<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Watchful:
I prefer credit cards myself, but am going to be evaluating mile-earning debit cards for my son who will be going off to college in a year. I would rather him have a debit card than a credit card. Any experiences??</font>
If you don't mind me asking, where is your son going to go to school? Many schools offer stored-value cards that work like a debit card.
For example, at University of Texas, there's a Dining Dollars and BevoBucks program that allow students and parents to load money on the ID and the students can only use that money where DD/BB are accepted.
I work in this industry and just graduated from college in May, so I'd be happy to advise you on how do "divy" up the allowance.
I signed up for Citibank AAdvantage as a college freshman and have accumulated over 100K since signing up. Now look at me, the FF junkie...
It's been said that >50% of college students carry a balance. Play the odds game and realize that credit cards are not a good idea.