Prepaid cards have become the way to teach kinds about how to handle money in the era of electronic payments. One mother describes the advantages of plastic for teaching her 14-year-old son about money in a piece published by the Huffington Post.
But for now I’m O.K. with my son having a debit card I can monitor. Knowing that his spending powers are limited gives me peace of mind — and hopefully the time I need to teach him more important real-life money lessons.
The author describes how she used the card’s monitoring features to make sure her son was spending his money wisely and to start discussions on earning, saving, and spending money.
Teen cards have been around for awhile, and providers have touted their advantages , but this piece shows the card put into use. The monitoring and loading all seem to work as advertised. The author is fortunate in that her son did not bristle under the monitoring, which has often been seen as a drawback about the cards.
Nonetheless, prepaid her has the advantages of not being tied directly to a credit or deposit account, which provides a layer of protection. It also means there is no need for credit checks to identify the users. In discussing financial literacy and access, it is easy to forget that unbanked and underserved often includes young people who need to learn how to make smart financial decisions in a world that makes it all too easy to make a mistake.
Overview by Ben Jackson, Director, Prepaid Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
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