Can a 16 Year Old Have a Debit Card

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As your teen grows his or her financial independence through part-time jobs, yous will naturally begin to wonder when the right time will exist to get your kid a spending card of his or her ain. Hopefully, you realize teenagers are too immature for actual credit cards, so you are wondering about a debit card.

When is the Right Time to Get Your Teenager a Debit Card of Their Ain?

Before working with a depository financial institution or credit wedlock to get your teen a debit carte du jour, make certain your teen:

• Has reliable income
• Has a addiction of regular savings deposits
• Does not lose his or her wallet frequently
• Stays in regular communication with you nearly their spending

Hither is the actual checklist to consummate before approaching a depository financial institution or credit union for a debit card:

✅ Your teen has a reliable source of income (e.yard., part-time job, regular allowance, chores for neighbors)

✅ Your teen has regularly deposited a portion of his/her income into savings for the past vi months or more

✅ Your teen has a checking business relationship

✅ Your teen has carried his or her wallet around regularly without losing it for at least the past vi months

✅ Your teen has a written spending program in place and uses it regularly

✅ Your teen reports his or her spending to y'all at to the lowest degree weekly

✅ Your teen is ready for limited independence (driving, going to the mall/store/eating place with friends, etc.)

Once you tin check EVERY box on this list, you can head to your bank or credit union and asking, with confidence, that they issue your teen a debit card. In most cases, teens are betwixt 16 and 18 years quondam earlier they are set to carry a debit card responsibly.

Otherwise, read on to larn how to aid your child ready to get a debit cardholder.

Risks of a Debit Card

Many parents fail to consider the consequences of getting their unprepared teen child a debit card of his or her own. In most instances, short-term risks are relatively minimal, given the likely depression residual of the kid's account. Potential long-term problems are rarely given a thought.

In the short run, if your child is not ready for the responsibility of carrying a debit card, he or she may terminate up having to pay replacement card fees or, worse, may become a victim of fraud should someone find the lost debit card and apply it fraudulently.

Other short-term challenges include the kid's undeveloped power to say "no" to any friends' requests. Friends tin can apace empty your kid's account by asking your innocent and kind-hearted son or girl to buy them tiffin, "share the wealth," or care for them to vending machine treats and snacks.

Long-term consequences of providing your unprepared teen with a debit menu tin include tendencies toward negative beliefs about coin, unhealthy concepts of debt, and an disfavor to managing his or her personal finances at all.

Reliable Source of Income

Without regular income from a office-time task, allowance, or neighborhood chores, your kid will apace tire of the debit card novelty backside the school ID card. Forgetting nearly it may not be an event except that things forgotten often get things lost or things tossed away. If they are struggling to find a job locally, there are online jobs for teens bachelor that can assistance them earn coin from domicile.

A Habit of Savings

If your kid begins using a debit card before developing the habit of saving a portion of everything he or she earns, y'all should expect the kid to develop a natural dearest for spending and a distaste for saving. Saving will immediately become a nuisance that prevents him or her from spending.

If, on the other paw, you assistance him or her develop the savings habit beginning to capeesh its importance past tracking savings balances and charts, the habit is more than likely to overcome the preference to "spending 100% of my coin."

Checking Account

Although in that location are many prepaid debit cards you lot tin purchase at simply about any retail shop, these all come with fees and loftier penalties. They also well-nigh universally lack the same immediate protection that comes with a debit card tied to an FDIC- or NCUA-insured checking account.

Having a checking business relationship first means that whatever fraudulent charges on the debit bill of fare can be reversed if reported promptly, with a maximum loss of $l.

Most banks and credit unions are resistant to offering teenagers their own checking account and debit cards until they are xvi or even eighteen years old. If this is your experience, build a human relationship with the branch managing director and so that you tin can convince him or her that your child is showing every sign of responsibility expected of a new account holder at the branch.

Responsibly Carrying a Wallet

There are a few teens who will be so conscientious with their wallets and purses that they volition go along each safe and however be using them well into their young adulthood. Other teens (I can confidently say almost teens) exercise not fit this description. Wallets given to well-nigh teens are lucky to last six months before beingness lost, sent through the washer and dryer, or lent to a friend and never returned.

Monitor your child for six months while he or she learns to behave a school ID carte du jour without losing it.

Spending Programme

Possessing a debit card without a spending programme is a recipe for spending every penny on the first eye-catching item that comes along. Help your teen to build a spending plan that works for his or her goals and priorities.

Whether your teen lists every expected expense or breaks his or her income down by pct into some general spending and savings behaviors, having a plan in place volition assistance build a good for you relationship with money, spending, and saving.

Spending Reports

Requiring your teen to report every penny of his or her spending every week is not an invasion of privacy, as your teen will inevitably argue.

The goal is not to "spy" on your child through his or her bank business relationship. It's to help your teen develop critical thinking skills and to explicate why he or she felt it was more important to spend $x on specialty sodas in one afternoon than on the larger-ticket detail he or she has been wanted for the past twelve months.

Growing Independence

If your child is not driving yet or going to retail stores on their  own yet, there may exist no compelling reason to have a debit card. Debit cards can be tools to assistance teens responsibly build upon their growing independence gained with drivers licenses, metro passes, and hanging out with friends.

Giving a teen a debit menu just considering he or she wants and requests i does no favors to your child. Be sure yous are assisting your teen forth the road to young adulthood by helping them develop the responsibility and independence skills required for and built by a debit card.

Related Questions

Tin can a 12-year onetime have a debit card?

Banks and credit unions have their own policies regarding the minimum age required of an account holder to exist issued a debit card. Some financial institutions first at xvi, while others can be persuaded past parents who can demonstrate their 14-twelvemonth old is responsible enough and ready for a debit card.

What is the difference between a debit card and a prepaid debit card?

A standard debit card is tied to deposited funds in a bank or credit union checking account. A prepaid debit card must be loaded or charged with funds at a shop or online. Prepaid debit cards are often described equally "stored-value" cards because their value is within the card, not inside a financial establishment.

What are you doing with your kids to teach them about money and personal finance? Have any tips for parents on what's worked for you? Let us know in the comments beneath.

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Source: https://familymoneyadventure.com/7-signs-that-your-child-is-ready-for-a-debit-card/

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