The opening of credit union branches inside high schools and even some elementary schools is a hot trend, one you can’t go a week without reading about.

The branches are springing up in communities from Whitehall, Michigan, to Boulder, Colorado with the intention of improving students’ financial education before they head off to college.

What better place for a prepaid product designed to promote financial literacy? Built to give young people access to the safety and convenience of a credit card without the risk of mounting debt, prepaid reloadable cards are perfectly tailored to the mission of in-school CU branches.

Reloadable cards offer the ideal solution for high school students. Because the teen can’t spend more money than he or she has earned, that young person learns responsibility.

Parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles and others can load money onto a reloadable card. Automatic transfers can also be set up to make allowance payments, and direct deposit can be set up to send funds directly to the reloadable card. Parents and teens can monitor spending online to ensure the best choices are being made.

If a high school student is educated on the right way to use plastic, he or she will be much less vulnerable to the temptations of credit cards, the marketing of which is sure to increase during the college years.