There is another way that you may end up paying for the convenience of these cards. It is possible to make cash withdraws on secure cards and when you do you will be charged a fee. When your parents add money to your account and you take out some of that money in the form of cash, you end up paying another fee. Had your parents just handed you the funds there would be no fee attached. The card companies win. By acting as a "middle man" the card companies make money and in the process introduce you to the idea of "cash advances", a staple of consumer credit card debt.

The credit card companies are targeting teens with these cards, but there is no mistake that liability lies with the parents. Visa Buxx, one of the first such cards, makes no effort to hide the truth. Just look at the description of the card that appears on the corporate web page, "parent-controlled, re-loadable payment card designed to help parents provide spending money for teens and to help teach teens practical money skills."[4]

But will these cards teach teens "practical money skills" or will they just get teens used to the idea of making purchases using credit cards. After all, using one of these cards is exactly the same as using a credit card. You produce the card, the merchant seeks authorization, you sign a receipt and you get a "spending habit" statement. It is like "play credit" that gets teens used to the way it feels to use credit cards without actually giving them credit. It is easy to see how opponents to these cards feel that the real agenda is lulling teens into a false sense of security about credit card use.

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