Another way credit cards are useful: my girlfriend and I live together and split a lot of household expenses, but we’re not ready to completely combine our finances. We have a joint credit card account, paid off each month, and it’s a lot easier than trying to keep receipts for everything and remember what was supposed to be split and what wasn’t, or who paid the cash for the movie tickets, or whatever.

jtimberman, I don’t know much about Dave Ramsey, but his anti-credit card stance may be a function of his audience. He writes and speaks to people who are already in debt, mostly, and for people who have gotten themselves into debt, especially credit card debt, additional credit cards can be a truly terrible idea. For people who use them properly, though, they’re a great convenience.

I also agree with saving money for travelling. I went for a study abroad course during summer after my junior year in college. It was great. I’ve travelled a lot as an adult and it is not the same. I wouldn’t trade the memories of this time for a few more thousands in my retirement savings.

Besides, if she isn’t interested in travel, wouldn’t college tuition be a higher priority than retirement savings? Unless parents are sufficiently rich not to miss the money (or sufficiently poor so that a child qualifies for large financial aid), it seems a little selfish for a child to put money in Roth IRA while the parents whose retirement is much closer are paying for college. Contributing a little would be nice and would show some appreciation.

jtimberman, you seem to have almost religious feelings against credit cards with the accompanying desire to covert everyone to the cause. I agree that some people should stay away. But if you look up the statistics, over a third of Americans pay their bills in full every month. This is an awful lot of people. If you enjoy an occasional glass of wine, you probably wouldn’t be very receptive to a member of AA trying to convince you to completely abstain from drinking. For the record – I’ve used credit cards since 1983 and have never once paid a penny in interest.

Yes, he talks about personal responsibility a lot. Probably at least once every single hour of every show. He mentions it many times in his FPU lessons and his books.

Yet he still HATES credit cards and the credit card industry. He never once has told anyone that they should handle their credit cards responsibly. He tells people to cut them up and close the accounts.

The only time he advises someone to borrow money is to get out of a bigger debt mess. Most often, to get a small loan to get out of a car lease or big hairy car payment and pay off the balance with a smaller loan, with enough left over to buy a cheap car.

I’m so proud of all you people who are so responsible with your credit cards. Are you millionaires? No? I didn’t think so. Dave Ramsey is a multi-millionaire, and he didn’t use credit cards to get there.

I think I’ll follow his advice, not yours. Thanks though!

I have to agree with many of the other posters. Yes, credit cards are not 100% necessary but very few things are. I’m 15 and have a Visa checkcard. I plan to get a credit card once I can drive. If you don’t carry a balance many credit cards will give you money in the form of cash back or rewards. Plus, I believe having a strong positive credit history is much better than no credit history.

Though it’s nice to see someone so devoted to Dave Ramsy, you’re making some false assumptions. First, you’re saying people who use credit cards don’t budget. My husband and I budget every penny, and we both carry a credit card (mostly used for gas and the occasional time when we’re caught without cash). We pay the entire balance off every month (or every 2 weeks, really), and have never paid a penny in interest.

One of Dave’s big things is “personal responsibility.” Listen to him long enough and you’ll hear that the problem is not entirely the credit card company’s fault… a lot of it lies in people being dumb with credit. If some of us choose to use it to our advantage, so be it.

I’d also advise saving for travel. I took every opportunity to visit new places and work abroad as a teenager and college student, and while I still travel a lot like most adults haven’t got the time for long vacations or working/volunteering abroad any more.

I didn’t put a penny into IRAs or their equivalent as a teen and don’t regret it for a second. The travel and working experiences I had were far more valuable.

I agree that sometimes you simply do need a credit card. I got one when I was 18 and in college, because I needed to buy things online. In most cases, there is simply no other way to buy things online that by using a credit card.

Maybe it’s like sex. You can tell people not to have sex, but they simply will anyway. So maybe you should teach them to have sex responsibly. People will get credit cards anyway, usually out of necessity for reasons like I already mentioned. So you may as well just teach them to use credit cards responsibly, rather than not at all.

!wanda, statistically speaking, most Americans are in fact irresponsible with money. Have you heard about the subprime mortgage meltdown? Those are people who were PROVEN to not be responsible with money, which is WHY they got a subprime loan. People who pay off their credit card balance every month are lazy, and they’re the definite minority. Why lazy? Because if you have the money to pay off whatever you spend on the credit card, why don’t you budget that money to be spent that way in the first place?

But you’re not going to listen to me. I accept that. You’ll keep doing what you’re doing thinking it is the right thing to do because you’ve been doing it since you were 20, so you obviously know better than I do.

Most high school students don’t need a credit card, but if Trent’s niece has one, it will only help her to use it responsibly.

I actually did the same thing in HS but had to empty most of my Roth to pay for the last year of college which was the best investment I ever made. If I didn’t have the money it would have taken me at least another year to graduate as I would of had to work and go to school only part time. Instead I was able to graduate and spend that year working at a higher salary.