Poll of the Day > Do you think Kids should have their own Debit Cards?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Ad I came across while surfing the Net...1st Cell Phones, now this?

I honestly cannot estimate her age, so I have no idea whether I would agree or not.

I think I was 14 when I got my first phone and I think I got my debit card probably 1 or 2 years later. Much younger than that seems pointless and foolish to me.

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If they are old enough you trust them to handle cash themselves. I would get a child a debit card before a cell phone. Fiat paper money is on its way out. I give it 10 years before school lunches are ether a subscription or paid for with cards, if they aren't already in some areas.

I think a low limit credit card would be safer and teach better habits

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IronBornCorps posted...

Fiat paper money is on its way out.

Still the better way to get them to understand the value, have some of it physically. A number on an account is just that, a number.

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Unless they get a job I don't see why they would need a debit card

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Muscles posted...

Unless they get a job I don't see why they would need a debit card

Parents often buy things for their children or give money to their children to spend on things (toys, clothes, eating out, etc) before children are old enough to hold a job

You can teach children the value of money and how to think about deciding how to spend money by giving them choices of how to spend it

This can be done with cash or with cards, the principle is the same


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Clench281 posted...

This can be done with cash or with cards, the principle is the same

Actually having money that physically disappears and has weight to it, makes that teaching easier. Which helps, because not every parent is a good teacher.

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Nichtcrawler X posted...

Still the better way to get them to understand the value, have some of it physically. A number on an account is just that, a number.

Use beans then

Depends on the kid. Could be a good way to teach them about finances, but obviously it could create a lot of problems and kids are gonna have a tougher time resisting the temptation to overspend.

For most kids I think it probably isnt a good idea.

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No.

Eventually when they're in high school you can open a checking account for them. By late high school maybe a credit card that you monitor and auto-pays the full balance from the checking account each month.
At least that builds up their credit score and gives some cash back or other rewards.
I'm not a fan of debit cards, they're basically all negatives compared to credit cards and basically only exist for people unable to control their own spending. I'd rather actively monitor my kid's account than use a debit card for them.
And yeah, cash is the best, but eventually they'll need an account b/c you wouldn't want them hoarding actual bills.

I would love to be able to PayPal/cashap/whatever my kids their allowance than have to get cash out then get proper change. Cash is only good for buying drugs

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Muscles posted...

Unless they get a job I don't see why they would need a debit card

To purchase things such as food

Action53 posted...

Cash is only good for buying drugs

This. There is nothing legal that a kid can buy with cash, that wouldn't take a card. I can monitor spending with a card.

Teaching a kid how to maintain a card and using online banking should be included in teaching finances. It definitely has better real world applications than "Your apples cost $6 and you have a $20, what is the lowest number of bills you can get back in change" imo.

If they have money (which they generally will, if they get an allowance), there's no reason they shouldn't be able to store that in a bank account and use it directly from there. I think I was like 8 or 9 when I got my first debit card, though I generally just used cash because I couldn't be bothered to deposit my allowance into the bank.

Nichtcrawler X posted...

Still the better way to get them to understand the value, have some of it physically. A number on an account is just that, a number.

A number on a piece of paper (especially American money, which isn't even colour-coded) is also just a number. Whether they're using cash or debit, they're going to have to consider whether or not they have enough money to make a purchase. Longer-term considerations like how much they'll have left over and whether or not they'll be able to afford something else they want in the future are equally abstract regardless of how tangible the money is (future expenses are inherently abstract, so you have to think abstractly about current funds to construct a relationship between them).

Thinking abstractly can be hard for kids, but I know my parents were teaching me from a very early age (like 4 or 5) to consider the prices of things I want in terms of how many weeks' allowance it would take to afford them, even before they started actually giving me that allowance (basically just saying I was entitled to a certain amount of money per week, then spending it on my behalf when I wanted to buy something, provided I'd saved up enough). I was exceptionally good at math as a kid (that was years before most would be taught multiplication), so my experience isn't necessarily representative of everyone else's capabilities, but it's nonetheless very possible to teach kids how money works without needing to put physical money in their hands.

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streamofthesky posted...

At least that builds up their credit score and gives some cash back or other rewards.
I'm not a fan of debit cards, they're basically all negatives compared to credit cards and basically only exist for people unable to control their own spending.

And enticing people to spend more through "rewards" is not scummy? I am very happy credit cards are in no way standard here, they always sound like so much hassle based on how they work in the US.

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Nichtcrawler X posted...

And enticing people to spend more through "rewards" is not scummy? I am very happy credit cards are in no way standard here, they always sound like so much hassle based on how they work in the US.

thats it

im tagging you as america hater

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Generally no, but -- technically speaking -- as long as their debit doesn't have overdrafts or fees if you try to overspend, it might not be that different from cash. Not that kids -- and I'm talking pre-teens -- should just have money anyway. Their parents should be acting as a custodian for any money they might have at that age.

And even when teens are earning money, parents should be able to allocate how much of that money they can spend until they become adults, because that's literally part of the minor/major system. Minors aren't legally recognized as having full rights or responsibilities.

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DirtBasedSoap posted...

thats it

im tagging you as america hater

Such praise.

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Zeus posted...

Not that kids -- and I'm talking pre-teens -- should just have money anyway. Their parents should be acting as a custodian for any money they might have at that age.

The whole point of an allowance is to allow kids to make their own financial decisions, and that includes mistakes. You just give them such a slow drip feed of money that any mistakes they do make will be mostly inconsequential (to you, at least), so they can learn from them harmlessly. There's plenty of room in there to provide advice as well, but if you just dictate how they spend "their" money until they turn 18, that's just going to result in an adult that hasn't developed any financial management skills but suddenly has to make real decisions..

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I wish I could've got a debit card when I was younger. I remember having to pay online purchases with bloody money orders. I don't even know if you can do that now a days

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adjl posted...

The whole point of an allowance is to allow kids to make their own financial decisions, and that includes mistakes. You just give them such a slow drip feed of money that any mistakes they do make will be mostly inconsequential (to you, at least), so they can learn from them harmlessly. There's plenty of room in there to provide advice as well, but if you just dictate how they spend "their" money until they turn 18, that's just going to result in an adult that hasn't developed any financial management skills but suddenly has to make real decisions..

First off, I'm not sure what "responsible habits" are going to be learned from an allowance when a child doesn't have to worry about buying things essential to their lives.

Second, and more importantly, guiding a child's spending can establish a framework for how they approach and think about money. I saved a lot more money than my peers in my late teens and early twenties because I was used to the idea of putting money aside because that was what had been done for me. Most of my friends back then who were just given money growing up were notorious profligates who were constantly asking to borrow money. Why? Because they were never taught how to manage money. They were just given it growing up. So their spending habits as a kid became their spending habits as an adult.

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Action53 posted...

I would love to be able to PayPal/cashap/whatever my kids their allowance than have to get cash out then get proper change. Cash is only good for buying drugs

Bitcoin and Crypto as well...at least on the Dark Web

Why the fuck should they not have debit cards?

The fuck?

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Zeus posted...

First off, I'm not sure what "responsible habits" are going to be learned from an allowance when a child doesn't have to worry about buying things essential to their lives.

Mostly "if you buy stuff you don't really want, you won't have money left for stuff you do really want," coming from the experience of running out of money and not being able to buy stuff they want. The only way to really learn how finite money is is to run out of it; being unable to afford something that you could have afforded with more responsible spending is an experience that shouldn't just be hypothetical unless you theorycrafted it out long before real stakes came into play (in which case you've already learned the necessary lessons and are already responsible enough to handle your own money, making it a moot point).

Zeus posted...

Most of my friends back then who were just given money growing up were notorious profligates who were constantly asking to borrow money. Why? Because they were never taught how to manage money.

That sounds more like the problem is that they were given money on demand, not simply that they were given money. When I talk about giving kids an allowance, I'm not talking about giving them money whenever they ask for it, I'm talking about giving them a fixed amount of money at a given interval. I agree that giving kids money without imposing any limits is a bad idea that doesn't discourage irresponsible spending, which is why I'm not in any way advocating for that.

Ultimately, we're comparing "I will set aside $5 per week that you can draw from with my approval" to "I will give you $5 per week to use as you wish, though I will provide advice as I feel is appropriate." The former shows kids what their parents' idea of responsible spending looks like, but doesn't offer any room for them to figure anything out for themselves. The latter shows them what their parents' idea of responsible spending looks like (in the form of the advice given), but does let them figure stuff out for themselves and form their own sense of the value of a dollar (which will and should differ from their parents'). It's (hypothetically) the same amount of money they get, the former just protects them from feeling stupid if they waste it on something useless.

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No. 16+ you can work over her so could have one and that's acceptable. Kids on the other hand? Are irresponsible so no.

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Kid debit cards have been a thing for a while now. I had one about a decade and a half ago when I went to Australia. It was an easy way to know I had money. And my mom could monitor it from home

IronBornCorps posted...

I give it 10 years before school lunches are ether a subscription or paid for with cards, if they aren't already in some areas.

They already are, IIRC. Even when I was a kid, they had a thing set up where you could pay a certain amount whenever, and it went into your lunch account. You used a pin and everything was good. Many have been moving past that, as well

streamofthesky posted...

I'm not a fan of debit cards, they're basically all negatives compared to credit cards and basically only exist for people unable to control their own spending.

Depends. Certain debits cards wont let you going over for certain kinds. Credit cards can be worse since youre spending money you literally dont have

IronBornCorps posted...

This. There is nothing legal that a kid can buy with cash, that wouldn't take a card. I can monitor spending with a card.

No true. Some smaller stores have a limit for cards. And at work, we have snack bars. Some take card, but many only take cash And some places may just only take cash for whatever reason
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I mean at some point it has to happen. Paper money is slowly going out the door, and as long as the parent(s) is keeping watch then I don't see the problem. Easy to set limits on purchases too.

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I had a debit card probably since I was like 10. It didn't make me irresponsible, it helped me save my money because I could see number go up.