High school student credit cards can be great resources to offer your teenager.  There are a few things you should consider before applying for these cards.  Technically there are three types of high school student credit cards you can apply for.  The first is prepaid.  The others are free credit card and annual fee credit cards for students.  As the parent it is up to you to make sure the credit card you get for your high school student is going to be the best.  These cards have very specific requirements you will need to understand before you obtain the card.  You will also want to look at the various offers before settling down to one choice.

The Capital One Platinum for students is one type of credit card you can apply for.  This card offers a credit line for you to set.  Instead of being a large sum it is usually lower than a hundred up to 250.  There is fraud protection, and savings on sites like Yahoo.  With this card there is an introductory offer until June 2008 where you have zero percent interest.  There is no annual fee, but the card is for those who are new to credit.  You as the parent will not be needed to co- sign and it could be offered only to college students depending on the age of your child.  Capital One also has the rewards card for students.  Again this is for any student, but in some cases they may not offer it to a younger high school student.  The card will allow for 25% annual cash back bonuses.  You will earn about 1% cash back on each purchase.  Your account will never expire and there are certain places you will get better discounts.  It has the same introductory rate, but the interest rate is lower because there is an annual fee.  The first interest rate was 19.30% and this second card is 16.40%.  You will have a fee of 29 dollars every year for the account.  Some of the other companies like Citibank offer cash back rewards based on your GPA.  In fact these cards require that you have a high GPA and keep it there in order to keep the account open. 

The prepaid cards offer a little more in the responsible side of the scale.  You have more control over the actual limit than you do on regular high school student credit cards.  With prepaid cards you actually load the card with money in the account.  As the student uses the account the balance will be debited, much like your ATM card.  The only difference is there is a start up fee, transaction or monthly fee, and a reload fee.  These fees can get a little expensive if the teen uses the card a lot for unexpected items.  However you set the actual balance so they can only use it if you transfer money into the account, where as the other style is used until the limit is reached.