Debit Cards for Kids

Wells Fargo Clear Access Banking Review

Written by: editorial staff
Published February 22, 2022

You may have heard of, or even used, Wells Fargo’s past checking accounts with debit cards for teenagers. However, both the Wells Fargo Teen Checking and Wells Fargo Opportunity Checking accounts have been discontinued by Wells Fargo and are not offered in 2022.

Today, the Wells Fargo Clear Access Banking account takes their place and combines many of their best features.

This account is a basic checking account with no check writing capabilities. It comes with a secure debit card with chip technology and must be opened in a branch with an adult co-owner. It requires a minimum deposit of $25 or more.

To see if this account meets your family and child’s needs, continue reading our review below.

Who is it For?

Average age: 13 to 16.

Good candidate: Younger teens who want a simple checking account, a secure debit card with chip technology, no overdraft fees and low account balances.

Kids aged 13 to 17 must open the account in a branch and kids 13 to 16 need to have an adult co-owner. Once you’re 18 you can open the account online and by yourself.

From age 18 to 24 you can enjoy this account fee free, however once you turn 25 you’ll need to meet monthly balance and activity requirements to avoid a $5 fee.

Noteworthy Features and Benefits

Lack of fees. There are no monthly service fees for ages 13 – 24, no overdraft fees and no non-sufficient fund fees.

This account helps people manage, save and spend their money wisely with budgeting, cash flow, and spending tools.

Account holders will have access to the vast Wells Fargo ATM and branch network with approximately 12,000 Wells Fargo ATMs. You can use your contactless debit card or digital wallet to make free ATM withdrawals.

This is also an ideal account for those looking for a second chance bank account that are unable to open standard checking accounts due to past credit history.

Features and Benefits for Parents

When a parent and teen open a Wells Fargo Clear Access Banking account, they become joint account owners with the parent as the primary account holder.

Parents can stay on top of their child’s spending by setting up alerts that can be sent via email, text, or push notification in the Wells Fargo Mobile App.

Wells Fargo is committed to account safety. They offer Zero Liability protection which reimburses you for any promptly reported unauthorized transactions. They also offer 24/7 customer support and fraud monitoring.

With the Wells Fargo Mobile App parents and kids can pay bills, deposit checks, send and receive money with Zelle and set up alerts. Zelle allows you to send money to friends and family similar to Paypal or Venmo by using a phone number. Both ends of the transaction must be enrolled in Zelle.

Features and Benefits for Teens

Teens get a simple, yet reasonably high tech account that offers secure chip technology, digital payments and a mobile app for easy account management.

Use the Wells Fargo Card Design Studio service to design a card that is custom to you.

The mobile app can be downloaded on iPhones and Androids and can be used on most smartphones and tablets. With the app you’ll have the ability to check your balance, pay your bills and send money digitally.

Fees and Costs

For most day to day usage there will likely be no little in the way of fees. There are no overdraft fees and non-sufficient fund fees. There are also no service fees for account holders aged 13 – 24. On your 25th birthday you may be subject to a $5/month fee if you do not meet monthly balance and/or activity requirements.

Here’s a full breakdown of fees:

Wells Fargo ATM Fee	$0
ATM Fee: Out-of-Network	$2.50
Debit Card Design Studio Fee	$0
Debit Card Replacement Fee	$0
Foreign Transaction Fee (Debit Card)	3%
Monthly Fee	$0 – $5
Online Bill Pay Fee	$0
Overdraft Fee	$0
Paper Statement Fee	$0
Returned Deposit Fee (Domestic)	$12
Returned Deposit Fee (International)	$12
Wire Transfer Fee – Domestic (Incoming)	$15
Wire Transfer Fee – Domestic (Outgoing)	$30
Wire Transfer Fee – International (Incoming)	$16
Wire Transfer Fee – International (Outgoing)	$40

Wells Fargo Clear Access Banking vs Competitors

One of the primary benefits of the Wells Fargo Clear Access Banking account over competitors is its simplicity. It’s a simple and secure checking account with a debit card using chip technology.

You can do all the basic stuff on the mobile app like monitor activity, send and receive money and pay bills. The account also has limited fees as noted above.

If you’re looking for a more robust account however, there’s been an explosion of new FinTech companies offering sophisticated apps with debit cards that have chore management features, financial literacy courses, etc. To see a rundown of these products, check out our best debit cards for kids and teens report for 2022.

Potential Drawbacks

Depending on how you’d planned to use this account you have some concerns. For example, if you are accustomed to writing checks this account won’t be for you as there is no check writing capability at all.

If you tend to send or receive wire transfers, you’ll find this account to be a bit expensive as Wells Fargo’s wire fees are higher than other banks and credit unions.

If you were expecting an interest rate on your balance or a sign up bonus for opening an account, you’ll be let down as this account provides neither.

Lastly, if there aren’t many Wells Fargo branches in your area and will need to make out of network ATM withdrawals you’ll face a $2.50 fee for each from Wells Fargo. Remember, this is on top of whatever that particular bank or ATM is charging. This is costlier than other banks and credit unions – many of which don’t have their own fees for out of network ATM usage.

Customer Sentiment

There is little in the way of customer reviews for the Wells Fargo Clear Access Banking account since it is still relatively new and replaced two former accounts, but there is plenty of data on how people feel about banking with Wells Fargo.

Out of 750 reviews on Consumer Affairs, Wells Fargo receives an average rating of 3.5/5 stars.

Out of 513 reviews on the Better Business Bureau, Wells Fargo receives an average rating of just 1.07/5 stars with many links of government action against the institution involving the business’ marketplace conduct.

The Wells Fargo Mobile Banking app, which you’d use as a Clear Access Banking customer, has a 4.8/5 star rating with 6.7 million ratings on the App Store and a 4.7/5 star rating on Google Play with just over 1.4 million ratings.

Is it Safe?

Like any other checking account with an accredited financial institution, this checking account is FDIC-insured up to the federally allowed limit of $250,000.

The account also comes with:

24/7 fraud monitoring
Account activity alerts that can be sent via text, email or in the app
Zero liability protection. Get reimbursed for any promptly reported un-authorized card transactions.
debit card with chip technology for added security

How to Sign Up

An adult parent or guardian must be present with the teen age 13 – 16 and go into a local Wells Fargo branch to open this account. For those aged 17 you can open the account on your own by going into a local branch. Anyone over the age of 18 can open the account online here.

What you’ll need to apply:

Adult co-owners and kid(s) will need the following if applicable:

Social Security number (or ITIN)
Valid ID (driver’s license, state ID, Matricula card)
$25 for minimum deposit to open account

Greenlight Debit Card 2022 – Now with Rewards & Cash Back!

Written by: Lauren Graves
Published February 11, 2022

Full disclosure: We may receive financial compensation when you click on links and are approved for products from our advertising partners. Opinions and product recommendations on APYGUY are those of our writers and have not been influenced, reviewed or approved by any advertiser. Learn more about how we make money.

A debit card that will teach your kids responsible money management skills, introduce them to investing, and let you keep an eye on their activity—this is what the Greenlight debit card for kids offers.

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Greenlight has made a name for itself within the growing niche of kids debit cards and leads the market in users with over 4 million of them as of 2022.

See if the Greenlight card is right for your family by reading our review below.

Quick Facts:

Promotion	First month free
Cost	$4.99/family up to 5 kids
Min Age	None
Savings	Earn 2% on balances up to $5k*
Cash Back	Earn 1% on spending*
FDIC	Yes
Identity Theft Protection	Yes with Greenlight Max
ATM Fees	None
Overdraft Fees	None
Parental Controls	Yes, best in class
Financial Literacy Tools	Yes, best in class
Allowance Features	Yes, best in class

*For Greenlight Max families in good standing with a verified ACH funding account.

Who is the Greenlight Debit Card For

Average age: 8-18

Good candidate: Busy families with multiple kids

Greenlight does not set any minimum or maximum ages for this product, but the majority of users fall within the 8 to 18 range with many being somewhere around 13 years old.

The Greenlight debit card for kids is marketed toward parents with busy kids who have started earning their own money through allowance or chores and are making their own purchases.

Greenlight Debit Card Features and Benefits

In terms of App features, Greenlight’s claim to fame is its chore management function.

This lets you create chores lists right in the app and pay your kids when they complete those chores. You can even set automatic allowance deposits into their accounts on a weekly or monthly basis. But if you don’t want to set up automatic transfers, you can make an instant one-time transfer into your child’s account at any time at no charge.

More recently, Greenlight added competitive savings and cash back features.

Greenlight Max families can earn a whopping 2% APY on balances up to $5,000 and 1% cash back on spending.

Greenlight and Greenlight + Invest families have the ability to earn 1% APY on balances up to $5,000, but will not receive cash back on spending.

Greenlight Card from the Parents’ Perspective

On the parents’ side, Greenlight is all about giving you control over your kids’ spending and the final say over what they can and can’t do with their money.

Parents transfer money into a Greenlight main account that can then be dispersed into their children’s cards. Greenlight automatically declines all purchases that exceed a card’s available balance, so it is literally impossible for a child to overdraft their account.

Parents can also decide what’s best for their children by setting restrictions on their children’s spending as they see fit. They can:

Restrict or block their children’s spending at certain stores
Set ATM withdrawal limits
Switch their child’s card on or off instantly from the app

Parents are always instantly notified via pop-up notifications to their phone (if they set this permission) whenever their children make purchases. If their child has attempted to make a purchase at a store they have restricted, they are alerted immediately.

To encourage your kids to save and invest their money rather than just spend it, you can incentivize different behaviors. You can, for example, pay your children interest on their savings. This interest comes out of your own bank account but can be used to teach your kids the importance of holding onto the money they earn.

Greenlight Card from the Kids’ Perspective

On the kids’ side, Greenlight gives users many authentic financial experiences in a safe and supportive environment that’s specifically designed to teach them about money management and sound financial choices as they go.

Greenlight also makes it easy to spend and save. Kids can set personal savings goals for themselves in the app and they can set their account to round-up their purchases to save faster automatically. If you have the Greenlight + Invest or Max account, kids can even invest in real stocks.

(Your child does not need to have the Greenlight app to have the debit card, but this does give them access to free educational resources and certain account features like the one above. There are separate parent and kid versions of the app.)

This Mastercard debit card can be used at most places Mastercard is accepted, except for at vendors and on services that are restricted by Greenlight (see “Is It Safe?” for more info).

Greenlight Debit Card Cost Structure

Pricing for Greenlight is set up in 3 tiers with a range of $4.99/month to $9.98/month for Greenlight Max. Remember, this monthly cost for all tiers includes debit cards for up to 5 kids.

Plan options are as follows:

Greenlight (basic): $4.99/month for
- Debit cards for up to 5 kids, the Greenlight app, free financial literacy tools, parental controls and 1% APY on savings up to $5,000.
Greenlight + Invest: $7.98/month for
- All features listed above plus access to the Greenlight kid-friendly investing platform, which includes actual stocks and bonds and portfolio tracking. Your kids can research different investments using data analyses powered by Morningstar. All investments your kids choose to make must be approved by you before they go through.
Greenlight Max: $9.98/month for
- All features listed above plus black cards for every kid on your plan, priority customer support, identity theft protection, cell phone protection for every kid on your plan at values based on the Insurance Plan for 5 Individuals by AT&T, purchase protection to prevent losses when items are lost or stolen, 2% APY on savings up to $5,000 and 1% cash back on spending.

You get the first month free when you sign up for Greenlight and can cancel whenever you like—you’re not locked into a contract. If you want to customize your child’s debit card for them, this costs $9.99 each. You may upgrade or downgrade your plan at any time from the parent version of the Greenlight app. The first card you need to replace is free and every card after that costs $3.50 each for standard shipping.

There are also no fees for overdrafts, international spending, or ATM withdrawals either.

Please note that the basic Greenlight plan does not include any sort of investing options.

Greenlight VS Competitors

In 2022, there are many kids’ debit cards to choose from, so how does Greenlight compare?

Below is a side-by-side comparison of Greenlight’s offer vs other popular options on the market.

Greenlight VS FamZoo

If you’re in the middle of conducting research on the best available debit cards for kids, you’ve likely come across FamZoo. Below is our side by side comparison of the account features and costs with Greenlight.

Item	Greenlight	FamZoo
Monthly Fee	$4.99/family	$2.50 – $5.99
ATM fees	$0	$0
Allowance Payment/Control	Yes	Yes
Interest Distribution	Yes	Yes
Custom Card Design	$9.99	Not Offered
Card Replacement Fee	Up to $3.50	$0

Greenlight beats FamZoo on the monthly costs, however, if you opt for FamZoo’s “pay-in-advance” plans you can get it lowered to as little as $2.50.

Greenlight VS GoHenry

GoHenry is another popular debit card offer for kids. Below is our side by side comparison of the two offers.

Item	Greenlight	GoHenry
Monthly Fee	$4.99/family	$3.99/kid
ATM fees	$0	$1.50/ea
Allowance Payment/Control	Yes	Yes
Interest Distribution	Yes	No
Custom Card Design	$9.99	$4.99
Card Replacement Fee	Up to $3.50	$0 – $4.99

Depending on how many kids you have in your family, the GoHenry card may end up being more or less expensive. GoHenry charges a fee per kid rather than per family.

Greenlight beats FamZoo on the monthly costs, however, if you opt for FamZoo’s “pay-in-advance” plans you can get it lowered to as little as $2.50.

Greenlight VS BusyKid

BusyKid is a chore based app that allows parents to create chores and pay their child a weekly allowance through the app for completing them. They also have a prepaid debit card. The app is free but the associated card has some fees. Below is our side by side comparison of the BusyKid Visa Prepaid Debit Card and Greenlight.

Item	Greenlight	BusyKid
Monthly Fee	$4.99/family	$0 – 19.99/year
ATM fees	$0	Not Eligible
Allowance Payment/Control	Yes	Yes
Interest Distribution	Yes	No
Custom Card Design	$9.99	Not Offered
Card Replacement Fee	Up to $3.50	$5.00

Although the $19.99/year price may seem decent, this package only comes with one debit card. If you plan on adding more kids, it will cost $7.99/year for each additional card.

Greenlight Debit Card Potential Drawbacks

Of course, no product is without its disadvantages.

One disadvantage is that parents can’t load their Greenlight account with cash or a check. You may load your parent account via ACH transfer, direct deposit, debit card transaction, or Invest Account transfer from a DriveWealth broker-dealer account.

There are also restrictions on how much you may load to your account and how much may be added to a Greenlight card. You may only add up to $10,000 to your parent account (the primary account, called the Parent’s Wallet) and your child’s card may carry a balance of up to $5,000. Each transfer you make from the primary account to a kid’s account must be equal to at least $20 and may not exceed $500 per day (if loading by debit card transaction).

There is also the fact that there are no brick-and-mortar Greenlight Financial institutions. Greenlight cards are issued by Community Federal Savings Bank, but all account service takes place online.

Greenlight charges a monthly fee for use. However, the lowest price of $4.99/month is fairly standard for this type of account (a debit card for kids) and five kids included in this price is pretty generous. But if you want to avoid fees altogether, you may want to look into opening a checking account for your child with your bank or credit union which should come with a standard debit card.

Customer Sentiment

On paper, the Greenlight debit card for kids has few flaws. However, the feedback for this product from real-life customers tells a different story.

Many users complain about the support they receive from Greenlight customer service. Specifically, that it is slow and not always helpful. For example, some customers have reported being on the line for multiple hours waiting for phone support and others have voiced complaints about automatic transfers being delayed. Issues getting refunds after account closure are also somewhat common, and many past users indicate that closing an account is a difficult and time-consuming process.

That Greenlight’s customer service is lacking is a sentiment often expressed about this product on review platforms and a reason to pause and consider how important customer support is to you.

The Greenlight app has a rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars in the App Store and 3.9 out of 5 stars on Google Play. The general consensus is that the app is easy to use but that there are connectivity issues that sometimes cause problems when trying to make a transfer from a parent account to a kid’s card. Some users have complaints about the January 2021 update, but most find the interface satisfactory.

Is the Greenlight Debit Card Safe?

All deposit accounts with Greenlight are FDIC-insured up to the federally allowed limit of $250,000. Greenlight also keeps your family’s money safe by preventing your children from making purchases at vendors or via avenues deemed dangerous.

Just a few of the places your children will not be allowed to spend their money at with the Greenlight debit card include:

Casinos and other gambling sites
Massage parlors and dating services
Security brokers

Your kids will also be prohibited from making wire transfers or receiving cash back at store registers.

Identity theft protection is included with the Greenlight Max plan.

Also, if you plan on customizing the card for your kid(s) all photos and data that is uploaded is also encrypted.

How to Sign Up

To sign up for a Greenlight account, Start Here.

You will be asked to fill out your personal information, verify your identity, and add children to your plan. Then, you just load money into your wallet, at least $20, by linking your bank account or using your debit card. After your account has been verified and this transfer has gone through, you will receive your children’s cards in the mail (usually 7 and 10) and they can start spending.

Final Thoughts

Overall, the Greenlight debit card for kids is a good product. It comes with a lot of features to keep parents in control and plenty of safety protections. Its price point is about what you’d expect from a kids’ debit card and because five children are included in each plan, this is an especially good choice for families with multiple children.

Just be aware that you may not be satisfied with the customer service you receive from this company. Greenlight has some work to do in this department and should also consider allowing cash loading in the future.

GoHenry kids debit card – Cool new features for 2022!

Written by: Lauren Graves
Published February 8, 2022

The GoHenry debit card for kids is one of the most popular and well-advertised kids’ banking products on the market, and it was also one of the first. This company launched as the “world’s first financial education tool built for the digital generation” in 2012. The GoHenry debit card and app aims to provide users with a flexible and convenient fully-digital banking experience with a multitude of built-in learning opportunities.

GoHenry has over two million users in 2022, but will you become one of them?

Find out here if GoHenry is the right kids’ debit product for you and your child. Keep reading for a summary of product offerings, a description of advantages and disadvantages, and more.

You can also see how this card stacks up against the competition in our rundown of the best debit cards for kids and teens in 2022!

Who Is It For

Average age: 6-18

Good candidate: Parents that want oversight and children who are still forming or have not yet started forming spending behaviors of their own.

This card is ideal for families that not only need a debit card for their kids but are also interested in financial literacy resources. This product is designed to introduce users to money management, so it’s great for kids that fall within the beginner to intermediate category of this skill.

Features and Benefits

GoHenry gives parents a lot of control and customization opportunities and kids plenty of choices. After parents have set limits on spending, restrictions, and payouts, kids can use their GoHenry accounts to spend, earn, save, or even give their money.

For Parents

GoHenry allows for both a parent and a co-parent user, both of which have the ability to manage chores/tasks, pay allowance, and toggle settings.

There are a few ways parents/co-parents can pay into their kids’ accounts. First, they can pay them recurring weekly allowances at a fixed rate. These are released automatically each week.

Alternatively or in addition, they can pay their kids for assigned tasks they complete throughout the week. Parents can set prices for chores and assign these to their children in the GoHenry app. These can be one-time tasks or repeating tasks that reset each week.

Parents can load their own account by linking an external bank account or a debit card. Note that GoHenry limits free account loads to one per month. To keep their account funded, parents can choose to set up automatic withdrawals from their linked funding source into their GoHenry account whenever their balance falls below about $5.

As far as account management features between a parent and child account, GoHenry gives parents a range of customization options. For example, GoHenry Parents can restrict their kids’ spending in three ways. They can:

Set weekly spending limits across all spending categories
Set spending limits on single uses for what a child may spend at a time
Set ATM withdrawal limits
Disable peer-to-peer transactions

On top of these limits, parents may choose to prohibit their kids from using their cards to make ATM withdrawals at all. They can toggle these limits and restrictions from their side of the app. A parent may choose to disable the option for their children to donate as well.

Parents can also restrict their children from spending at certain types of merchants by going to the “Limits” section and choosing from “Where can you use your card” options. To help their children save, they might choose to “lock” savings goals to prohibit their child from making withdrawals from it before reaching their goals.

GoHenry parents can easily stay in the loop about their kids’ account activity. They can see when and how their children use their cards, resetting limits or locking/unlocking a card immediately with the press of a button. Many parents opt to receive push notifications whenever one of their kids uses their cards in real-time.

Each family subscription can have up to four kids’ accounts and it is possible for many adults to fund one account. Parents can invite trusted friends and family members to join the account and contribute money to the kids’. However, only one person—the parent and account owner—can manage chores/tasks and pay allowance.

For one-time gifting, parents can also share their child’s unique Giftlink with anyone they choose. Gifters can decide how much to give and leave a note for the child, choosing from over 30 card designs (the child can even ‘say thanks’ for a Giftlink and write a note back). No GoHenry account is required.

Finally, parents can see the Money Missions their children have completed and how they are progressing through the topics (more info about these in the next section) and even take the financial literacy quizzes themselves from their side of the app.

For Kids

Though parents are ultimately in control over when, how, and where a young user can spend their money, there are a lot of ways kids can use their debit cards and earnings.

💰 Earn: Kids can complete chores assigned by their parents to earn money and they may earn a weekly allowance in addition to this. They will be able to see which chores they have been assigned, which chores they have completed, and what each chore is worth.

Another way for kids to get more money into their account—aside from receiving transfers from their parents—is through Giftlinks. Giftlinks can be shared with family and friends, who can use them to transfer money instantly right into a child’s account.

Every child to an account gets their own debit card, and these can be customized for a small fee.

Teens may qualify to refer friends to receive $30, but referrals are subject to availability and users must have at least $5 in their account.

💸 Spend: GoHenry users can see how much they have to spend on their card from their dashboard, where they will also see their past transactions and savings. This debit card can be used almost anywhere Mastercard is accepted, except at establishments prohibited by GoHenry or parents (i.e. “over 18” merchants).

Kids may also use their cards at ATMs within the UK at no charge. There is a $120 daily withdrawal limit.

It is not possible for kids to spend more than the balance on their cards. GoHenry does not offer overdraft features on any of its accounts.

Teen users over the age of 13 or 16 (depending on the offer) may also qualify for offers such as sales on select brands when shopping through the app or Student Beans promotions.

Save: The GoHenry app encourages users to save their money with the ability to set savings goals. There is no limit to how many savings goals a child can set. The app displays a graphic representation of how close a user is to each of their goals.

Money put toward a savings goal cannot be spent until it is transferred back to the debit card, which can be done either by a child or their parent. When a savings goal is reached, its balance transfers automatically to the card associated with the account.

Give: GoHenry kids can also donate their money. GoHenry partners with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America to reach 4.3 million people per year, and GoHenry users can use money from their spending budget to give to charity. This is the only charity GoHenry account holders can donate directly to at this time.

Learn: The newest feature in the app, Money Missions allow users to complete interactive quizzes and watch videos in the app to learn financial literacy skills. When they complete a Mission, they earn points and badges to level up and unlock new Missions. Missions adhere to National Standards in K-12 Personal Finance Education and topics include:

Money basics
Jobs and earning
Saving habits
Spending wisely
Helping others
Money safety
Budgets and plans
Borrowing and credit
Intro to investing

How Much Does the GoHenry Debit Card Cost

First the good news. There are no fees for account inactivity, no fees for low balances, no reload fees for U.S. customers, no fees for transfers or cash reloads, no fees for online or offline card transactions, no overdraft fees and no fees for card replacement (unless customized).

Customized debit cards are $4.99.

ATM fees, however, are a little higher than other options on the market. It costs $1.50 per withdrawal.

If you are using the card abroad, transactions in foreign currencies will come with a 2.75% fee. International ATM withdrawals also have an additional $2 fee.

GoHenry is a subscription-based service that costs $3.99 per month, per child. This fee includes a debit card for every kid and access to every service and feature GoHenry offers (saving, Money Missions, etc.).

Try GoHenry for free for 30 days with a free trial. This service will automatically renew if you do not cancel after the trial expires, but you can cancel at any time.

Benefits of GoHenry Over Competitors

GoHenry has an edge over other debit cards for kids because it is comprehensive and easy to use, which makes it better for educating users about the value of money and the importance of using money wisely. Money Missions also make this product more fun and educational than most.

GoHenry gives kids a few ways to put their money to use, but it keeps parents in control. It strikes a nice middle ground between helping kids learn and exercise money management skills and giving parents the final say.

Another benefit of GoHenry is how many choices it gives both kids and parents—restrictions for parents, spending freedom for kids. Parents can set many types of spending controls as opposed to the single overall spending limit many similar products permit, and kids can use their money to spend, save, or donate to charity. While these options are fairly standard across the best kids’ debit cards, they’re still nice to see.

GoHenry also makes it easy for people other than parents to contribute to a child’s account. This is convenient for parents that are separated and for painless and safe cash gifting from family members and friends. Also convenient for families of all kinds is the ability to add a co-parent, which many similar products do not offer.

Potential Drawbacks

There are also a couple of things you might not love about the GoHenry debit card for kids. The first of these is the subscription fee. At $3.99 per month, per child, families with more than one kid will be spending over $100 a year for this service. There are few fees for account maintenance and use, but that subscription price is still not ideal.

Another drawback to this product is that it does little to incentivize saving or make it more convenient. It does not pay interest or allow parents to pay interest on the money kids save, and there is no feature that allows users to have their transactions rounded up and the excess added to their savings. These are handy features you’ll find with select debit cards for kids,

Funding options are limited compared to other similar options, allowing only ACH or debit card payments. GoHenry also has limited money transfer capabilities outside of GoHenry. A GoHenry debit card cannot be used with ApplePay, for example.

Consumer Sentiment

Most users have positive experiences with GoHenry. The majority praise GoHenry for being user-friendly and for building in features to help their kids learn to be financially responsible. Some report issues receiving promotional bonuses, using GiftLinks, and complain about a somewhat tedious cancellation process.

Overall, though, this company is responsive and easy to contact when you need to get a question answered or concern addressed.

To reach customer service, call any day of the week between 8 AM and 8 PM GMT at 1 (877) 372-6466. Customer support representatives are also available to live chat during these hours or respond to email inquiries.

This is a company that operates 100% digitally, so online experience is important. The GoHenry app has a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars on Google Play and 4.7 out of 5 stars in the App Store. It is reported to be more than functional and convenient to use, and it is packed with features for both parents and kids. It has a few bugs, but seems to be satisfactory for many users

Is It Safe

All GoHenry parents’ and kids’ checking accounts are FDIC insured up to the federally allowed maximum of $250,000.

GoHenry prohibits transactions through all of the following merchant categories:

Alcohol sales and consumption
Gambling and casinos
Adult entertainment
Tobacco sales
Dating and escort services
Automated fuel dispensers
Accounts are also protected by bank-standard chip encryption and 3D Secure (multi-factor authentication).

How to Sign Up

To sign up for a GoHenry account, you just need to download the GoHenry app and click “Sign Up.” You will be prompted to provide your personal details and add children to your account. They will each get to set their own PINs and get their own cards after they’ve been added.

You can load your parent GoHenry account via debit card or bank transfer. There is no option to make cash deposits. The minimum opening balance to fund an account is about $2.41. There is no minimum required deposit from a parent’s account into a child’s account.

Final Thoughts

GoHenry is a great choice for a lot of families and, with recent additions to the app, this is a strong contender for the top spot in kids banking. The price for subscriptions is reasonable, especially for how robust the app is. Free alternatives are available for those looking to save money, but you won’t find a free alternative that is as comprehensive as GoHenry.

GoHenry is easy for kids and parents to use and gives kids a moderate amount of agency, so this is good for parents of kids and young teens with little experience handling their own money. GoHenry may not be for you if you are looking for a low-cost product that offers funding flexibility and incentives for saving.

12 Best Savings Accounts for Kids and Teens in 2022

Written by: Lauren Graves
Published February 5, 2022

How do you teach kids to save their money when they’d rather spend it? Easier said than done.

The best way to show your kids the importance of saving their money is to give them a place where they can actually do it. Kids’ savings accounts are becoming more and more popular as parents work to teach financial independence at a young age. So with a number of great options for safe places to park your child’s cash, how do you choose which one is best?

We’ve picked out the best savings accounts for kids where they can practice saving with few risks and real benefits. Here are the top five accounts for different bottom lines and a handful of honorable mentions.

Best for Promo APY: Current Debit Card for Kids + Savings Account

Current is not actually a bank itself but a Fintech company that offers a Visa debit card for kids and as of January 2022, a savings account featuring a promotional APY (annual percentage yield) of 4.0%.

There are no minimum deposit or balance requirements, but the 4% yield is only paid on balances up to $2,000.

Because Current is not a bank, they have partnered with Choice Financial Group and Metropolitan Commercial Bank, who are both members FDIC.

This is a promotional offer and only available for a limited time.

Best for Earning Interest: Alliant Kids Savings Account

Alliant Credit Union is a popular and top-rated credit union with great high-yield online products and a positive customer experience. With competitive interest rates and minimal fees, its savings products are among the best and the Alliant Kids Savings Account is no exception. Choose this account if you want to reward your child with a high-interest rate when they save.

This joint savings account offers an interest rate of 0.55% for all balances at or above $100 (for the sake of comparison, the current national average savings rate sits at just 0.06%). This account is available to kids up to 12 years old who open this account with the help of a guardian or family member.

(Kids over the age of 12 should consider an Alliant High-Rate Savings account, which currently earns an interest rate of 0.55% as well).

A $5 deposit is required to open, but Alliant pays this on your child’s behalf. There are no monthly fees or penalties for low balances, only a $1 paper account statement fee. You can open as many savings accounts with your child as you like to help them set money aside for different purposes. Users can ask for Alliant Savings ATM Cards, which they can use to make fee-free deposits and withdrawals at Alliant ATMs.

Note that the joint owner, which can be a guardian or family member, must be an Alliant member. Anyone can join by becoming a member of Foster Care to Success for a one-time fee of $5.

As you will see, this is one of the best accounts across the board for the high-interest rate, flexibility, and ease of use.

Best for Learning to Save: Capital One Kids Savings Account

If you’re looking for a savings account to help teach your child the importance of saving, the Capital One Kids Savings Account is the account for you. This is a joint savings account that gives parents or guardians and kids equal access. It is available to kids of all ages.

This account earns an interest rate of 0.30% on all balances, compounded and credited monthly, so kids can start earning right away. There is no minimum monthly balance required to keep the account or earn interest, and there are no maintenance fees.

This account by Capital One has a few features that set it apart from others and make it one of our top picks. For example, your child can set savings goals within one account or you can even open different accounts for them for different goals. They can see their progress from their side of the Capital One app and easily make transfers and mobile check deposits as well.

You can also help them save automatically by having their allowance sent directly to their savings account from your linked savings or checking account. Log into the account from your side to set up recurring transfers.

When a child turns 18, this account automatically converts into a 360 Savings account and begins earning that interest rate. Your child may decide whether to keep you as a joint owner on the new account or not.

Although this savings option doesn’t offer the highest rate on our list, it does have an excellent app for a great mobile experience for you and your child and a number of features to help your child grasp the basics of savings.

Best for Saving for Your Child: Ally Bank Online Savings Account

You’ve heard of online-only Ally Bank and its online-only high-yield deposit accounts, but maybe you haven’t looked into opening one for your child. If you want to open an account on your child’s behalf and show them an example of responsible saving, you can’t do much better than an Ally Bank Online Savings account. You open it for your child and it transfers into their name when they are no longer a minor.

This account earns 0.50% on all balances and can be opened with any amount of money. There is no minimum balance requirement or monthly maintenance fee.

The main benefit of this account is that it helps you save more easily with handy features for passive growth. You can schedule recurring transfers from a linked account, enable Round-Ups to have your transactions rounded up to the nearest dollar and the extra deposited automatically to your savings, and/or enable Surprise Savings to have your checking account analyzed for money that you won’t miss and send it to your savings. You can also organize your savings into buckets to put away funds for different purposes.

This is not a joint bank account, so it’s up to you what role your child plays in their savings. Your child won’t have as much access to this account as they would others on this list, making it a good choice if you have time to spend walking them through your choices and teaching them good habits–or if you just want to do the saving for them. You can involve them as much or as little as they are ready for.

Best for All-in-One Money Management: Greenlight Kids

We’ve talked about the Greenlight Kids Debit card and app many times, but today we’re focusing on the savings side. This product is best for your child if they are completely new to saving because the user-friendly app makes it easy. It is also ideal if you want your child to be able to manage all of their money in one place, from their spending to their savings and even investing.

Greenlight users have the option to set goals for their savings and can enable Round Ups to have their purchases rounded up to the nearest dollar and the change deposited automatically into their savings. Both parents and children can see saving goals.

One thing that sets Greenlight apart from other savings products is that parents can get involved. You may decide to help them save by scheduling a percentage of their allowance to be added to their savings or even paying interest on their balance to encourage good habits. Once you set the percentage, the amount is automatically transferred from your linked account to your child’s savings.

Greenlight also pays interest on the balance in your child’s general savings and savings goals. The rate for users with the Greenlight and Greenlight + Invest Plan is 1.00% and for users with the Greenlight Max Plan is 2.00%. $5,000 is the maximum balance eligible to earn interest at this rate.

This isn’t a traditional savings account. You have to purchase a plan in order for your child to use the app, but you can cancel at any time and there are no other fees. A subscription starts at $4.99 a month for up to five kids’ accounts. The most basic plan, the Greenlight Plan, gives them access to all saving, spending, and giving features but does not include investing.

Best for Low Balances: MySavings Youth Account Spectrum Credit Union

The MySavings Youth account by Spectrum Credit Union takes the cake as our top pick for low balance saving. If you want to get your child started learning the importance of saving and want to make their initial experience extremely rewarding, this is the perfect account for your family. We especially recommend this one for people who are already members of the credit union.

For this joint account, your child is the Primary Member and you are a joint account owner. They must be under the age of 21 to be eligible for this account. This account earns an APY of 7.00% on all balances up to and including $1,000 and the Primary Share Savings rate on the portion of the balance that exceeds this. This rate is currently 0.30%, so definitely still competitive even if your child maintains a higher balance.

There is no minimum required balance to earn interest and there are no fees for low balances or monthly maintenance. Users over the age of 13 qualify for ATM cards that can be used to make up to six transactions into or out of this account per statement period.

You must be a member of Spectrum Credit Union to open a MySavings Youth account on a child’s behalf. Anyone can join by becoming a member of a Spectrum Credit Union nonprofit partner including the Financial Fitness Association, the Navy League of the United States, and the Contra Costa County Historical Society. Limit one youth savings account per credit union member.

PNC “S” is for Savings Account

As you can probably tell from the name, the PNC Bank “S” is for Savings kids account is geared toward a younger demographic than most of the others. This is a great account for actually giving your child the resources they need to learn about money and making their introduction to saving fun.

This account is unique because it offers more educational resources than the others on this list. In addition to a thoughtful platform with graphics that are clear and engaging, there is a Learning Center featuring characters from Sesame Street. Here, your child has access to activities led by the characters that teach basic money management concepts in a format they’ll enjoy. These interactive resources are free to use.

You can make unlimited deposits into this account and help your child save by activating Auto Savings, which will automatically withdraw money from your PNC checking account and deposit it into this account.

The only downside is that this account earns next to no interest, so it’s really best if you’re looking for something educational for your child and don’t expect them to keep a high balance. Currently, all balances over $1 earn an APY of 0.01%.

There is a monthly service fee of $5, but it is waived for users under the age of 18. Once your child turns 18, they can choose to keep the account open but will need to maintain a balance of at least $300 or schedule monthly Auto Savings transfers of at least $25 from another linked account to avoid the fee.

USALLIANCE Financial MyLife Savings for Kids Account

Is your child under the age of 13 and interested in learning to save? The MyLife Savings for Kids account by USALLIANCE Financial might be the account for them if you eventually want to help them make the transition from a kids account to a teen savings account. However, we recommend this account for low balances only.

This account earns an APY of 2.00% on balances up to $500 and 0.02% on the portion of a balance in excess of this maximum.

The MyLife Savings for Kids account does not require a minimum opening deposit. There are also no minimum balance requirements to earn interest and no maintenance fees to worry about. Your child will receive $10 in Birthday Bucks every year deposited into their account.

USALLIANCE Financial offers both a MyLife Savings for Kids account, the one we’re reviewing now, and a MyLife Savings account open to users over the age of 13. The MyLife Savings account earns the same rates mentioned above.

You must be a member of USALLIANCE Financial credit union to open a MyLife Savings for Kids account on your child’s behalf. Anyone is eligible to join. You can become a member by

BECU Early Saver Youth Account

BECU, originally Boeing Employees’ Credit Union, offers an Early Saver Youth account that pays a 2.02% interest rate on balances up to $500 and 0.02% on the portion of a balance in excess of this. This account is owned jointly between you and your child. Users over the age of 13 years are eligible to access full online and mobile banking features.

There are no minimum deposit requirements, daily balance requirements, or monthly service fees. This account comes with a free ATM card that your child can use surcharge-free at in-network ATMs. When a user turns 18, they can choose to convert this account into a checking or savings account and leave you on the account as a joint owner or remove your name and access.

Membership is open to people in select counties across the state of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, employees of Boeing, and employees of select universities and credit unions. If you qualify for membership, you can become a member by opening a free online account. Note that you may open only one Early Saver Youth account per child.

Northpointe Bank Kids Savings

The Kids Savings account by Northpointe Bank uses a tiered interest structure. It earns 1.50% interest on balances up to and including $1,000, 1.11% on balances between $1,000.01 and $9,999.99, and 0.34% on balances over $10,000.

A minimum opening deposit of $10 is required to open this account but any positive balance will earn interest (compounded daily). There are no monthly maintenance or low balance fees. We recommend this account for higher balances as the interest rate after the first $1,000 is more competitive than most.

There is no ATM card available but up to six withdrawals are permitted when you transfer money from this account to a linked bank account.

Northpointe Bank has branch locations across the country, but you and your child can also manage this account completely online. Your child can access their account by signing into Northpointe’s site or logging into the app.

Pen Air Federal Credit Union Level UP Savings Account

Are you a member of Pen Air Federal Credit Union? If you are, maybe you’re familiar with their Level UP Minor accounts which include a saving and spending account. Maybe you already know that the Level UP Savings account pays an interest rate of 0.40% on all balances over $25.

Kids of all ages (under 18 years old) qualify for this account. A minimum opening deposit and average daily balance of $25 is required. If the balance falls below this, the account will not earn interest but no fees will be charged.

Your child can set milestone savings goals for themselves and might be awarded account bonuses by Pen Air when they reach their goals (subject to availability). Otherwise, this is a pretty basic savings account. It is free to use but there are limited resources and features for helping your child learn about saving. You may choose this one if you are already a member of Pen Air.

Pen Air Federal Credit Union restricts membership to active duty and retired military personnel, civil service employees, employees of partner employer groups, and family members of these groups. There are a lot of partner employer groups, but you probably won’t qualify if you don’t work in retail or live in Florida.

Wells Fargo Way2Save Savings Account

The oldest traditional bank on our list, Wells Fargo, has a kids savings account worth checking out if your child is 13 years old or older. The Wells Fargo Way2Save Savings account, though not designed for kids specifically, requires a minimum opening deposit of $25 and earns an interest rate of 0.01%.

There are a few options for how you want to distribute ownership of this account. When you open this account on your child’s behalf, they become the owner and you become a joint owner. Alternatively, you may choose to make this a custodial account that makes you the sole custodian until your child turns 18 years old under the Uniform Transfers/Gifts to Minors Act. The third and final option is Minor by ownership, which puts your child as the account’s owner but does not give them access to the account until they turn 18.

There is no minimum age requirement for this account, but users under the age of 13 are not eligible to use online banking.

This is a good option if you are just looking for a safe place for your child to put their money but not ideal if you’re hoping to help them grow their balance as the interest rate is so poor. We only recommend this option if you are already a Wells Fargo member and want in-person branch access.

Final Thoughts

Online banks and credit unions tend to offer the best kids saving products. From competitive interest rates to kid-friendly platforms, there are so many great savings accounts for kids to choose from. Help your child learn the importance of saving their money and have fun doing it by opening a savings account for them now.

We hope this article helps you find the perfect savings product for your child.

Current Visa Debit Card – Now with Savings of 4.0% APY!

Written by: Lauren Graves
Published February 4, 2022

[Update February 2022: Current now offers a savings account featuring an APY of 4.0% on balances up to $2,000. Read more below.]

Current was founded in 2015 as a modern solution to an age-old problem of inaccessibility in banking. By taking advantage of innovative technology and creating transparency in their products, Current’s goal is to make banking easier and more flexible. And it seems to have accomplished that, especially with its teen bank account.

The Current Visa debit card for kids aims to find that middle ground between giving teens the financial independence they crave and parents the ability to steer them in the right direction. This is a product that gets it right in a lot of ways, and we’ll talk about those—as well as how the Current debit card potentially falls short—here.

After reading our review of the Current Visa Debit card you might want to see where it stacks up against the competition in our rundown of the best debit cards for kids and teens in 2021.

Who’s It For

Average age: 13-18

Good Candidate: Teens that earn an allowance and want to spend, save, and donate their money.

There is no minimum age requirement for this product, so teens of all ages are welcome. The Current app is easy enough for younger teens to use and comprehensive enough for older teens to benefit from.

There are a lot of ways teens can use their money besides just spending and a lot of ways for parents to intervene.

Features and Benefits

Kids with Current debit cards can spend, save, or give their money. Parents can oversee all of their kids’ activity, step in when they want to offer guidance, and easily transfer funds between accounts.

The Current banking experience is something between a traditional checking account and a checking account for kids. Teens can earn allowance and move their money into different categories, options you’ll commonly see with debit products for kids, but will be able to use their card in more ways than less sophisticated products allow (i.e. Apple Pay and Current Pay).

For Parents

Parents can easily pay their teens for completed chores through the Current app. They can set chores for their teens at their desired price, see what chores their teens have completed, and approve chores for payment. Allowance for these can be paid out on a daily, weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis.

Chores are assigned and paid on a weekly basis. Parents can create a list of chores for their kids to complete in their own time throughout the week. Chore payments and allowance payments are not related. If a teen doesn’t complete all of their assigned chores, their parents may choose to pay them less for chores that week.

Multiple parents are eligible to manage and contribute money to one teen account. Co-parents can have their own chores lists, allowances, funding sources, etc.

Transferring money from a parent account to a teen account is easy and instant. Once parents have set up funding into their own account and their teen has registered for Current themselves, the parent can link to their teen’s account by selecting this option from their screen and sharing the code with their child. Parents can initiate withdrawals from their funding account into their Current account from the Current app.

Parents may qualify for instant transfers if their Current account is in good standing and they have made several successful transfers in the past.

Parents can control their kids’ spending by prohibiting them from making purchases at specific merchants, setting overall spending limits, or turning their card off from the app.

Many parents also choose to receive account alerts. With these, they will receive push notifications showing when and where their child is using their money.

For Kids

Teens have a lot of flexibility in how they use the money in their Current account and their experience is highly customizable.

💰 Earning: To earn more money, teens can complete chores and mark them complete through the Current app. Teens can also request chores for themselves. If a teen would like additional help funding their account outside of allowance and chore completion, they can send a request to their parent or parents for the amount they need. If their parent(s) approve, this money will be transferred from the parent’s wallet to the kid’s.

Current users can send and request money between their accounts using Current Pay. This is a free P2P feature that gives users QR codes they can use to either pay someone money or request money from them. Current users can also find each other by searching their names through the app.

Teens can link direct deposit to their account if they are earning money for themselves or use the mobile check deposit feature to fund their account with paper checks.

💸 Spending: Teens cannot spend or withdraw more than what is available on their card, and only funds not in a Savings or Giving Pod can be spent. Users can withdraw funds at no cost from any Visa Interlink or Maestro ATM. There are over 55,000 ATMs that are free to Current users. Users can also withdraw cash from merchants that are part of Visa’s Interlink or Maestro network.

There is a maximum daily purchase limit of $2,000, a maximum ATM withdrawal limit of $500, and a $5,000 limit for Current Pay transactions.

A Current debit card can be used almost anywhere Visa is accepted. Users can also use their cards through Apple Pay. Teens can lock and unlock their cards from the app.

🤑 Saving: As of February 2022, you can earn a whopping 4.0% APY on balances up to $2,000! The account is FDIC-insured up to the applicable limits. To put this yield in perspective, the current national average for a savings account sits at just 0.06% according to recent FDIC data.

Teens can save money easily with Current by setting savings goals. Funds allocated to a Savings Pod are not eligible to be spent using the Current debit card. After a user reaches a savings goal, they can move the money into their available checking account balance to spend.

Giving: Teens can also donate their money by moving funds into their Giving Balance. They can then select from a number of pre-chosen charities and set goals toward their charity or charities of choice. Much like the Savings Pods, they will be able to see their progress toward a given goal from their Current account and see all transactions toward them.

Another great feature for saving or donating is the Round Up setting. By enabling this, teens can save or donate a little money every time they spend. This feature rounds all transactions up to the nearest dollar and automatically deposits this money into either a Saving or Giving goal. Teens can choose which of their goals they’d like round ups to go toward and change this as needed.

Users can move their money to different pods at any time, no parent approval required.

Current Debit Card Cost(s) and Fees

Fees: No fees for low balance, no fee for inactivity, no fees for transfers, no fees for overdrafts, no fee for transactions at in-network ATMs, up to $2.50 per transaction at out-of-network ATMs, $5 per replacement card.

The subscription fee for the Current debit card is $36 per teen, charged annually. This is a flat rate that includes all Current services and products for your kids—every teen gets their own card and account—, and cannot be waived.

Give the 30-day free trial a shot if you want to see if the product is worth this price.

Current VS Competitors

Current beats its competition in a few important ways.

The first one is the round up feature. Although not something offered by many traditional checking accounts, this option will make it easier for teens to reach their goals. It will help them get into the habit of putting money away toward saving and giving before they have a checking account by themselves and no longer have this feature built in.

Another pro to the Current debit card for kids is how much control it gives parents. By letting them set spending limits, merchant restrictions, and chores and allowances, Current allows parents to play a more active role in their kids’ spending than other products like it.

Current also has flexibility for teen users going for it. Teens can spend, save, or give their money to charity easily through the app and use their card to make purchases in-person or online, withdraw money from an ATM, link to Apple Pay, or transfer money to or accept money from other Current users.

Current is straightforward with its pricing structure as well. Although an annual fee of $36 is not ideal, this account doesn’t come with unnecessary fees for things like card reloads or declined transactions due to low balance.

The 4.0% APY on savings up to $2,000 is also a feature that no other debit card product offers currently. Especially our historically low interest rate environment, this is a pleasant surprise to see.

Potential Drawbacks

One of the main disadvantages of Current is the price. The subscription fee may also turn some families away, especially families with multiple teens. Many banks offer the ability to link a teen to a checking account for free, though this usually comes with fewer features and customization capabilities.

Another disadvantage of the Current debit card is that it’s not like a regular checking account. Although this is a product geared toward teens, it is actually pretty similar to products geared toward kids in that it lets users put their money in different buckets, complete chores, and the like. Current will probably help your kids become more responsible, but it won’t give them an accurate depiction of how adult checking accounts typically operate, if that’s your goal.

Consumer Sentiment

Current seems to do pretty well in the customer service department, though this wasn’t always the case. If you go to review boards, you will see complaints from a few years back about trouble reaching customer service representatives and issues with suspicious account activity. Today, however, users praise Current’s customer service—which the company seems to have corrected—and its level of security.

The Current mobile app is eye-catching and well organized. Its minimalistic design makes it easy to find what you’re looking for and use different features. This app has a rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars on Google Play and 4.7 out of 5 stars in the App Store.

To reach Current customer support, you can email support@current.com or call 1 (888) 851-1172 Monday through Friday between 9 AM and 6 PM. You can also chat with an agent live through the app 24/7 Monday through Friday or between 9 AM and 8 PM EST on Saturday and Sunday

Is It Safe

All Current checking accounts are covered by up to $250,000 of FDIC insurance.

Current also uses both fingerprint and facial recognition software to protect each account.

You are not liable to pay for unauthorized transactions as long as you notify Current of suspicious activity within two days. Otherwise, you may pay up to $500.

How to Sign Up

To sign up for a parent Current account, enter your phone number on the Current home page and you will be sent a link to finish registering. You’ll just need to enter your personal information, no credit check required. You will be automatically enrolled in the 30-day free trial when you register.

Your teen will need to sign up for an account too. One you have both registered, you can link your account with your teen’s and start giving them money, assigning them chores, etc. You’ll need to pay the annual fee for every teen you add after linking your accounts.

You can add cash via:

ACH transfer
Direct deposit
PayPal transfer or
Bill pay

There is no minimum balance required at any time for your account or your teen’s, but there is a maximum balance of $10,000 for a teen’s account.

Final Thoughts

Current is a great joint checking account for parents and teens. Both kids and their parents are likely to be happy with the options they are afforded by Current—freedom for the teens and control for the parents—, and this is a modern product that can be used in a number of ways. If a checking account with a debit card is more appealing to your family than a more restrictive prepaid debit card, then Current is a good place to start your search.

For its reasonable terms and transparency with pricing, Current is an excellent option all around.

Alliant Credit Union Teen Checking Account with Debit Card

Written by: Lauren Graves
Published September 9, 2021

Alliant Credit Union is a name you’ve heard before. A lot of our readers are Alliant customers and we’ve had the opportunity to review several products from this institution in the past. Today, we’re reviewing an account just for teens.

The Alliant Teen Checking Account With Debit Card is an interest-bearing joint checking account for families with teens. It is a free account geared toward young adults that lets users deposit their own money, make payments and transfers, and earn interest on whatever they don’t spend. You’ll have a better idea of whether or not this is the right account for your teen after reading this article.

[Related: See how the Alliant Teen Checking Account and debit card compare to the best debit cards for kids and teens in 2021!]

Who’s It For

Target age: Teens between the ages of 13 and 17

Good candidate: Teens who want to save money and will use their accounts regularly

Because this account earns interest, it makes the most sense for teens who want to start putting away money and growing their wealth. A teen shares ownership of this account with a parent or guardian but the teen is the primary account owner and the parent is the joint owner. There are certain permissions granted to either the joint or primary owner and certain permissions granted to both people on the account.

When a user turns 18, this checking account automatically converts to a standard Alliant Checking account. Both joint owners will remain on the account but the teen may remove their parent as an owner. Spending limits and rates will increase accordingly and a new debit card will be issued.

Features and Benefits

There are no minimum balance or opening deposit requirements for this account. Although a teen is the primary account owner, their parent has more control.

For Kids

A teen needs to be a member of Alliant in order to qualify for a checking account and debit card. They will automatically qualify for membership if their parent or guardian, or another immediate family member, is a member. Teens and parents must sign up for this account together.

💰 Earn: Teens who are employed can deposit paychecks through the mobile app or set up direct deposit transfers into their accounts.

This platform does not give teens the option to directly request money to be transferred from their parents and teens are not able to refer friends to earn cash. Teens may receive an allowance from their parent(s) in the form of a recurring payment, but that is one of the only ways to earn more money.

💸 Spend: Every Alliant Teen Checking Account includes a contactless Visa debit card that can be used almost anywhere Visa is accepted. This debit card can also be used to withdraw funds at more than 80,000 in-network ATMs. If a teen uses an out-of-network ATM and incurs fees doing so, they are eligible for up to $20 in rebates per month.

ATM withdrawals are limited to $100 cash per day and POS transactions are limited to $300 per day.

Teens can write checks using their accounts, but their parent(s) must be the one to order and reorder the checks.

Teens are not permitted to make ACH transfers, but there are many ways they can transfer money to friends. This account and debit card are compatible with Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay and can also be linked with digital P2P payment apps including Cash App, Venmo, and PayPal.

This platform does not have budgeting features such as the option to create buckets for different types of spending, but teens can analyze their spending habits using the monthly spending summary. They also cannot set aside money to be saved or set savings goals and track their progress.

💰 Save: The Alliant Teen Checking account pays an interest rate of 0.25% APY on all balances.

To qualify for this interest rate, a teen must make at least one electronic deposit per month and opt into digital eStatements and out of paper statements. Direct deposits, ACH transfers from external banks, mobile check deposits, and ATM deposits all qualify a user to receive interest. Interest payments are made on the last day of every month.

Before a parent can see all of their teen’s account information, the teen must grant them access to their account. They can do this by logging into the app and selecting “Account Details” from the sidebar. From there, they should click “Manage Joint Owners,” “Manage Online Access,” and choose their checking account. This will grant their parent(s) the ability to view activity on this account from their banking portal.

For Parents

Once a parent has been given permission to view their teen’s activity, they can monitor their spending by opting into transaction alerts. They can also view their teen’s monthly transaction summary to see how much money their teen has spent and where.

If a parent has a different checking or savings account with Alliant, they can link this account to fund their teen’s checking account. Alternatively, they can link external bank accounts and transfer money from this. They have the option to initiate one-time transfers or schedule recurring transfers from their funding account to their joint account. For recurring transfers, they can specify (and change at any time) frequencies, amounts, and dates.

Parents can also fund the account via ACH transfer from an external bank, direct deposit, check deposit, or credit or debit card transaction. Only the joint owner, the parent or guardian, may initiate standard outgoing ACH transfers.

As an adult joint account owner, the parent serves as the primary account contact and has account and management permissions that the teen does not. For example, the joint account owner is responsible for managing Overdraft Protection, meaning that they will need to decide whether to activate this feature. Though this feature is free for all account holders, it needs to be initiated to go into effect.

When Overdraft Protection is enabled, funds are automatically withdrawn from a linked savings account to cover transactions for which the checking account balance is not sufficient. When not enabled, overdrafting is not authorized and transactions are declined.

Likewise, only a parent can order checks for their teen’s account. The first box of checks is free when an account is opened. Both joint account owners and primary account owners (teens) can dispute transactions, but the joint account owner needs to sign off on any documentation and will be the main line of communication as Alliant works to resolve the dispute.

How Much Does the Alliant Teen Checking Account Cost

💸 Fees:

$0 monthly maintenance fee,
$0 low balance fee,
$0 for ACH transfers,
$1 per paper statement,
$10 inactivity fee,
$10 dormant account fee,
$0 for replacement debit card,
$0 for the first order of checks,
$25 non-sufficient funds fee,
$25 outgoing domestic wire transfer

Users are encouraged to opt out of receiving paper statements and into digital statements, which are also required to earn interest (along with monthly transactions). And as long as you’re making at least one transaction into or out of this account per month, you can also avoid the inactivity and dormant account fees.

As of August 2021, teens will not be required to pay non-sufficient funds fees when they overdraw their accounts. If an account is overdrawn to pay for a transaction and this results in a negative balance, a user may see a $25 fee charged to their account, but it will be automatically refunded in a day or two.

Benefits of Alliant VS Competitors

We recommend this product to families who want a free account, which can be achieved by making regular deposits or transfers and receiving electronic statements. Alliant doesn’t charge for much at all.

Another benefit of this product over others is transfer flexibility and cash access. Teen users can send money easily to their friends via most mobile payment apps and make cash withdrawals at thousands of in-network ATMs. Alliant even reimburses ATM fees.

Potential Drawbacks

But although teens can access and send their money no problem, other account features are rather limited. There are no budgeting or savings features built into the platform, and users can’t separate their money into saving and spending categories. To really get the most out of their first checking account, teens will need to work together with their parents to review their spending and create budgeting and saving strategies or even open a separate savings account. We’re sure most families would prefer doing all of this from one account.

Teen users may also find this account’s spending and withdrawal limits to be pretty restrictive because Alliant sets pretty low daily maximums on these activities. Customers can only withdraw up to $100 in cash per day, which could leave teens in a pinch when they probably got a checking account for spending freedom in the first place.

On the parents’ side, controls are also fairly limited. Parents cannot prevent their teens from making purchases at certain merchants by creating restrictions, changing overall spending limits, or setting caps for different spend categories. They also can’t reinforce good habits such as saving with incentives such as account bonuses, balance matching, etc.

Consumer Sentiment

Reviews from Alliant customers are mixed. Many users have had negative experiences with customer service representatives who did not know how to help solve problems or came across as unprofessional. Communicating issues to users also seems to be a fairly common problem for this institution, with numerous users saying that they’ve had their accounts locked, transfers canceled, etc. without warning.

On the flip side, just as many users and long-time Alliant members report positive experiences overall with the credit union and customer service interactions they’ve had.

The Alliant mobile app has a rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars on Google Play and 4.7 out of 5 stars in the App Store. The app has been called glitchy, but the vast majority of users are satisfied. The app interface is pretty standard for a banking app and is sleek and easy to use.

You can call Alliant’s customer service line at 800-328-1935. Or, you can send a secure email by logging into your account or ping Alliant on Twitter with non-urgent inquiries.

Some customers choose to do certain parts of their banking over the phone. If you choose to do this, just be aware that Phone Banking can incur fees that online or mobile banking would not (for example, an ACH transfer initiated online is free but costs $10 to initiate over the phone).

Is It Safe

All Alliant Teen Checking accounts are insured up to $250,000 by the NCUA. Alliant also provides 24/7 fraud protection to all members, free of charge. Still, users are required to alert the credit union immediately when they notice suspicious activity to avoid paying for transactions they did not authorize.

How to Sign Up

To get started opening an Alliant Teen Checking account, you must first be a member of the credit union. You may be eligible if you are employed by a business that partners with Alliant, are married or related to another Alliant member, or work in a community surrounding Chicago such as Franklin Park, Elmhurst, or Prospect Heights.

If the above criteria doesn’t fit your circumstance, you can also join Alliant Credit Union by becoming a member of Foster Care to Success (FC2S). FC2S serves thousands of foster teens across the United States, focusing on those who are aging out of the foster care system. FC2S awards grants and scholarships for higher education and provides care packages, mentoring and internships. (Alliant will pay a $5 membership fee to FC2S on the member’s behalf.)

Once you’ve joined Alliant Credit Union, your teen will also need to become a member — either before you begin opening an account or when you start the application process.

You can then open an account on their behalf.

Final Thoughts

The Alliant Teen Checking account could be more collaborative and lacks some of the features you might be looking for, but it’s a fair option overall. If you’re looking for the most comprehensive platform with no shortage of educational resources and controls, keep looking. But if you want an account that will allow your teen to earn interest on the money they put away and give them the freedom to ditch cash, this might be the checking account and debit card for you.