My S21 has his own debit card for his money he earns while working or gifts from family.
He is very cheap or smart and always ask us to buy it for him first before spending his money.
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Same here. Our three boys all have their own checking and savings accounts where their paychecks are deposited and which they use for their own expenses and entertainment. We added them as authorized users and got them AMEX cards to help them start building credit and to keep for emergencies or approved uses.
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His debit card can also be used as a master card (or at least thatās how I understand it). If he lived off campus or in a city or something, we would likely make sure he had the family credit card but, right now, it seems ok for him to just do it this way. He hardly ever eats off campus (and literally cannot this semester) so his needs should be next to nothing!
Iām curious what emergencies people think the kids would need a credit card for?
For mine itās medical, car breaking down, etc. I think she has only used it once.
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Strange? Iād be elated!
Seriously, itās nice that your son is open minded and willing to be practical. Hopefully frugality and fit will align!
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A friends kid needed a credit card for a car rental after his flight was canceled and he was stuck at the airport.
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My D20 has her own checking account and debit card connected to it that is also a MasterCard. She has a savings account that is connected to both her checking and my checking account where I can deposit money if she ever needs it for emergencies. She doesnāt have a need for a standalone credit card because her debit card also operates as a credit card.
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Well, for one example, we always get our gas for our cars from Samās Club. Since my sonās debit card is a student account, for some reason the gas pumps at Samās always decline it due to putting processing holds. So now, he used the Amex for his gas and at the end of the month mu husband takes the money from him to pay the bill.
Also, with my husband being a commercial pilot and traveling a lot and myself being a Realtor who is extremely busy, we have S21 run grocery trips or other errands for us, for which he uses the AMEX instead of his own debit card.
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Same here. Also mildly entertaining to see that sometimes he will venmo someone $8 for lunch, then they send $5 back to him that night for pizza. This generation handles money differently than we did. We kind of kept running accounts and settled up occasionally if at all (usually whoever was behind bought the beer or pizza that night). It was a bigger hassle than it is now. Not sure if that is a good thing or bad honestly. This is more fair, but when I was in college we did more covering for each other and not necessarily worrying about who was $3 short.
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Colleges lost our health insurance, too. Itās a hefty amount. If the kids have insurance through the parents, can we waive it?
Emergencies are emergencies. They could be serious or not serious.
I just like knowing that they all have multiple forms of payment methods in their pocket for unforeseen situations. Especially S19 who has a medical condition which occasionally requires an immediate run to the ER.
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@homerdog Yes!! Python is a great language to learn right now! I dabble in it to understand what the analysts have to do when I want them to crest dashboards and reports for me. Itās not coding but Power BI is also a great solution.
Huge fan of bioinformatics. Wished S21 was interested in it since UCSD has a great program and I think itās a better bio specialization than reg bio in case the big dreams of being a doctor doesnāt pan out.
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Our 15 year old has an AMEX (our account) which has been great especially during pandemic. Example: when he was getting eye appointment and it needed paid (and I was in car bc of social distancing) he used his card. I didnāt have to come out of car!
Same with our dentist. He pays when he is done while I wait in vehicle.
Lots of times itās been convenient for either of our boys to use their cards. (Picking up dry cleaning for us, running into a Publix, etc.)
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Yes, colleges will waive the insurance requirement as long as the parentsā coverage is comparable to the collegeās
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That would be awesome. $ is also driving him in part to CS where really he has a stronger bio interest and strength. We are careful with our money but I blame my Swedish ancestors for his frugalness. Lol
There is a lot more to consider though that I think heās not thinking of. But thatās fine until we have the acceptances.
Once my kids started driving I gave all of them a credit card, with pretty clear rules for what I pay for and what is their responsibility.
I didnāt have it set up this way originally, but now Iām happy with what I have. First, the account sends an alert to my phone every single time anything gets charged to the card. So I immediately know what they are charging (this is why my wife did not use the card for a prom dress I talked about earlier this morning). Everyone has their own card and their own number, so it is easy to see at the end of the month who charged what.
I donāt know what the emergency could be, but if anything they have proven to be overly cautious and responsible, usually if something is gray they use their own money, occasionally they are smart enough to call and ask and I almost always say yes. Since I see any charge seconds after it is made Iām not too worried about anything crazy.
An added benefit is that they are building credit. Before I had them on my business account as employees, but that did not go to their credit report so I changed it. When the oldest S borrowed money to buy his car, we realized this. Even with me on the loan because he was 18 with no credit we kind of got hammered on the interest rate. Trying to avoid that for the rest of them going forward.
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It depends on if your insurance offers coverage where your kid goes to school. For example, if your kid goes out of state, you need to check to see if your insurance will adequately cover him/her there. Our D20 goes to school in a different state and our insurance only covers her for emergency room costs. According to her school, that is not enough coverage so we need to buy coverage through the school. Fortunately, her scholarship offers her enough extra to cover that expense.
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Do make sure it gives decent coverage. Ours is awful for non-emergency out of region coverage.
Actually S19 uses his college insurance even when home, because it is better than my insurance. S18 goes to school in a place where we still have decent coverage, so he uses my insurance and not anything through the school.
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@Momof3B is his card just a debit card or is it a Visa debit card? My kids have Visa debit cards attached to their checking accounts at our credit union. Dh and I are joint owners on all their accounts (they have checking/savings). We all get gas at Sams and if you use a debit card, you have to have a certain balance in your checking account (think maybe itās $100) in order to get gas at Samās. My kids keep most of their cash in their savings account and transfer to checking as needed when they want to use their card. To get around this at Samās if it is a Visa debit card (will have the Visa emblem on it), when they get gas, rather selecting debit and putting in their pin, they use the card as a credit card. It required a little education b/c at the pump b/c itās not obvious (you have to hit the ācancelā button after putting in the card, then it asks you to enter your zip code). The alternative is to just make sure $100 is in the checking account before getting gas. At least thatās how it works at the Sams gas stations where we live. The other way around this is to have him download the Sams Club app and have it logged into your account with your stored credit card. Then you can use the Scan and Go app at the pump so no physical credit card needed.
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