Credit Cards for Kids -- Can Yours Handle One?

Making mistakes while she was younger, she says, taught her how to keep up with her accounts, now that her parents "aren't going to able to bail me out as much as they did."

But some contend that debit cards aren't credit cards with training wheels.

"Parents need to be careful about debit cards. They're a wonderful tool, but they're not training for a credit card," says Jump$tart Executive Director Laura Levine.

Debit and credit cards are very different, Levine notes: Debit cards don't require you to make payments and don't charge interest.

Getting your child any kind of plastic product -- debit, credit, or pre-paid -- should be done with caution, and only if you're going to supervise your child.

"If you're going to do this, you have to be willing to commit the time" to make sure they understand how the card works, says Levine.

"If you just hand it to your kid and see what happens, it's a very bad idea."