When’s the right time to get your child a debit card

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Parenting nowadays can be completely different than, let’s say, 20 years ago. And technology is among those aspects that made it like this. Besides smartphones, a lot of children are also receiving their own debit card which, from many points of view, is a huge responsibility!

Obviously, this leads to a very important question: how do you know it’s the right moment to actually let your child get his or her hands on a debit card?

There’s not one exact moment

Most people will say that this will happen when children are mature enough to handle a card, but according to Brian Stivers, investment advisor and founder of Stivers Financial Services, it should actually happen when they start receiving money and are able to save a part of them.

“You should even encourage loved ones to purchase fewer toys and make deposits into your child’s bank account instead,” he adds.

“Once your child is old enough to understand, start taking them to the bank to make the deposits on their own.”

On the other hand, kids-oriented banking app Till co-founder Taylor Burton believes that parents should collaborate with their children when it comes to spending decisions and should help them dive into banking between 8 and 12 years.

An allowance could be a first great step

There are quite a few banking products focused on children available, allowing you to send allowance funds directly to their debit card. And, from many points of view, offering them money like this, instead of in cash, could be great for their general financial education.

The ideal approach would be to associate the amount of money they receive as allowance with a chore list, as it can help children connect the ideas of work and money.

Finally, it’s very important to teach them that once they receive a debit card, they should also be aware of all the risks this involves. Specifically, we’re talking about keeping their log-in information and passwords safe, as well as avoiding any kinds of online payments on suspicious apps or websites, once they’re allowed to do this, of course.

To wrap it up, we can say that it’s definitely important to help children learn the basics of banking from an early age. But, at the same time, they shouldn’t have a lot of responsibilities too soon!

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