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"A New York senator recently proposed that young adults shouldn&amp;amp;#8217;t be able to get credit cards until they&amp;amp;#8217;re 21 years old. The reasoning? College students in Long Island and New York City have $1.8 billion dollars in credit card debt. Have you been hung out to dry by credit card companies? I got my first credit card&amp;amp;#8212;at college&amp;amp;#8212;when I was 18. And I wish I hadn&amp;amp;#8217;t. At the time, I was psyched to get the free T-shirt and the free water bottle, and even more psyched to have a credit card with a $500 limit (for free!) just for signing on the dotted line. By the time I left college I had already missed a bunch of payments (Hello! They gave a credit card to someone without a checking account!), and was well on my way to ruining my credit. Had you asked me at the time, of course I would have said I was responsible. I probably would have said, &amp;amp;#8220;I&amp;amp;#8217;m old enough to vote and I&amp;amp;#8217;m old enough to die for my country. I should be old enough to buy beer and charge it, if I want to.&amp;amp;#8221; (Have you ever noticed that the only people who make the &amp;amp;#8220;I&amp;amp;#8217;m old enough to die for my country&amp;amp;#8221; argument are 18-year-olds who want to buy beer? But I digress.) I don&amp;amp;#8217;t know that I would have been smarter with a credit card if I had waited three years&amp;amp;#8212;but at least I would have had a checking account at that point. And I know that plenty of my peers were more responsible than I was, and the proposal made an exception for them, saying 18-year-olds could get a card with a parent&amp;amp;#8217;s permission. So is this legislation a good idea? Should teens have to wait until they&amp;amp;#8217;re older to get a credit card, or is that just delaying the inevitable? (Are irresponsible people going to be irresponsible, regardless of whether they&amp;amp;#8217;re 18 or 21?) Do parents know when a child is old enough (or responsible enough) to have a credit card? Will 18-year-olds just forge a parent&amp;amp;#8217;s signature, anyway? Did anyone else get their first credit card in college? Does anyone else regret it? And did anyone rely on a credit card to get through college (for books or tuition&amp;amp;#8212;not for beer!)? Savvy or Stupid: Should the government make teens wait to get credit cards?(answers) A couple more legal questions to ponder: Should Bicyclists Be Allowed to Ignore Traffic Laws? Paying for Sex. Isn&amp;amp;#8217;t That Against the Law? Photo: Getty"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/sex-love-life/blogs/little-miss-fortune/2009/04/hed-savvy-or-stupid-should-you>