Chris Taylor for Current
How to choose your first bank account
As we say goodbye to summer, many parents across America will soon be saying another kind of farewell: to their teens, as high school grads begin their first year of college.
It’s an exciting time of new independence — and all the responsibilities that come with that.
With finances, especially, it is often the first time that teens are truly in charge of the numbers: opening bank accounts, applying for credit cards, setting a budget, and building up their credit.
Those are all good things, but there is plenty of potential for things going wrong, as well: 50.7% of teens ages 15-18 fail the National Financial Literacy Test, a 30-question survey from the National Financial Educators Council .
Teens may not even be aware of