Your teenager is about to leave for university, to learn, to grow... and to be rushed with offers for student credit cards. This is no minor nuisance. Credit card companies target college students, sponsoring campus events, handing out freebies, and papering the campus with attractive promotional offers that arent quite so shiny six months later when the grace period ends. Theyre wildly successful: A study done in New York state found that the average student left school with four credit cards and over three thousand dollars in debt. How can you protect your own daughter or son from falling into the same trap?
* Teach them to be suspicious of appeals to their vanity. Student credit cards make students feel like theyre important by claiming that their offers are exclusive, for only the most select customers, or best of all, "a special offer just for you." The offers are really "exclusive" to a small, hand picked group consisting of every student the credit card company could find, but no one would know that without being told. Nor do the "special" offers offer anything very special. Learning to carefully evaluate any credit card offer that uses flattery is key to avoiding bad student credit card offers.
* Teach them to interpret the small print. The details of student credit cards offers are hidden in blocks of tiny print or long, confusing tables, couched in terms that are deliberately made as confusing and obscure as possible. Knowing what the jargon in credit card offers means and how to find the important information in a welter of irrelevant details is a skill your daughter or son will need to choose a credit card wisely.
* Teach them how to analyze special offers. That 0% interest rate only lasts for six months, but unless you know to look for the fine print explaining that, you might miss it entirely and think you have a pipeline to free credit for life. Teach your teen to question offers that seem too good to be true and show them the places credit card companies hide disclaimers and details.
* Show them that something isnt a bargain if they dont need it. Its human nature to jump on a deal. But its not good for your wallet. Teach your teenager by your own example that buying only what you need, not what you might conceivably need at some point in the unforeseeable future, is the best way to spend. This will not only inoculate them against bad student credit cards offers, it will improve their spending habits and lower the amount of credit card debt they will carry when they graduate from college.
Sit down with your teen and a stack of offers for student credit cards, and help them pick out their first card. Theyre guaranteed to roll their eyes, but the financial lessons you can teach them will stick with them forever. And when they graduate with a strong credit rating and no credit card debt, ready to take on the world, theyll thank you. More Secured credit cards - Best credit cards - Secured credit cards - Secured credit cards -

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by: barrywaters
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