Also, the world is much different today than when I grew up, AM radio was a big deal then !

My problem is that I don’t believe you should teach children to spend money with a plastic card until they have a job which will produce the income to pay for that monthly expense or that amount. A 8-10-12 or 14 year old should still be pre-job market so what kind of income does he have to pay off his plastic? Now I say plastic, you say debit card. You say the money is in the account before its spent, and I incorrectly term it ‘paying off his plastic’. I understand and I’m not playing semantics on you, but you are teaching them how to use plastic cards. Putting down a plastic card instead of cash at a register, doesn’t make it clear in a child’s mind ‘debit or credit’. At 17-18 years old (or sooner) they instantly graduate to credit cards which they will so easily use in their daily spending, why?…because they already know how are are comfortable with it. So yes, you have prepared them for the technology of the future(or today’s money tech) but have you taught them well enough NOT to over spend with their plastic throughout the next 50 years? Perhaps Payjr does, I don’t know.
Those early years are so important for planting the seeds of knowledge. Are these children indoctrinated into a society where saving and frugal living will allow them to use credit cards wisely? Or are they entering a consumer oriented, shop shop shop world where they are already conditioned to use their ‘card’ whenever they need something?

I’d have to break ranks with you from here out, seeing the average amount of credit card debt carried by each household in America and the negative savings rate across the country I don’t think teaching anyone early in life to use plastic is good. So you make a very valid point, children should know how to use the money technologies of tomorrow (and inside plumbing), but shouldn’t they first learn how to balance their income with their spending ie. age 17-18-19 before you validate their future spending habits? Isn’t 10-14 years old to early?

Again, thanks for the comments, Washington is a beautiful State, I like it very much.
Mark

And no, I don’t live in Orange County (…rural Washington, middle class, and everyone I know can send a text message, use a debit card, and use indoor plumbing…)

-bb

Ya, lets definitely get more plastic to kids….:-(

Mark

Yes, I was talking about teen checking accounts with NSF fees and they are abusive. As far as cash goes, I like to think that our solution provides a tool for parents to know where their kids are spending money and give them the peace of mind to know that they can get money to their child on a minutes notice if they need to for some reason (travel, etc). In addition, if kids lose cash, its gone forever…not with a prepaid card.

Keep up the great discussions and thanks for your insights, I really do take them to heart.

Take care,
Dave
http://www.payjr.com

Let me ask you one final thing, you say “”teen checking account”" you are referring to a bank’s more expensive plan to manage kids money, that is including NSF. My question goes directly to the larger problem, what the heck is a 13-14 or 15 year old doing bouncing checks around town? Why does business feel the need to market to the kids or parents and offer a 13 or 14 year old with a cheaper solution to his or her current banking? Business in America is doing just what I was discussing in the post, you get very young children started to early. At that age, about 3-4 years before graduating high school, what does a child need with a checking account or plastic? I don’t see it, here is where we differ. What does he even use for ID? See my point of view? Besides the ‘kids of Orange County California’ I can’t imagine to many 14 year olds bouncing checks and getting NSF charges. Is the market of these consumers so large it warrants a targeted financial plan? If so, its a compelling argument….I just don’t see it….but also I can’t understand why anyone would want their child idolizing someone like Paris Hilton. I assume she had both the card and the checks at 13.

I appreciate your comments and like I said, you put forth some very good [excellent] points for your target market. I wish you the best success and thanks for participating in our discussion here.
Mark

First, we don’t market to kids or teens – we market to parents of kids and teens and we have strict rules on that.

Second, as I said in my last email but perhaps it was unclear, we do not offer a savings program direct to consumers because we are not a bank or credit union and therefore cannot create accounts. We do however offer the program and push it heavily to our bank and credit union partners. You can see that here: http://www.PAYjrCorp.com under “products”. The savings account is free to consumers.

The chore and allowance system is free to parents and helps establish a link between hard work and reward. The prepaid card is much less expensive way of teaching teens how to manage their money – to earn and spend responsibly. As far as fees go, we do have fees because we must in order to cover our cost of providing the program but we are still much less expensive than the hidden fees of a teen checking account. In addition, kids today are unlikely to use cash or checks when they become adults; we believe it is best to teach teens with hands-on-experience how to use debit cards in a parentally controlled environment. This should reduce the chances of teens graduating high school, signing up for credit cards and getting themselves into major debt. Let me be very clear, we do not agree with credit cards and the whole program is designed to teach teens the negatives of debt.

Studies (Jump$tart Survey) shows that teens that have a debit card (not credit card) score dramatically higher on financial literacy tests.

Finally, you mention that we neglect talking about saving accounts. Please see our education center:
http://www.payjr.com/education_articles_savings.html
http://www.payjr.com/education_payjr101_saving.html

I didn’t say that your piece was “unfair”, I suggested that you should do more research before making judgments. I agree with you more than you think and that is why we are working hard to try to change things…

Dave