Children, Debt and Plastic
Children, Debt and PlasticDo you remember when we had to earn our pocket money? I remember being able to go to the newsagents at the end of the road back in the North East of England and get ten packets of stickers for my football album for a quid (£1). I'm told now that the going rate for cleaning a car is a fiver ontop of standard pocket money.
However, the kids are always wanting to buy things online so therefore they need a debit/credit card so you are invariably hearing the words “DAD!” or “MUM!”. So the banks have come out with giftcards which have a credit balance on them and the children can then use this to buy their latest album on iTunes or book from Amazon.
However, what is most concerning (reported in both the Financial Times and The Times last week) is that children don't seem to have an understanding of how money works. They believe that credit cards and overdrafts are “free” money and do not need to be paid back. Perhaps this is indicative of our culture today with a huge rise in the number of voluntary arrangements to help those striken by debt.
How do we educate our children? These children are growing up quickly and within the next five to ten years banks will have a bigger problem if the culture of “debt” is not replaced with a culture (in part at least) of saving for a rainy day.
Miles
