Your teen is about to go away to college, to learn, to grow... and to be inundated 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 prevent this from happening to your own son or daughter?
* Teach them to be suspicious of appeals to their vanity. Student credit cards offers come emblazoned with messages like, "A special offer just for you!", "Exclusive," and "For select customers." 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. Credit card issuers hide the details of student credit cards terms in blocks of minute print or in long, bewildering tables, couched in jargon as dry and obscure as possible. Knowing what the terms mean and how to wade through the fine print to find the information they need is a valuable skill that will allow them to choose a credit card wisely.
* Teach them to evaluate special offers. Sparkly new 0% interest rates vanish after six months, but unless you know to read carefully, you might think you were set for free credit for life. Teach your teenager to look deeper whenever an offer seems too good to be true, and show them where the details and disclaimers are hidden.
* Show them that something isnt a bargain if they dont need it. Its human nature to jump on a deal. But its penny wise, pound foolish. 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 insinuate that youre babying them and losing cool points by the minute, but they will never forget financial lessons you teach them. And when they finish school with an excellent credit card rating, debt free and ready to start life strong, theyll thank you. Related information Credit card application ... Low interest credit cards ... Credit card application ... Credit card applications ...

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