Moms are 3.6 times more likely to give their kids a credit card: WalletHub
More kids are getting their own credit cards.
Not content with cell phones and social media accounts, some parents are starting to dole out plastic to their children. According to a new survey from WalletHub, 1 in 4 kids ranging from ages 12-18 now have a credit card.
According to the survey, mothers are 3.6 times more likely than fathers to give their child their own credit card. While moms may be more likely to supply the credit cards, dads are more likely to keep an eye on the spending afterwards.
“Dads are almost 4 times more likely than moms to monitor their kids spending,” WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez told YFi PM in a recent intervew, adding that “daughters are a lot more likely than sons to get one,”
In fact, girls are 2.4 times more for daughters to have a credit card than sons. Gonzalez told Yahoo that WalletHub found an interesting statistic when looking at where kids go to school.
“When we look at private school students versus public school students, private schoolers are about twice as likely to have a credit card before the age of 18,” she added.
Gonzalez stated that there are a lot of positives to allowing your child to have their own credit card. When deployed properly, a credit card is a useful personal finance tool, she said.
“It is a good idea to monitor what your kids are spending their money on, to really use it as a learning opportunity. What are buying decisions? What are spending habits?,” she said.
New age of credit cards
Gonzalez also said with the new wave of attaching your credit cards to your phone with features like Apple Pay, teaching kids the value of credit cards is also important.
“When you can swipe your phone instead of actual plastic, that’s one thing to really get used to, to make sure that your kids are not viewing credit cards as free money,” she said.
She also pointed out how getting a credit card early could help your child in the long run. It builds “an established credit history, so that by the time your kid is 18, they can get approved for an actual credit card with their own name on it much more easily.”
However, the downside is that most parents who do give their children credit cards, “also have a good chunk of credit card debt,” Gonzalez added.
McKenzie DeGroot is a producer at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @degrootmckenzie
Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, SmartNews, LinkedIn, YouTube, and reddit.
