Think your kid is ready for a credit card? Think again

The piano in the middle of the chorus room was the center of attention. What this group of high school seniors was about to hear wasn’t exactly music to their ears, though.
For the fifth-consecutive year, Credit.com expert John Ulzheimer addressed students at The Westminster Schools in Atlanta. The 17- and 18-year-old young men are all high achievers academically and, as is typical in youth, eager to embrace the future awaiting them on college campuses.
What they didn’t expect was such a strong dose of reality — like learning their stellar SAT scores and impressive grade point averages will hardly matter five or six years from now when they leave college and enter the workforce. The more important number will be the one attached to their credit score.
“It’s a bit of shock therapy,” Ulzheimer concedes.
The Credit CARD Act rolls out in full on Feb. 22. While three of the students in this classroom already have credit cards in their own name, the others will no longer be able to secure one independent of their parents. The questions the students posed brought home why the change isn’t necessarily a bad one.
They sounded like this:
“Are there exceptions to the perfect 850 credit score? If you’re Donald Trump and a billionaire, can you have a better score than 850?”
And:
“How does a debit card affect your credit score?”
That they asked such innocent questions are a clear reflection of their youth and inexperience, and not a sign of an intellectual shortfall. Exposing them to the facts about credit and money management is critical, according to guidance counselor Alicia Davis.
“They will need to learn about financial responsibility and managing their money,” Davis said. “This is an important piece of health and wellness.”
Bustling with laughter, a hush fell when a slide showed the difference in car payments for people with varying credit scores. Even more stunning was the fact that potential employers could make a hiring decision based in part on your credit report. They learned the differences between debit cards, charge cards and credit cards. In a game of role play, students represented credit reporting agencies, collections agencies, banks, consumers and even automobile repossession men.
“The senior year is the perfect time to talk to young people,” Ulzheimer said. “If they were eighth graders, this would have been foreign to them, but at this age, they get it and it’s relevant to them. They all understand the obligation you have to pay your bills on time, but they don’t know the downside to not doing it.”
Now they do.