Many banks don't allow young children to open an account. They have regulations depending on the bank, the location, the local laws, and more.
However, from the age that a child can open an account and get a credit card and a checkbook, when should this be done?
Most people would probably say it would be best to put off the credit card and the checking account. After all, they are a nusance. You have to keep on reconciling the account, you have to keep track of them, and if you lose a check or credit card it will involve a great deal of work and generally it's a hassle.
Most people would recommend putting off this hassle until a later stage in life, essentially putting it off as much as possible.
This page presents an alternative point of view.
It may be best for the child to get a credit card and a checkbook as early as possible - and for those very reasons mentioned here.
It is a pain in the neck. It is difficult. But so are many other things in life.
A checkbook is something that can be learned. Yes, a child might make mistakes. He will learn from those mistakes. It will be his own problem is he does.
It would be a good idea to learn that sense of responsibility, to grow up, to become more mature with handling money affairs and checkbooks from a young age. At that point the child can deal with the checkbook and if there are problems the child will be held responsible for those problems.
The fact is that life becomes more and more complicated as the child develops and grows older. It will be more difficult to take on the ugly affairs relating to a checkbook at a later stage.
Why not learn how to handle these things with all of their difficulties, problems, and hardships at an early age and get it out of the way?
Why should this be added on to a newly married couple or to other people who are already involved in other difficult and complicated stages in their lives?
Would it not be better to learn it at a younger stage and then when the children reach a stage of independence they would already have that behind them?
Wouldn't that be a more effective way of handling this situation?
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