Best Debit Cards For Kids (Guide For Parents)

Do you forget to give your kids their allowance – or worse, not have the cash on hand to give them when needed? Listen up, parents, because paying allowance and helping your kids learn some helpful money skills just got a whole lot easier! Check out my top recommendations for debit cards for kids!

I remember getting an allowance as a kid – my mom would give me a couple of dollars in cash every week.

Unfortunately, times have changed and I hardly ever carry cash anymore, so paying 3 kids cash allowance every week just wasn’t feasible for me (as proven by the 18-month stretch where I forgot to give my kids allowance!).

My friend told me about debit cards for kids. She was having the same problem and came across an ad. As she was telling me about it, I just kept thinking: “oh that would be SO much easier than what I do!” (and my kids would like it a lot more, too!)

So I started researching.

As it turns out, there are now several options for debit cards for kids! And I can say that, without a doubt, this is a game-changer! Debit cards for kids make it so much easier to teach money management skills in a real-life way.

Teach Money Skills While Still Maintaining Control

If you are on the hunt for a great way to help teach your child how to manage their money, debit cards for kids could be the answer for you. It has been for me!

Kids can’t own a checking account until they’re older (15+), and a true debit card comes with its own set of challenges (overdraw fees, etc).

This is a perfect hybrid option for kids from 6 years old through high school (or college!): prepaid debit cards for kids.

How Do Debit Cards For Kids Work?

In the real world, most people don’t carry a lot of cash around – they use debit cards. But traditional debit cards carry risks – such as overdrawing balances, fees, and identity theft.

Debit cards for kids have the benefits and freedoms of debit cards while providing some protections for kids.

And I’ve LOVING it because it helps kids learn modern-day money management skills from a young age without waiting until they get their first credit card in college and rack up huge amounts of debt.

As they earn their allowance (or receive birthday money or money for odd jobs for friends and family), you can load the debit cards. From there, they can save or spend strategically. Once they run out of money on the card, they will not be able to spend any more money.

Since they can’t overspend, there are no additional bank fees to pay, etc.

This method can help teach them to save up for what they want, manage how much they have spent, and keep track of how much they have saved.

Plus, no matter which debit card you pick for your kids, everything is accessible in an app that both you and your kids can access anytime!

10 Fantastic Debits Card For Kids

What is the best debit card for kids? Well, friends, I’ve done a ton of research, and I’m going to share with you my pick at the end of this post (otherwise you might not read the other options and potentially find a better option for your family!).

1. BusyKid

• Age: 5-16 years
• Fees: $4 a month for up to 5 cards

With BusyKid, you can easily set an allowance that will be automatically transferred to the card after it has been confirmed by you. The Activity Feed allows parents and kids to track every transaction, including anything done on the card.

The Busy Pay feature allows grandparents, friends, or neighbors to add money to a child’s BusyKid account – think of the possibilities! Now, birthday gift money, babysitting money, and lawn mowing money can be paid (and received) very easily.

BusyKid also helps kids learn the importance of giving back by donating a percentage of their allowance to charity.

While many debit cards for kids are backed by Mastercard, BusyKid is a Visa.

2. Greenlight

• Age: no minimum age
• Fees: $5.99/mo for the entire family

Probably one of the most well-known debit cards for kids, Greenlight is controlled by a powerful stand-alone app that will allow you to send a weekly allowance and bonus money to the card.

The Greenlight debit card for kids is mobile app-based with separate logins for kids and parents.

Once you create a Greenlight account, parents can assign chores, set up recurring allowance transfers, and restrict purchases from certain retailers. You can also make instant transfers, set up real-time notifications, and pay interest on your kids’ savings. The parental controls are fantastic and easy to use from the cell phone!

The app is designed to teach financial responsibility. Kids can set savings goals and divvy funds up between their Spend, Save, and Give accounts.

In addition, your Greenlight subscription will give them access to educational resources and allow them to check tasks off their chore list to earn parent-assigned perks.

You can also control where your kid can spend money and allocate percentages to money “buckets” to encourage saving and charitable giving. Kids can even set goals for a large purchase or for spending money for a family vacation!

BONUS: Earn $30 when you sign up for a Greenlight card! With the money app and debit card for kids and teens, we can send our kids money instantly, assign chores, and teach them to earn, save, and invest.

GET $30 BONUS + A FREE MONTH HERE!

3. FamZoo Prepaid Debit Card

• Age: no minimum age
• Fees: $5.99 for the family

FamZoo is a prepaid Mastercard that is set up specifically for the purpose of helping young people learn valuable money skills. It was one of the earliest options available and is still one of the very best.

I have found it supremely convenient to implement regular allowance, transfer funds to kid accounts when needed, set up rewards for chores, encourage saving through adding interest to savings account. It’s a terrific product.

You can set up the app to give spending notifications and allow kids to access their money with their own devices.

GET ONE MONTH FREE HERE!

4. Current

• Age: 13+
• Fees: $36 per teen per year

Current will give you the opportunity to set spending limits, block specific merchants (think gaming sites), and offer instant money transfers. You can also set this debit card for kids up to receive instant spending notifications.

Parents can make free, instant transfers to the teen account and get notifications for all purchases.

Teens will get their own Current debit card and can make purchases wherever Visa is accepted.

There are budgeting and money management tools, and teens can build up their savings with round-ups and savings pods. There’s also an option to learn about charitable giving by donating to select charities.

The Current Teen Banking account costs $36 per year (per teen), and there are no fees for overdrafts, low balances, transfers, or account inactivity.

Rakuten members get $30 to try out the Current debit card. Not a Rakuten member? Get a $30 cash back bonus just for trying out Rakuten!

5. Acorns Early (Previously GoHenry)

• Age: 6-18
• Fees: $5 per child (or $10 for 2-4 kids) per month.

Acorns offers a full-featured chip debit card for kids that can help them learn financial literacy. As a parent, you can set up different child accounts that you can put money into when needed.

This debit card allows parents to set spending limits, track purchases and assign allowance payments for chores. It also integrates seamlessly with the Acorns app and allows parents to transfer funds or set up recurring contributions to an investment account.

There’s a parent account that is linked to each child’s account, which you can manage from the mobile app or website.

NOTE: If you have a Rakuten account (sign up and get a $30 bonus just for trying it out!), you’ll get up to $20 back on Acorns!

6. Capital One Money Card

• Age: 8+
• Fees: no fees or balance requirements

With Capital One’s debit card for kids, parents can set up alerts, lock/unlock kid’s debit card, schedule automatic allowance, and reward kids for meeting their savings goals

This account stands out because it’s a full-fledged checking account that earns a modest amount of interest on your balance and doesn’t have a minimum balance requirement. It also doesn’t charge any monthly, foreign transaction, transfer fees, or additional fees.

7. Venmo Debit Card For Teens

• Age: 13- 17
• Fees: There is no application fee, no monthly fee, and no minimum balance for the Venmo Teen Debit Card. However there may be other fees. 

Parents are the account owner and can grant their teen access to the Venmo app. Teens can use Venmo to monitor their spending, view the account balance, and pay and request money from friends on Venmo—all with a direct line of sight from parents.

Parents hold the primary account and can lock/unlock the Teen Debit Card, monitor the Teen Account balance from their Venmo account, and receive notifications on account activity. All teen transactions default to private, and only guardians can update privacy settings in the app.

Teen Accounts have separate balances and can spend the balance anywhere Mastercard is accepted.

8. Modak Makers

• Age: Any
• Fees: No fees or monthly subscriptions 

Guide your kid’s financial journey with Modak’s family-friendly app. Parents can fund accounts, assign chores, set allowance, monitor expenses, and receive real-time spending notifications.

Use code BEHRENCQ2N when signing up!

9. Chase First Banking For Kids

• Age: 6 – 17
• Fees: no monthly service fee.

Give your teen the freedom of spending with their own debit card while they learn to live within the budget they have.

If you want a debit card for kids from an actual financial institution, check out this option from Chase bank. You can manage all of your Chase accounts (including First Banking) from the mobile app, where you can monitor your child’s spending and set alerts and limits.

Your teen can request funds (which you can approve or deny) and make fee-free withdrawals at more than 15,000 ATMs (ATM transactions don’t have fees with this debit card for kids).

Kids can also set savings goals and transfer money from their Earn or Spend accounts to build towards them. Parents can easily make transfers from their own accounts for chores and allowances and track savings account progress.

Chase First Banking is available exclusively to current Chase checking customers.

10. Step Debit Card For Teens

• Age: Any
• Fees: No fees 

This Visa debit card and mobile banking app allows parents and guardians to sponsor accounts for children under 18 and help them build credit, manage spending, and save money in a controlled way. 

The Step card works like a debit card, drawing on deposited funds, but processes transactions as credit to help young adults build a positive credit history without the risk of overdraft fees or interest charges. 

The Step app enables features like direct deposit for paychecks, real-time money transfers between family members, and tools for setting savings goals.

FamZoo vs Greenlight Debit Cards For Kids

Ok, now here’s what I chose!

When I was doing my own research, it ultimately came down to just two final debit cards for kids: FamZoo vs Greenlight. I had a HARD time deciding between them!

They’re both just so amazing and offer terrific, although slightly varying, debit cards for kids and benefits.

In the end, I chose to go with Greenlight for a few reasons:

• the ability to “scale” and let my kids practice investing
• better, more powerful app
• the slightly higher cost affords the company to continue improving
• the parent wallet as the Greenlight funding source gave me full control and peace of mind

In another post, I’ll write a more detailed review of these debit cards for kids and our experience using Greenlight.

Do one of these look like a clear winner for your family? Let me know in the comments!

More Parenting Resources

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• Stop The Money Drain: 13 Budget Killers You Can Avoid

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