With everyone's credit trashed in today's economy, you'd think that the hardest hit for credit and being trusted for money would be a teenager. But in this topsy-turvy world, there is an iron-clad way for a 14-year-old (and his father) to get credit, and do so without waiting - with no income, no debit card, and certainly no credit card - if they turn to the world of the new online payment services.
It isn't actually for anything useful that you can use online payment services like these; you use them on online games, for the virtual things you buy. The name of the service is Kwedit.com, and it gets accepted on the games Puzzle Pirates and FooPets. You can buy stuff on these games, with nothing down other than a promise. Get your online items right away, and you pay them off later with a card, or with cash at a 7-Eleven store that acts as a cash payment point for Kwedit. In fact, 7-Eleven will be putting up a "Kwedit Accepted Here" sign on its doors next to the Visa and MasterCard signs very soon. Online payment services like Kwedit, don't exactly partner with anyone who can give you real stuff; so far it's only for virtual stuff. If they get stiffed, they dodn't really lose anything. And they get to give their customers a real buzz being able to go on with nothing more than a promise.
Online games like these, mostly attract the 12- to 14 year-old set. They sign-up for these games, adopt a virtual pet and then they need real money to feed their virtual pets, or buy them chew toys. FooPets is actually signing up 100,000 new members every week. And it is especially convenient for children, who hate to get their parents involved in every little thing, to be able to run it on their own. So what happens if they don't buy any food for their pets? Those are not real pets, and nothing will happen to them, will it? No one seems to actually believe that. This is a one billion-dollar market in the US. The children who play the games, are flocking to these online payment services to just grab some virtual goodies and run. They take their games very seriously. And if they don't feed them, their virtual creatures can get very sick. By the way, a bag of dog food (or a picture of it, rather) will set you back about three dollars.
No one actually sues the child if he or she reneges on the debt. But the more they show themselves to be trustworthy, but bigger and bigger their Kwedit scores get, and the bigger their spending limits. Children go along with this now, because it gives them convenience that no one else will allow them. It lets children understand the whole concept of owing someone something and keeping their word. And overall, it could be good education.