Your family saves up money for you to go to college to get more educated, experienced, meet people and to also have fun. Nobody spends four years in college just to end up with massive debt accrued at the end.
“Credit card companies do not just focus on college students by accident, like cigarette companies: They want to get college students addicted to spending money that they do not have,” says adviser Eric Tyson, writer of “Personal Finance For Dummies.”
Some of the smart options: prepaid cards, gift cards and “rechargeable” credit cards for college students pre-loaded with funds. Once the funds are used, a guardian will then have the power to add more funds.
Tell your children as prospective college students that they are being pursued by credit card companies, simply because they are not yet capable of handling the responsibility.
Share with your children the experiences that you had with credit card companies. Let them know how hard it is to maintain good credit or to erase credit card debt. Try to set solid limitations. Tell your child what will happen to they spend money that they can’t pay for.
A college student will need to learn the responsibilities that it takes to become an adult. Even though many adults are in debt most of them got their habits during their college days. If you want your child to become a smart adult you will need to set a good example. By showing them that money is hard to earn, it will give them the idea that money does not just arrive through a swipe of a credit card.
As a former college student myself, I have learned through experience, that a credit card can definitely cause temptations. In college, a student has the freedom to do and buy whatever they please. So it truly takes a good role model for a college student to realize that a credit card can ruin a college student’s life.
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