USAA Rolls Out ‘Parent Playbook’ – 10-Minute Hacks and More

The Lead:

• In 10 minutes, parents can give their children a good credit score and lock in their life insurability for the future, skipping years of work.
• Yet, USAA data shows that less than 20% of parents do this.
• USAA’s Parent Playbook for Money highlights the quick wins and easy steps that parents can use to save their kids (and themselves) money and lessons down the road.

Key Stat:

• Adding a child as an authorized user to a credit card can give them a credit score well before they’re 18.
• The average credit score of a USAA parent with a child authorized user is 751. That could translate into a 700+ credit score for a child, without them ever having made a single transaction.
• BUT – just 18% of parents with a USAA Bank credit card have a child authorized user.

Yes, And:

• Life Insurance is another often-missed area where a little work today reaps rewards for kids as they grow.
• Parents can establish life insurance coverage for kids by adding them on to their own policy or through a juvenile policy. Doing so ensures they’ll have coverage later in life, even if their health changes.
• Only 14% of parents have a child rider, per USAA data.

USAA Advice Director Josh Andrews: “These small actions can translate into a significant head start for children. Many parents don’t realize they can leverage their own financial standing to provide their children with a foundation of insurability and creditworthiness that can last a lifetime. This can provide their children with financial advantages as they start their independent lives, helping them bypass initial obstacles to financial security.”

Go Deeper:

• Once the easy steps are tackled, USAA’s Parent Playbook provides more actions to lock in financial basics and help kids (and parents) save money.
• Dive into USAA’s extensive Advice library, with insights on teaching kids to save money, teenagers to budget, and raising financially independent kids.