Want to control your child’s spending habit?  Well this might just be the answer you’re looking for.  A Pre-Paid credit card can do many things and controlling your teen’s spending is one of them.  Here’s how they work…

Basically you have to put credit on them in much the same way as you would get mobile phone top up and stuff like that.  It’s not real money you see, and the beauty of it is that only your teen can use the card (well anyone who knows the number for the card that is).  They can’t go over their limit and they can’t get any more than they’ve been given.  Giving your teen a monthly credit allowance is pretty final and it escapes the habit of them coming to you time and time again for cash.  £10 here and £20 there soon add up at the end of the month.  Decide what you’re going to give them and stick to it.

This is where the other main advantage of a pre paid credit card comes in.  Because they only have access to what is on the card, your teenager will soon get used to spending only what they have, and soon get used to knowing how much credit they have, how they can check on it and how they can get cash etc.  This is excellent training for them in a credit generation where they’ll get a debit card as soon as they open a bank account and probably end up with an overdraft that they’ll spend into etc.  By giving them their allowance on a pre paid credit card they’ll get used to it and hopefully the novelty of spending with plastic will leave them early.