February 16, 2007
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NEWS: A Parental Credit Veto?Nowadays, the average American college student has at least a few credit cards – and is not afraid to use them! With 18 being the age of adulthood in the U.S., that birthday is celebrated by credit card issuers as the milestone upon which to inundate the newly legal birthday boy/girl with an avalanche of card offers. And the research seems to indicate that these teens and young adults are responding – estimates are that collegians graduate with an average $6,000 in credit card debt.
This fiscal irresponsibility is the reason why a Democrat senator from Georgia is trying to push legislation that would require parental consent on all credit card applications for those consumers under the age of 21. The move, claims Senator John Nutting, is meant to prevent credit card companies from preying on the youth and financial naïveté of those live-away college students who may, without their parents' knowledge (and financial prudence), sign up for new accounts with abandon and charge them up willy-nilly, ignorant as to the mechanics of revolving debt or the dire consequences of late payments and defaulting on a debt.
The bill is obviously parental-authority friendly, but it has many young adults up in arms, claiming that the irresponsibility of some is giving the total age bracket a bad rap. Their argument is that fiscal responsibility is not any more weighty than voting, driving a car, or serving in the military, all of which are privileges earned at the age of 18. Besides which, their counter-claim is that, if someone can't handle the onus of credit cards at 18, what difference will three short years make?