Cash Cards For Kids
20th Jun 2013
So my eldest turned 7 last week and we received a letter from our bank where he has an account to keep bits and bobs of money that he is given at birthdays. There was a nice pencil case for him as a little gift, and also a rather worrying letter asking us, his parents, if we would like to give him control of his bank account.
I did a double take and read it again. Yes, they were asking us if he would like to take control of his bank account. He’d be allowed to withdraw up to £10 per day, the amount increasing by £10 each year until he is 15 when he can then withdraw £250!
I’m not sure whether other banks offer this option (I guess they probably do), but it seemed an odd coincidence that in the news this week our bank needs £1.5Billion to fill a hole in its balance sheets. Could it be that the same people who wrote the ridiculous letter to us are responsible for some poor accounting? I suspect so.
I can’t think of a single good reason why a seven year old, who is at this moment sitting eating his breakfast and doing his homework which involves working out and shuffling around the coins you need to make various monetary totals, would need his own bank card. Despite our efforts, and those of his teacher at school, he has little grasp of the real value of money, and hopefully will remain that way for a few years yet. To let him withdraw £10 a day of money which he has not had the experience of actually earning would seem to me to set a dangerous precedent.
I guess soon we’ll be being harangued to get him a mobile phone…