Are Prepaid Debit Cards Bad for Teens?

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DR,
I agree with everything your saying here, as a matter of fact, one of my youngest sisters just went off to college and my parents definitely DID NOT want to send her off to college with a credit card! they spent months trying to figure out how they could wire money and keep track of how much her books and supplies really were costing her there. Not to say they didnt trust her, but they wanted to make it easier to monitor what she was buying and how much she spent on a weekly basis so that they knew how much to give her. Wiring money was a bit of a hassle and she never knew when it was coming in, and sometimes she needed it right when she was asking for it so my parents went on a world wide web search to find some sort of prepaid card that she could carry. They ended up choosing this prepaid card that i'm even jealous of! She got to pick a card with the image of Emily The Strange on it and she pays for everything with it! the website was called MyPlash.com if you want to check it out. It's safe to say that my parents are gonna get those for the next youngest two that go to college!

meaghan of CA 3:16PM July 20, 2012

Hi! I've been following your website for some time now and finally got the courage to go ahead and give you a shout out from Humble Tx! Just wanted to tell you keep up the great work!

the news today of AL 11:38AM July 13, 2011

Thoughtful article.
Disclosure: I manage the company behind the UPside Visa prepaid card cited by DR.
While the UPside Visa card for teens just won the Best-in-Category award from the PayBefore magazine last week (against the American Express Pass and the MasterCard Facecard), these cards will still improve in the near future, with additional budgeting tools, and even better access from mobile phones.
The one vexing area is credit building: there is no way today to contribute directly to a Fico score by reporting prepaid card transactions to the 3 large credit bureaus.
With the regulation coming from the CARD Act of 2009, students cannot get a credit card of their own until they are 21 years old, unless their parents are ready to co-sign on the card, or unless they can prove that they can repay the debt, none of which is really practical.
So expect teen cards to extend into a new generation of prepaid cards optimized for students, to address young people above the age of 18, who still depend heavily on their parents for money, but are legally major and no longer require a parent or tutor to have custody of their accounts.

Patrice Peyret of NY 5:14PM March 15, 2011