medical co-pays, and to pay for unexpected bills that may come up. The spending limit per month was five hundred dollars. We agreed that his father and I would pay up to two hundred dollars a month on the bill and he would be responsible for the rest. This would amount to the allowance that we would have given him in cash. Any thing over that amount he was responsible for and the bill needed to be paid off each month so that he was not paying the interest rates. It is nice to know that he can cover the costs of emergencies and so far he has been very responsible in sticking to the guidelines that we established for him. By the time he is out of college he will have an established credit rating and should qualify for lower interest rates of a regular credit card.

It is our responsibility to show our children the ways of the world and little things like how to handle student credit cards can teach them to be careful and responsible citizens themselves.