Destroy all credit card invitations before your youngster gets hold of them (Credit Cards in general)

Member Name: Mioliere

Product:	Credit Cards in general
Date:	19/07/08 (42 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Absolutely none except a better quality of life

Disadvantages: Teaching them to save up for the things they want

Credit cards are a great convenience for those who can afford to run them them but can lead to misery for those who use them extravagantly or who depend on them for the basics simply because they do not earn enough to live on.

The credit card companies make a lot of profit from those who depend on their cards and a lot of these profits come from late payment or over-limit fees. At least these have now been regulated so that no company can charge more than £12 for a late payment fee but extortionate interest rates still apply.

I think these companies make a very comfortable living anyway but what really appalls me is how they target the youngest consumer. Within a year of my youngest son reaching eighteen years of age he must have received more than forty 'invitations' from various banks to take out credit cards, almost all of them included pre-printed forms so that all they expected him to do was sign on the dotted line and start a lifetime of unnecessary debt. Fortunately for him and unfortunately for all those banks, each one of those invitations was shredded before they reached him, something for which he is exceedingly grateful, having seen several of his friends get into serious financial difficulty through their use of credit cards. Indeed, three of his friends ended up declaring themselves bankrupt to try and bring their misery to an end.

The banks should not be allowed to target youngsters in this way. My own son was still at college and only had a part-time job, following that a low-paid apprenticeship, and was certainly not in a position to take out borrowed money yet he was offered a minimum of £400 as a starting point for credit which would have been increased regularly had they managed to ensnare him.

I am sure that many of the credit-crunch problems in this country today could have been avoided had the Government legislated against this targetting of youngsters by all these companies. For all I know, it still goes on but at least they didn't succeed in trapping my own son into a lifetime of debt. I would advise all parents of teenagers who are being bombarded by mail of this type to do the responsible thing and not let the invitations reach their vulnerable children. They will be doing them a huge favour.

Summary: Credit cards are bad for those just starting out as adults