Taking charge of charging.

• Position: YOUR LIFE - Brief Article

Mike Sullivan, director of education for Take Charge America, a national nonprofit consumer credit counseling company, says that parents should start early and talk with their children about the potential consequences of credit card debt. He provides the following financial tips:

Open a checking and savings account. Review the terms and fine print of each with your teenager. Explain that fees can be incurred if the account is overdrawn.

Send bills and statements to your home address. Monitor spending activities and cash withdrawals when statements arrive and teach teenagers how to balance their checkbooks. Balances shown on online bank accounts may not reflect that morning's ATM withdrawal or checks that have yet to be cashed.

Differentiate between debit and credit. Explain the differences and give teenagers a debit card for regular expenses rather than a credit...