Learn the Credit Ropes with a Prepaid Credit Card (cont.)
Contributed by Victoria Knox
Prepaid credit cards for college students
Suppose you are sending your child away to college for the first time. You want to give them a credit card to use for books and supplies, and to cover emergencies. If the child takes one of the parent's cards to school, anything the child does with the card can affect the parent's credit rating. Or, the child can get their own credit card and start building a credit history good or bad.
While your child may be trusted, being away from home on their own and peer pressure can lead to disaster when it comes to using credit wisely. Again, a prepaid credit card can be a solution. A parent can load a prepaid card with an amount to cover the first semester. If the child empties the card too soon, no more money until the following semester. This will teach the child only to use credit sparingly, and to track spending to ensure the value of the card will last all semester.
Plus, the child does not affect either the parent's or his or her own credit rating.
