Who gives kids charging privaliges with KTTW Card

[disneydance]

We give our kids 13 and 15 charging privallages while in WDW out of curiousity who else give there children charging if you do why and if you dont why

 

[6mouskateers]

Our kids bring their own spending money and there really is no reason for them to be able to charge. Even if we cut them loose for a while, for main meals we will meet up again. Extra snacks and sodas come out of their own money. The boys were 14 and 17 trip and believe me they snack us to death.

They are not big into souvies, but I think I would be to see the charge bill for all those sodas, pretzels, candy etc etc.

 

[LISAMWDW]

I'm with 6mouskateers! NEVER! We have a 10 and 15 year old and we would never let them charge. They are allowed money for souvies based on behavior and they get to spend it toward the end of the trip. We cover snacks for them and we get them as a family. Sometimes we'll reward good behavior with a little sumptin extra. We don't snack alot nor does it get out of hand. We're generally just too busy having fun!

 

[tinklvr64]

Same here! We never charge anything to our rooms on our keys...too easy to spend money. Our boys 15, 13 bring their own money for souvies, we pay for everything else. No need for them to charge a thing.

 

[Hannathy]

I had charging privileges put on my 14 yr olds but not on the 8 yr olds for 2 reasons. I trust both my kids completely so it wasn't the spending money part but I left it off the 8 yr olds because that was the key we took to the pools so if someone took it they couldn't buy anything. I put it on the 14 yr old so if we ever were separated she would be able to buy food or a drink and take care of herself. Also if she took her brother somewhere it would be available for them if we were delayed or they needed something. Neither child would buy anything with the card they wouldn't buy with money or abuse it.

 

[Cinderaven]

We never give our DS (16) any thing like that. He brings a certain amout of money and we divide it up on how many days we will be at the parks and alot him that for each day.

If he wants something more that the money in his pocket, he can borrow from the next day or wait until he has enough money. When he spends all his money that's it. We try to teach how important money is and how hard it is to come by and how fast it can disappear.

Todays teens don't realize the value of money, since everything can be charged. We don't deny our DS much but make him learn the value of what it costs.

Len

 

[Mousema]

I did with DS from the time he was 12. He is now 19. He never abused the privillege (sp). As a single mom, I taught him the value of money but didn't harp on it. He's had a part time job since he was 16. The only time he didn't work was the last half of his senior year, I wanted him to enjoy that time as much as he could.

 

[Disneyof3]

With my kids ages 6,8,10 never but maybe when they get older and still want to go on trips with us then I might try it. I think if the child has the sense of how money is made and not to throw it out the window on everything they see, then I can see no reason on giving the child the chance. The kids will never learn unless they have wings to adventure out. I feel my oldest right now is responsible but he's not old enough yet to adventure around WDW alone yet.

 

[FancyBrat]

Nope Never! They have a set limit for spending on the trip and there's just something about charging that I don't want them getting used to. They are less likely to spend their money up front when they have it in hand and can see it dwindle away. Cut's down on the impulse purchases.

 

[SplshMtnLvr28]

My mom has on our last few trips. On our last trip my mom, brother and I went to DD. My brother wanted to swim (we were staying at POR) so my mom said that they would go back and swim and I could stay and shop for a little bit. It's not like I would go crazy and buy anything I wanted, because I knew I would have my butt severely kicked later. And I would feel really bad since she trusted me enough to give me charging abilities in the first place.

 

[pixie dust 112]

We've been giving our kids charging privileges for the last few years. They have to earn their spending money for our trips and then they give the money to me and I let them charge the amount that they earned. Each day aftere the parks they give me their receipts and I let them know how much money they have left on their "account". They know that when their account is depleted they don't get any more $$$ from us. They bhave actually been very responsible with this method. The charge privileges have never been abused. I do encourage them to wait til toward the end of vaca to do their purchasing, so they don't spend the money and then find something better, after the $ is gone. The last couple of trips they have actually had $ left at the end of vacation!

 

[themudd4]

NOPE! And not becasue I don't trust my kids...

My kids DS7 & DD (will be 14 in less than a month) save their money all year from allowence, Birthday's, Christmas extra. Sometime the Easter Bunny or Santa claus also leaves Disney Dollars or Disney Gift cards to help with their spending money. (I highly recommend Disney Gift Cards!!! If lost or stolen they can be replaced as long as you maintain your original reciept.)
We really don't seperate to often but we usually get the DDP so if we were to seperate (assuming they had their cards) they would be able to get food and drinks as necessary. Their spending money is for them to use on what ever they decide to spend it on.
We do like having the ability to charge things back to our room...(AKA credit card on file). It makes it easier for me to see where my money went with the master print out I recieve from the front desk instead of all the many little receipts we collect during our stay!

 

[mericletwins]

We don't now because our twins are 8 and our youngest is 7. They aren't anywhere without us. I'm not sure if I would do it later or not. DH and I don't charge anything to our room, so I'm not sure they would need to. I guess we'll have to see as they get older.

 

[DonnaL]

Our youngest is now 18, but, we have given him charging privileges on his room key for about three or four years now. He doesn't go overboard with anything and would never put any large charges on it, but, it's definitely much more convenient if we split up for a few hours or he wants to go somewhere and we don't. Also, as a family, we use cash very little.......when at home, our debit card is used for just about everything.....gas, groceries, incidentals at WalMart or KMart, etc. so he's basically grown up with that and is very good with money.......he actually may be better than we are!!!!

 

[HarbinsMom]

Our son is 14 1/2 and on this last trip, yes we did give him charging privledges. We never worried that he would buy something that he wasn't supposed to, the only thing he used it for was for snacks. He stayed with his dad and I most of the time, but every once in a while, he wanted to ride something his dad and I wanted to sit out. He had his own cash on him, but I wanted to let him have that privledge because he had earned it. We told him what was acceptable and what wasn't and he never abused it. In fact, he was almost afraid to use it.

 

[Unregistered]

My children have had charging priviledges on their room keys for a few years. They are responsible. Because they are teenagers they do not stay with their parents all the time. This way they can still buy drinks and snacks when they are by themselves. None of the children have ever abused the priviledge. I always get the charge receipts, that way if they would take advantage I could stop the priviledge. (They have NEVER taken advantage of it though.) I'd hate for them to be in the park by themselves and thirsty and unable to get a drink. I realize I could give them money but if it is lost or spent they would not be able to get snacks or drinks...I definately think drinks are necessary in summertime.

 

[Vijoge]

I did with DS from the time he was 12. He is now 19. He never abused the privillege (sp). As a single mom, I taught him the value of money but didn't harp on it. He's had a part time job since he was 16. The only time he didn't work was the last half of his senior year, I wanted him to enjoy that time as much as he could.

Sounds like you've raised a great kid. My youngest is like taht, too. Charging priveledges on vacation at 11, his own CC at 16. At 17 we sent him off to Europe fopr 10 days with the request that he try to stay within a budget of about $1000. He spent $300!

 

[bell.of.the.ball]

I gave my 12 year old charging last year. We spend all our time together but if he needed a snack I did not have to wait on line with him. He thought he was cool to be able to pay for lunch for the family. He knew better than to charge without asking. I will probably do it again this summer but he knows not to charge before asking even if it was a soda.

 

[mamaloya]

My ds16 is trustworthy, but I think my dd11 would take advantage. I do not put charging privileges on any of our cards though, not even mine. I do this because our package/room is already paid for up front and I don't want to have to go over the bill for errors.

Each of our kids get money on a disney gift card. ds16 is also given a spare debit card to our little account, not the main one. I usually have a set amount of money in that account. dd11 is not allowed off by herself anyway. Should she get separated, she does have her gift card to use. I dare not give her anything with real charging lest she find an "emergency" such as Miley did on Hannah Montana.

I really do not like having a "bill" at the end of our trip. To me it would feel like paying Disney twice. Once when we charged it to our room and then the second time when we actually paid it. I am glad that we don't use credit cards because then it would feel like we were paying a third time when we got the credit card bill. I know it is only one amount, but I would feel as if I were paying for it over and over and over.

 

[heartofdisney]

I started giving my oldest daughter charging priviledges when she was 16 years old. They had a set amount each day that they could spend,and after that,they had to use thier own money.On our last trip this past January,I also gave our 14 year old the same priviledges.There were just to many times where the kids went thier own way,and the parents went another.At 19 and 14 years old,they are able to get around the parks very well with the busses.They knew that they could charge souveniers they wanted,but at the end of the day,we took account of all the reciepts and if they bought something other then food or drinks,they had to give us the money for it.It worked out pretty well for us this way,and they never really spent too much money anyway.I do recall one time however where they spent something like 18.00 on 2 milkshakes at downtown disney.If I had been with them,I would have said that was too much money just for 2 milkshakes,but since that was all they charged that day,besdies thier lunch, and didn't spend over the amount we set,I didn't get too upset over it.Actually,I was pretty proud of them,as they never once went over the set amount they could charge each day,and actually came well under. So at the end of the trip,as a way to reward them for thier good budgeting,we allowed them to spend whatever remained in thier daily budget on souveniers,and they were estatic about that. But you do have to know your kids and trust them on something like that,and as mine are older,I felt that it was a good way to show them our trust.