Mums Finance

There is no doubt that our spending habits are influenced heavily during childhood - which these days makes for frightening thought considering our dependence on credit and ready finance nowadays.

When I was a kid my Dad gave me weekly pocket money and once it was gone it was gone, so I learned quickly how to make it go as far as possible. I did the same with my kids and, with the exception of one particular son, they tend to hold onto their money with an iron grip.

These days young people in their mid-teens now have access to debit cards which restrict them to withdrawing only what cash they have and only from cash point machines - until Lloyds TSB decided to go one step further and issue debit cards to kids as young as eleven which can be used to make purchases online. This naturally worries alot of parents.

Given the amount of time kids spend online these days, the idea of them being armed with a card which they can use to purchase things off the internet sounds like an irresponsible one to me on this bank’s behalf. It opens up a whole raft of unsavoury possibilities…

And given that Lloyds are issuing these cards without seeking parental consent…makes you wonder what the point of all this is. Is it going to create an even more laid back attitude to the credit culture when kids as young as eleven are being introduced to the ‘buy now pay later’ way of thinking?

When we parents are trying to teach our kids to be responsible with money it does not help when the banks come up with schemes like these.

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