The Kardashian Kard: A Credit Card Targeted at Teens

She is essentially selling a gift card, calling it a credit card. No actual financial damage can be done.

Not giving your child some kind of plastic means they are carrying cash. Please believe me…this is a very bad idea. Kids spend their money much differently than you think they do (pills, pot).

Sounds like a good opportunity to exercise your parental right to say “no”!

I disagree with not getting the college-age kid a credit card, though. It’s a good idea to open up a credit card as soon as you can and begin using it (responsibly, of course!) because it establishes a credit history.

I opened my first card at 18 and now, at 27, I’m buying a house. My “short” credit history has come up more than once with my lender, much to my dismay. Isn’t this why I opened a card right at 18? If my history were significantly shorter (say, perhaps I opened the card at 22 when I graduated college) I doubt that would improve my standing.

So, I would advise against waiting until you’re “out of college” (or later) to establish a credit history. 22 years old or even later may be too late to begin that history if you’re thinking of making a large purchase, like a home loan, in the next 10 years or so.

So I agree that this is a silly idea because the fees are ridiculous (why get a prepaid MC at $8/month when your debit card is free), but what is the perceived risk of plastic for kids? As long as it is prepaid and they can’t use it to spend more than it is charged with what makes it different from trusting them with cash? I would think it would be better since you can track their purchases if you want to.

For myself, I got my first normal CC at 16. I found this very useful as it let me build the credit history I needed to purchase my first home at 24. Sure I made some mistakes along the way, but just waiting until the kids are older won’t fix that. Plenty of people in their 40s still make poor choices with CCs. It seems to me it’s better to start the lessons early.

JD – I am sure you already looked it up, but she is the daughter of OJ Simpsons lawyer. They also had a ridiculous reality show on her family and she has been in many more since the first show.

I agree with #3, I wouldn’t wait until getting out of college to get a credit card. Yes, it is important to use it responsibly. I got one in college, my fiancee did not. When we went to rent an apartment after college, no one would rent to him but I had no problem. Credit history takes a long time to get established as well, and unless you have cash (which most young college grads dont) you are going to have some problems.

And holy cow – she is charging $8 a month +$10 to buy the card, just to get started. Thats crazy – who would pay for that when you can get a preloaded visa card for a small fee?

Is it just me or does the website for this *kard* look a bit dated, circa 2003. You think with all the fees they’re charging they could afford a better web designer.

Couldn’t agree with you more, JD. This card and the whole idea is ridiculous. Just look at the fees.

J.D.: “I have no idea who Kim Kardashian is”

Ha! That makes two of us. And now knowing who she is has done absolutely nothing to enrich or inspire my life

I admit that one of my guilty pleasures is to watch Keeping Up with the Kardashians. This story is interesting to me because they recently aired an episode where the family had an intervention with Kim over her shopping addiction. The rest of the family was really concerned by how easily she would spend thousands of dollars on frequent shopping sprees. You know it’s bad if even the rest of the family thinks her actions are so outrageous!

Well, since this post went up, this article can show up in a quick google search for “Kardashian Kard 13-year-old” as well, giving the next person to report the same thing even more support. It’s self-corroborating evidence.

On a different tangent, I wonder if this card would have drawn any scathing attention at all if it was called the “Oprah Card” or “Martha Stewart Card”. It seems the only thing really controversial about it is the lifestyle of its spokesperson. Plenty of other prepaid cards with an annual fee around $100 are already available to 16-year-olds.

I’m confused here. What I’m seeing here is a (slightly expensive) pre-paid debit card targeting kids who are just starting to be let loose on the malls by themselves. (I’m writing this having started my first “real” job at age 14, so perhaps my childhood experiences with money are skewing my interpretation here.)

Ignoring, for the moment, that the mere *cost* of this card is a little ridiculous, the rest of this article reads more like moral outrage than a genuine criticism of the product. Lamenting the debit card for failing to support individual parenting decisions is a little uncalled for, and reality is that pre-teens go shopping. Better to give them a pre-paid debit card than a wad of cash, right?

And although I know the knee-jerk reaction around GRS is to crucify plastic payment, credit and debit cards are excellent tools for both financial management *and* financial education. If a parent can give this card to a child, then run a monthly review of purchasing decisions from an internet print-out, isn’t that a great opportunity to teach kids how to be financially savvy?

Really, it seems like the two criticisms of the actual *program* here are 1) that it’s expensive, and 2) that it targets kids.

The second one is a bad argument: 13-year-olds go shopping alone, so this product isn’t creating a new market; it’s serving a pre-existing one. The first argument holds a lot more weight: eight dollars a month is a pretty ridiculous sum of money to pay for this product. But you pay for the brand name, and if that’s what a 13-year-old wants to spend her money on, so be it. Good lesson in priorities to be had there.

The site says
MUST BE 18 OR OLDER TO APPLY FOR THIS CARD

Wow. I looked at the fees for the card and now understand.
What I don’t understand is why anyone would buy it when most banks give out debit cards for free.
Then again, I also don’t understand why kids have “kards” at all. I always had “kash” as a kid.

@9 – haha, is that really the website?? you are right, its so outdated looking. it looks like a scam site

I just got my daughter a prepaid card from USAA. I can put her allowance on it, set spending limits, and there are no monthly, activation or reload fees.

She is 14. She is responsible for buying her own clothes and own breakfast and lunch out of one set of money she gets. She has a “base” salary that she gets for these things as food and clothes are a right, not a privelege. She has a point system where she can earn bonuses for her food/clothes as well as a spending allowance. It has worked really good so far. She chooses to shop the deals for cheap lunches so she can have the clothes she wants, which she gets at secondhand stores to extend her money.

Personally, I’d rather her have a debit card. I don’t think teens need to be carrying around wads of cash. She can get cash out I guess, but seems better to have her limit her purchases to stores rather than the “hoodlums” at her school.

I continue to be baffled as to why anyone would even know who she is. The Kardashians sound scary to me (I’d prefer to hang with Cardassians any day).

At the end of the day, whether you want your kids to have plastic or not, I don’t think that having someone who spends 30k on a purse or $2,500 on a pair of lace-and-python Christian Louboutin booties (according to ABC http://bit.ly/anIBU9)is someone that you want marketing a credit card to ANYONE.

Seriously, on a site that examines the wisdom of keeping up with the Joneses, I think a critique of a credit/debit/whatever “kard” from the Kardashians is totally legit.

I agree with MJG (#3) that establishing credit is important early on…

but that can be done by adding your child as an authorized user on your card and just not giving them a card. It allows them to build a history without dealing with a card and that can be done from a very young age (the law only says they should be able to provide a cosigner or proof of income…you would be that cosigner). At 27, I have a credit history 19 years long and a credit score of 799…

That said, why you would get your child (13 or 16) a debit card with a fee makes no sense to me…you are trying to teach responsible finance and paying a fee for a card is not responsible – regardless of the brand. Instead, add them as an AU on your CC (don’t give them a card), and get a free debit card or pre-paid card for them.

As for the KK bashing…the family is messed up in general, according to the media, so you can’t expect Kim to understand how the real world works – instead just look at it as another place for celebrities to brand, just like clothing, perfume, and so forth. In that respect, it’s good money (there was an article about a second job recently!).

I know that parents want to help their kids with finances, but sheltering them from making mistakes with credit cards might not be the best thing to do. It’s sink or swim in this world, and if people don’t make mistakes, will they ever truly learn?

One reason our daughter had a credit card at 16 was that she was traveling by herself (internationally) and we wanted her to be able to get us, get a hotel room, and otherwise be able to handle an emergency. It was crystal clear to her that an emergency was not shoes on sale at the mall. In reality, she has never used it (she’s 18 now)

Her debit card (attached to her own checking account) is another matter entirely.

Both of these cards are from a credit union, by the way

Those Cardassians are getting worse than the Ferengi! Sorry I didn’t have anything useful to say.

@Stephanie. Just so you know, her father and I used our credit cards responsibly (obviously grandparents didn’t), but have since stopped using them. It sounds like credit cards may have affected your immediate family the same way as it affected mine. We don’t support the credit card industry practices anymore. Sure you can get the occasional reward but you could do the same with a debit card. We personally save more a month now with a zero balance budget. Cash is king.

Also, I stopped using credit cards to prove to friends and family that anyone can and to help THEM in their financial journey. It’s kind of hard to say to people, “Let me help you get out of debt (which is something I say to people I know well). But first you have to stop using your credit card.” If I then proceed to pull out my Discover to purchase coffee or gas I feel awkward.

I don’t believe our children will be damaged if they don’t use a credit card and choose to save money responsibly for purchases like furniture and cars. Obviously it will be their choice someday, but if they grow up watching their parents practices they’ll probably more likely to use cash/debit cards. We also plan to teach them how to budget, which most (obviously not all) people have a hard time doing if they use credit cards. We didn’t have any financial upbringing and we plan on teaching our children as much as possible. In the end, that’s all we can do as parents.

J.D., as a man, I am ashamed for you for not knowing who Kim Kardashian is.

I kinda figured that my little rant above would get somebodies attention. The split between the generations on cards is pretty cut and dry. late 30s and above use cash. 35 and younger use plastic. It just seems odd to me that you use a card for damn near everything. What do you do when you cant? How do you pay a private debt? How do you loan somebody 10 bucks with a card? If your card is stolen you are realy screwed. If I lose 20 bucks cash; well, thats 20 bucks. For me there is too much big brotherism involved in a card. Yes,I do have 2 differnt cards that I use sparingly for travel; hollidays or whatever, but not to buy a couple of things at a gas station or store. Cash is cash. It is accepted anyware for any debt. Cash doesnt need a machine to use it. The government is not looking over my shoulder when its transacted( Should be a blog article for J.D.) If you want to buy something and you flash cash at someone you will get it cheaper than with a Kardashian Kard for sure! So my point with the KK is that its another way for the CC companies to sucker in somebody. Card companies are pissed off that sites like this have sprung up on the web and people are starting to get their poop in a group when it comes to finances. Expect more insane marketing from CC companies in the near future to entice people to use cards when they could use cash.

I don’t have any problems with giving teens a prepaid credit card.

You know what they are spending on. Also, in the first month, they will run down the balance immediately. They will have to wait until the next month for goodies. Seems to be a perfect way to teach them budgeting.

There is no “debt”. Of course, any fee is too much, so I’ll pass on this particular card. No problems with the concept though.

lose $20, you are out $20. lose your credit card (and report it) you are out NOTHING.

however I agree it’s kinda silly to use a cc for a $2 cup of coffee. and most of our local food carts (best lunch spots ever) are cash only. no problem. carry as much cash as I don’t mind losing, use plastic when practical.

also… any Kardashian marketing anything to teens is probably a sign of the apocalypse. ick.

I don’t really see the big problem. I had a debit card at 13, it came attached to my young persons bank account. It was awesome being able to buy things online and acting as friends’ ebay bidders- I felt like Red in Shawshank Redemption.

Yesterday at the bank I got offered a credit car, but I turned it down. The teller was trying to pressure me, asking me again and again why I didn’t want one. It made me really uncomfortable. I’m a student living in London; I would rack up a balance on that faster than you can say “Paddington” and end up like my brother in thousands of pounds of debt before he’s even 25.