A 3-step plan to teach your kids about credit [Chicago Parent]
Perhaps most importantly, share with them how you use your own money. Evan Jones, VP of marketing for BillMyParents MasterCard, suggests involving kids in your budgeting conversations, especially where it concerns them. “Discuss the reasons they can’t go on that senior class trip to Mexico,” he says. “And explain the differences between a credit card, debit bank card and a prepaid card.”
Step 2: Debit now for less debt later
Using prepaid debit cards can acclimate kids to swiping plastic, but with the constraints of cash.
A Bridge into Teen Parenting [SingleDad]
Trusting Your Teen with Plastic
When it comes to teen parenting, there is a fine line between letting go and keeping control of your children. As for money matters, giving my two teens a debit card was a big step for me because it felt like I was giving up a sense of control. As a result from this experience, the debit card was a perfect way of exercising both control and flexibility with my teenagers. I never had to turn off the card for any reason, but always knew that I could if I needed to. This 60 day experience has taught me a lot about myself and confirmed to me that I have good kids doing the right things with their money.
One additional benefit was the fact that this debit card gave me a window into the lives of my two teens while they are away with their mom. Ask any divorced parent and you will understand that there is never enough time spent with your kids. Having my smart-phone text me updates on my teens spending while they are away was a subtle way of staying connected with their lives while they are away.
Why he won’t give his teens cash [San Diego Union-Tribune]
Michael McCoy received a text message a few weeks ago that his 15-year-old son had just spent $8 at Subway at a time when his son was supposed to be at a friend’s house.
McCoy’s alert came through San Diego-based BillMyParents, the company he helms, which gives parents immediate information about how their children are using prepaid cards with Mastercard logos.
“It created what I call a coaching opportunity,” McCoy said. “It was not only about how he was spending his money, but also about where he was when he was supposed to be somewhere else.”
Parental control is the idea behind BillMyParents, which was created four years ago by San Diego dad Jim Collas, a former executive with Gateway Computers. McCoy just took over as CEO of the company after serving as president of Wells Fargo Consumer Credit Cards.
Wells Fargo Says Credit Card President Left Two Months Ago [Bloomberg Businessweek]
McCoy is now chairman and chief executive officer of BillMyParents Inc., a San Diego-based company that markets MasterCard Inc. prepaid cards to parents, for use by their teenage children. Parents can set and track spending limits, and receive alerts after purchases. The cards won’t work at businesses like casinos or liquor stores, McCoy said.
“This company is doing some unique things in the prepaid space,” McCoy said in a phone interview. “I’m 51 years old, and if I am ever going to step out and have a significant impact on a high-growth company like this, now is the time.”
Are Prepaid Cards the New Allowance? [TheStreet]
BillMyParents CEO Michael R. McCoy explains how prepaid debit cards help parents teach kids how to use plastic responsibly.
The Best Money Tools and Toys for Every Age Group [Wisebread]
When you’re ready for a real-life application of using a budget, nothing compares to the concept behind BillMyParents and their prepaid card for teens. Unlike other cards, which parents tend to load and forget, the BMP card provides updates to parents on every purchase made via text notifications and provides the control parents need to help get kids talking about where their money went.
BillMyParents and MasterCard Pitch Prepaid to Parents [MyBankTracker]
BillMyParents and MasterCard, who work together to provide prepaid debit cards to teenagers, have launched a new marketing campaign to convince parents that prepaid cards are an ideal way to help manage their children’s spending. Do they make a convincing case?
The ad campaign focuses on the realtime tracking capabilities of the card, which BillMyParents and MasterCard. The tagline for the campaign is “Keeping track of your teen’s spending with the BillMyParents SpendSmart MasterCard…Priceless.”
BillMyParents Teams With MasterCard For Educational ‘Priceless’ Campaign [PaymentsSource]
BillMyParents Inc., which operates a parent-controlled teen prepaid card, is working with MasterCard Worldwide on a new educational campaign that touts the benefits of SpendSmart, MasterCard’s program that enables parents to control and monitor their teens’ spending.
P&G’s Tremor to market prepaid debit card for teens [Business Courier]
Procter & Gamble Co.‘s Tremor word-of-mouth marketing division and its Vocalpoint online community have partnered with BillMyParents to offer a six-month “free trial” of its Spend Smart Card, a prepaid debit card targeted to teens.
The promotion is part of a three-month marketing campaign with Tremor, which aims to drive business through consumer advocacy. Vocalpoint, an interactive website for moms, is part of Tremor.
BillMyParents said in a press release the Tremor campaign utilizes a disruptive message designed to cut through consumer fatigue: “Plastic that actually reduces teen spending!”
bill my parents or our kids can’t make our mistakes [Ooph]
I was telling my brother the concept of BillMyParents the other day and he said, “Isn’t that everyone’s rite of passage with credit cards to burn the first one?”
Yes. I suppose in the past it has been for far too many. But? It doesn’t have to be. We can teach our kids something different. They don’t need to have a sucky first experience with cards. We now have an amazing tool to teach them to use responsibly.
