Girls and Credit Cards

Are teens ready for plastic?
Jump$tart, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., says these fresh young things aren’t ready for plastic. Every other year, the group quizzes 12th-graders in public schools around the country on topics such as paying taxes, using credit cards and retirement savings.

On average in 2006, participants answered only 52.4 percent of the questions correctly, a failing grade. This was marginally better than the results of the 2004 survey (52.3 percent). The lowest was in 2000, when students scored an average of 50.2 percent.

Duguay blames the failure on the lack of personal finance teaching in schools. Jump$tart’s goal is to ensure that students are financially competent by the time they graduate from high school.

She says parents have to get involved if they are going to allow their children to use credit cards. “It takes supervision. If a parent has a co-signed card, they need to sit down with them and show them what interest rates are.

“Credit cards can be a useful thing as long as they’re monitored. They can be an opportunity to learn before going into the adult world.”

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