Discover recently introduced the Current card, a new kind of debit card for teens with built-in controls and notifications for parents. With the new ‘Current Card’, parents can add money to a card for their teens, set spending limits and receive e-mail or text message activity alerts. They can also track purchases and access exclusive discounts online. Teens get to choose from one of seven unique “teen card designs”.
What do you think? Is this is a good idea?
My son’s only two – so he’s not at that stage in his life yet, but I think this is a great idea if your teen wants to learn about personal finance and managing money and the dangers of credit cards. Start from the beginning by using this type of prepaid debit card and you can instill the proper value of using credit wisely and not spending what you don’t have. The fact that this is a debit card really helps with that. You can’t spend what isn’t available on the card!
The restrictions and control are definite features in my eyes. Being able to control what categories of purchases the card can be used for is a great concept. This could also be a great way to deliver a portion of a child’s allowance or what they make from a job – putting a portion of an allowance or earnings into savings is always something you should do.
Here’s what Discover says the benefits and features are for the card.
Current by Discover – Teen Prepaid Debit Card
- Debit Card for Teens with built-in parental controls
- Set daily, weekly, and monthly spending limits
- Restrict teen card use in unwanted shopping categories (e.g. liquor stores, tobacco stores, hotels, etc.
- Free Direct Deposit for parents & teens
- Free deposits from any credit card or bank account
- $0 fraud liability guarantee
- Withdraw cash at ATMs
- Get exclusive discounts at teen’s favorite merchants
- Free e-mail and text message activity alerts
- No minimum balances, loading fees, or credit check
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The right emails can definitely save you money. Especially if they’re in the form of ING DIRECT’s 
Savvy Savings Tips monthly email newsletter.
I subscribed to the Savvy Savings Tips newsletter a few months ago and have been pleasantly surprised with the tips. There’s always the overt message to sign-up for one of their savings or checking accounts – which by itself isn’t a bad idea – but the meat of the messages are on point and offer good, solid advice.
I’ve linked up their archived messages here, so take a look and see if any of them appeal to you. You may even decide that you need an online savings or high-yield checking account to help you on your way.
Also, ING’s on Twitter, so you can follow them here @ingdirect. While your at it follow me @ThriftyLife too!
Savvy Savings Tips Archive
April 2009:
March 2009:
February 2009:
January 2009:
December 2008:
November 2008:
October 2008:
September 2008:
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photo by Jeff Keen
This list may be a wake-up call. If it is, start making some changes because there is no way you’re going to get out of trouble unless you change you mindset, change you habits and change you life.
- You’re having trouble saving your income. Pick an amount and start today.
- You don’t know how much money you owe. Big problem. Go get a reality check and add it up right now!
- Your friends wonder how you manage to live so well. Ouch – the truth is you’re wagering your future against the present and you’re losing!
- You’re paying some of your bills with your credit cards. First problem is you can’t pay the bill. The second is you just increased the bills amount by adding finance chargers. The third, you probably can’t pay the credit card bill either!
- You borrow money from relatives and friends. They don’t mind helping you out because they like you. Right? … For now.
- You’re bouncing checks. Pay attention! Each mistake you make like that has a fee attached to it makes the problem worse.
- You don’t need or want some of the things you buy. Go find the stuff you don’t need or want and return it or sell it. Find a way to return some value from your poor decision.
- You get turned down for credit. First off – why do you need MORE CREDIT? Second, GOOD! Fix your current credit and solve your problem that way instead of looking for more. Additional credit will only make the problem worse.
- You stop opening mail and start ignoring bills. You can’t ignore this problem. It won’t go away unless you make it go away.
- Money is haunting your thoughts, keeping you awake, and causing you anxiety. This is your mind trying to send a message. WAKE UP! You’re making the wrong decisions.
Stop right now and start over. You can get yourself out of this. Start here.
- Map out a plan. Start by figuring out how much you owe.
- Look at your expenses and cut out everything you don’t need. And I mean NEED, not want. This means everything except food, clothes, housing, transportation – the essentials. The rest are LUXURIES that you can’t afford.
- Start paying off your debt and don’t stop until it’s gone.
If you make it that far, you’ll know the changes you made and you’ll already know how to make sure you don’t fall into that trap again. Start right now. You don’t have a choice.
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I keep reading the argument that people have too much going on to worry about their money. My response? If you worried about your money more, you wouldn’t be running around like a crazy person!
I just read a post by Ramit over at I Will Teach You To Be Rich and it struck a chord with me. The post talks about the importance of automating transactions to do the right thing be default. This is good, but what if you don’t have an extra $100 a month to move to a savings account? You need willpower and you need it now!
If you’re spending too much, too often on the wrong things, then personal finance is ABSOLUTELY about willpower. It’s about changing habits. If you’re automating a transaction to put money out of reach, that doesn’t change the habit. It just moves the location where you will go to get to your money when you want to spend it. For example, Ramit wrote:
If you think personal finance is about trying harder, ask yourself: How has that worked for you in the last month? The last year? Have you really saved more? Invested more?
With the problem we’re talking about though, trying harder is the wrong thing to attack here. If you’re trying anything, then you’ve got willpower. The point to attack is WHAT are you trying harder AT?
You need to change the desire to spend if you truly want to change the fact that you’re not saving. Willpower is required to make such a change. There’s no way around that. If you have willpower you’ll find a way to keep pushing. You’ll find another option out there. Maybe it’s a cheaper replacement for a necessity or cutting out something from your budget that you don’t actually need. That type of analysis will start the engine and willpower will provide the fuel.
One more general point – there’s a fine line between automating payments and “setting and forgetting”. If you want to stop losing money, start saving more, start making more, etc. You need to start PAYING ATTENTION to your finances. You need to learn how to manage money. Creating an automatic transfer doesn’t teach you anything. It just moves your money around when you’re not paying attention. If you don’t change your spending habits, you will find the money you have and you will spend it. Your habit will see to it that it tracks down what it needs. In this case, that’s your cash.
Change the habit and you will learn the importance of saving and investing.
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When money is tight one of the first things to get crossed off the monthly budget is going out on the town. When my wife and I were reviewing expenses eating out was the first thing to go. And the record high gas prices in the past year only added to list of reasons to stay in and find other things to occupy our time. So if you’re looking to head out for a day or night and are in the market for some wallet-sensitive alternatives, check out this list of thrifty date ideas. (Click to Continue…)
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Last month I gave you 1o things you could do right now to save money. Here are another 5 quick tips, so get ready to pocket some cash. Remember, as soon as you see an idea you think you can do, you can and must act. Don’t procrastinate, don’t let the opportunity to change something right now slide by. You can save more of your hard-earned cash, and you can do it now. I’ll bet that you’ll easily be able to do at least one of the things in the list below. Let’s go! (Click to Continue…)
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I just read a post by Laura over at No More Spending called Never reaching my emergency fund goal. Like many people, I’ve struggled with putting together an adequate emergency fund. The decision often centers around a choice between paying off debt and saving for an emergency fund. The argument I’ve experienced and seen shared most often is that it’s hard to keep money in your bank account knowing that you have debt out there accumulating interest. So instead of building up your emergency fund, most people just continue to pay off the debt.
The problem with this approach is that if you do have an emergency – and you will, we all do – you will have to rely on your credit to cover the emergency costs. So if your refrigerator breaks or your car dies, you’re left with no other options and will end up paying interest on those emergency expenses.
So why not try a different approach. This worked for me and may do the trick to get you over the emergency fund hump as well. (Click to Continue…)
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Poor money management can lead you down some dark and dangerous roads. Ever hear the term “dead end”? Of course, we all have. The image that comes to my mind when I think of “dead end” is being stuck, unable to move or unable to make a decision. People use “dead end” in all sorts of different situations and almost always use its perceived meaning. Something has ended or will inevitably end.
Let’s take a closer look at “dead end”. Just that fact that we say ‘end’ assumes that something has concluded – most likely a trip or journey of some sort. When you add ‘dead’ into the mix, that just reinforces how serious the conclusion is. There is clearly no going back. The real problem though, is that’s not true at all.
(Click to Continue…)
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Ready to put some money back in your bank account? You've come to the right place.
