The credit card for kids, thanks to Kim Kardashian.
http://www.popeater.com/2010/11/12/kardashian-kids-credit-card-bad-idea/
Out of the goodness of her heart, Kim Kardashian
launched a credit card this week for kids as young as 13 in what she says is an effort to teach them how to spend wisely. The famously extravagant reality show star and sisters Kourtney and Khloe unveiled the Kardashian Prepaid MasterCard, touting it as a way for parents to monitor their children's spending while teaching them money management skills.
Sound all warm and fuzzy? Not so fast, say parenting experts.
"If I were to select a spokesperson for responsible spending for children, they're the last people I would go to," Beth Feldman, founder of Role Mommy, tells
PopEater. "They're completely out of touch with reality, they're ridiculously wealthy. They are promoting the excesses of having everything you want in life and not really working very hard to get it."
Feldman doesn't think it's a good idea to give children in middle school or high school a credit card at all, whether or not parents can put a fixed amount of money on it and track its use closely.
"I think it's more important to keep the cards away for as long as possible," she says. "Wait until they really need it -- if they're away at college, in an emergency situation. The best credit limit for a kid is not to give him a credit card."
Kim Kardashian and her sisters, the stars of the E! reality show 'Keeping Up With the Kardashians,' are famous for driving Bentleys, wearing fancy, expensive clothes and generally living in the lap of luxury. Kim, in particular, is also known for her vast array of sponsorships -- everything from perfume, clothing and jewelry to diet drugs and self-tanner.
"We are excited to partner with Mobile Resource Card to create our very own financial product," the Kardashians said in a statement ahead of the Tuesday launch. "Now our fans will be able to take us with them everywhere."
And that's exactly what worries parent advocates, who say teens are very impressionable, especially when it comes to their favorite stars.
"Celebrity endorsements are particularly compelling to adolescents who want to identify with these icons by imitating how they are and doing what they value or recommend," parenting expert Carl Pickhardt, author of Psychology Today's blog Surviving (Your Child's) Adolescence, tells
PopEater. One of his
recent entries was about giving teens credit cards.
Not surprisingly, the credit card's sponsor, Mobile Resource, defended the new Kardashian plastic.
"Teens do not spend their money as their parents think they do," a company rep
told the New York Post earlier this week. "And drugs are a huge problem in this country. I give my son a small amount of cash and track his spending on his card."
But Susan Newman, social psychologist and the author of 'The Book of NO: 250 Ways to Say It and Mean It,' says there's been a long-running debate over college-age teens having credit cards, let alone those in middle and high school. As a result, many card companies have been prohibited from soliciting business on school campuses.
"Giving them a credit card is, for the most part, a bad idea," she tells
PopEater. "We're not selling a pair of sneakers here. You're really giving a child carte blanche, even if you stipulate the amount. Teenagers are very impulsive. Many of them will just purchase whatever they see."
And those familiar with the Kardashian sisters find it laughable that they're the ones behind the new credit card for kids, considering the lavish lifestyle they lead and promote.
"They represent the indulgent part of our society," Feldman says. "They're the poster children for the wealthy. But for the rest of us, they're not role models for our kids."
