Financial Independence For Teenagers

For most teens nothing is more important than their independence and financial independence is a big part of this. These days more and more services require a credit card, which teenagers traditionally have not have access to. However, with the introduction of prepaid credit cards teenagers can now have a credit card to use for such things as:

• Concert tickets and tickets to other events that require a credit card for purchase
• Online purchases over the internet
• Online gaming (Xbox live, Playstation store, Wii points etc.) purchases
• Purchases from all major stores

They can be used for almost everything a regular credit card is used for. In some cases they can even be used overseas on holidays!

The other advantages of prepaid credit cards are fairly obvious. Firstly, teens can only use the money that has been added to the card so that they cannot go into debt. Parents can place restrictions on the amount of money that can be added at any one time or can choose to give control of the card to their teenager. By using a prepaid credit card teens are responsible for their own money and learn valuable lessons about budgeting, spending and saving money.

Most, if not all, of the major credit card companies are now offering prepaid credit cards for teens and the banks are following suit. Most of these cards have low fees and charges and if you choose to have it linked to a bank account (from the same bank/financial institution as your credit card) the fees are reduced further. With most cards approval is instant and you could receive your card in a matter of hours!