New card comes with parental controls

Here's the latest MasterCard version of the popular Visa Buxx card. Called the Allow Card, it's a prepaid MasterCard with parental controls that allow you to set daily spending limits and even stop it from being used at certain types of merchants. You can load your kid's allowance on the card instead of handing over cash. Another card aimed at kids is the PAYjr card, which also carries a the MasterCard brand. I thought these cards sounded like a pretty great idea for older teenagers and young adults until I went to the Allow Card Web site (click on the "parents" tab) and read about the cost: $23.95 to get the card in the first place and $3.50 a month after that, plus a bunch of other fees. The place you can find a complete rundown of fees is the "cardholder agreement," found on card Web sites. In some circumstances, a card like this might be worth paying some fees--when your child is going out of town for example, and you don't want her carrying a lot of cash. But you'd think credit card sponsors would make these programs really low cost in the name of "business development." After all, these are credit cards with training wheels, and the kid who uses one as a child is likely to grow up to be an adult customer.

(Photo credit: Allow Card)