Mehnaz

How does this happen?

Recently, I found out about a young man, who is only a year younger than me, who is severely in debt. His parents had to take action by taking away 3 of his credit cards!!! My reaction was, WHAT??!! How man c.c. does this kid have and WHY does he need so many?

The main bills the kid (I am referring to him as a kid despite him being a year younger than me) has to pay are:

His phone bill
Car insurance

He lives at home, was recently laid off and can't find a job ... but these financial issues were there from high school.

Parents found out his phone bill is severely in arrears and he’s been in quite a few car accidents, so his car insurance is super high.

Now he has defaulted in paying his credit cards, so his parents took away a few of his cards.

How does this even happen? What did the parents do wrong?

The parents are financially responsible and quite religious. I think he got the cards without them knowing about it.

What did these folks do wrong? I mean, they started monitoring his bank account when he was in high school and he has a joint account with his mom ... so I don't understand this at all.

I’m seeing this a lot cause of the area I work in. Young people becoming bankrupt or being severally in debt. The consequences are really scary.

Obviously, something went wrong along the line. I understand the economy is bad right now, but this is ridiculous. You don't need to have a $400 + phone bill every month and why are these kids even allowed to have credit cards when they aren't financially responsible?

UZ

The main reason, loan is a bad thing. Its like a addiction when you start getting loan it piles up and destroys you.Parents should teach children the importance of money and how to use it wisely.And they should teach that loan is not a good thing.Well most US citizens are in debt already so how can they teach children about that.

djmi

The parents mistake is they did not let him grow up. He's still being babysitted and taken responsibility for.
If the parents tell him, go pay your debts yourself, pay the share of your bills and groceries, then you'll see how he's going to grow up in no time.
You'll be calling him a man.

djmi

Those parents who let their kids go and back them up, turn out like that.
Once they reach a certain age, they should be taught to pay their due, and taught responsibility.

Lafanter

I just cannot swallow the concept of credit card lol. Why cant ppl wait, save some money and then buy the thing they want instead of buying it now on card with an added %cost for using the card and then pay the bank and if you dont pay on time, you pay monthly fees and interest and what not. Basically end up paying way more then what the particular item cost in the 1st place. what a joke. I cant believe ppl are so dumb. I got my 1st credit card 3 years ago and I used it for a month and realized what a stupid idea it is. So I got it canceled. My friend had 2 and he has been paying the monthly fees and interests for 3 years and the actual balance is still there. He pays 200-300 dollars monthly. One other guy I know he has about ten credit cards and more than half of his income goes in paying the monthly fees etc on all of them. His debt is around 200,000 dollars.