Axos First Checking vs. BusyKid Comparison
Axos First Checking Overview
- Available: Sign up here
- Axos Bank First Checking is a joint checking account targeted for teenagers ages 13-17 and their parents.
- Account holders get a Visa or Mastercard debit card that can be used to spend online or in person, or to withdraw cash at any ATM. (Axos provides up to $12 in monthly domestic ATM fee reimbursements.)
- No monthly maintenance, overdraft, or non-sufficient fund fees.
- The debit card's security features include account alerts, card locking, and daily transaction alerts of $100 (cash) and $500 (debit).
- Currently, you can earn up to 0.10% APY on any balance.
- Free (no monthly maintenance fees)
- ATM fee reimbursements (up to $12 per month)
- Converts to adult checking account after minor reaches age of majority
- No paired investment account
- No robust financial literacy resources
Axos First Checking Plans + Costs
If you hate fees, you’ll love Axos First Checking, which charges zero monthly fees and avoids a host of other fees. First, a look at the features:
Plan | Monthly Fee | Features Offered Under Plan |
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Axos First Checking | N/A | - Axos Visa or Mastercard debit card - Peer-to-peer transfers - Direct deposit - Bill pay (parents only) - $12/mo. in ATM reimbursements - APY on checking - Cash deposits - Easy account transition once child reaches adulthood |
Axos First Checking Features
Below are some of Axos First Checking’s most notable features. Some of these features are geared towards the teens, while others exist to keep parents sane.
Axos First Checking Debit Card
The Axos First Checking account comes with a free Visa- or Mastercard-branded debit card. (You can choose which one during the application.) The card can be used in stores and online wherever the chosen brand is accepted, including internationally. Perhaps the most noteworthy feature of Axos’s card is its ATM access. Axos Bank allows you to withdraw cash fee-free from 91,000-plus ATMs nationwide. And if you come across an ATM outside of Axos’ network, no problem—it will reimburse up to $12 in third-party operator fees every month. Point-of-sale transactions are limited to $500 per day, while ATM withdrawals are limited to $100 daily. Card actions such as activating, deactivating, reactivating, ordering a replacement, and sending a travel notification can all be done online. Security features include active fraud monitoring, two-step authentication, and 128-bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption.Parental Controls
Parental controls in Axos First Checking are fairly rudimentary. Parents can monitor their teen’s spending through account alerts received as real-time push notifications, emails, or text messages. They can also track transfers made from the account and lock/unlock the debit card from the mobile app and dashboard.Cash Deposits
If teens have a tip-based job or receive a lot of cash for celebrations and holidays, they might want to deposit that cash into their accounts. Fortunately, while Axos is an online-only bank, there are still ways to make cash deposits. Members can log in to the app and use the ATM locator to find ATMs that accept cash deposits. Alternatively, through Axos’ partnership with Green Dot Network®, they can deposit cash at many popular retailers, including:- ACE Cash Express
- CVS
- Dollar General
- Kroger
- Rite Aid
- Safeway
- Walgreens
- Walmart
- 7-Eleven
Peer-to-Peer Transfers
Axos lets teens make peer-to-peer payments directly from their checking accounts online. Just an email or phone number is needed to send a secure payment. So whether they need to pay a friend back for cash, fast food, or a group activity, it’s quick and easy to settle up.Earns Interest
Teens earn an interest rate of 0.10% on any money in their account—a nice bonus for doing nothing. While this is an admittedly small annual percentage yield (APY) compared to, say, a high-yield savings account or money market account, it’s still more than you’ll get on your typical checking account (which is nothing).Direct Deposit + Mobile Deposit
Teens with jobs can easily get their paychecks directly deposited into their accounts. Axos Bank has no minimum direct deposit amount to avoid fees (which isn’t the case with every financial institution). Do the teen’s grandparents love to write birthday checks? Not an issue. Axos allows free mobile deposits. You can use a mobile device or computer to send money from a check straight into a First Checking account any time of day.Bill Pay
While parents should always be covering a kid’s essential expenses, it isn’t unheard of for teens to be responsible for some of their nonessential costs. For example, a teen with a job might be asked to pay for their cell phone plan. With Axos’ free bill pay feature, parents can schedule payments from a primary account to ensure the teen doesn’t miss a cell phone payment. (Note: Only parents, not teens, can access this feature.) Bill Pay is parent use only.Easy Transition to Adulthood
Once a teenager reaches adulthood, the account can be converted into a different checking account, such as Essential Checking, Rewards Checking, or CashBack Checking. The parent or original adult on the account can then remove themselves as a joint account owner so the new adult is completely in control. You can sign up for Axos First Checking here. Related: Best Teen Checking Accounts [Banks for Teens]BusyKid Overview
- Available: Sign up here
- Save/Invest: Parents can automatically allocate money toward a savings basket, and they can also match any money their children elect to save.
- Spend: When your kid is ready for a little independence, they can spend from this account using BusyKid’s Visa Spend Card.
- Share: Children can choose which charities they would like to give money to, and parents must approve before the cash is transferred.
- BusyKid is an award-winning, parent-approved app that educates kids about money.
- Parents can pay allowance on an ad hoc basis, or they can set up Auto-Allowance.
- Parents can split allowance money across Save (and even match money in the Save category), Spend (which kids can access with their Visa Spend Card), and Donate (children can choose charities to donate to; parents must approve).
- Parents can set up a separate Apex Clearing brokerage account to allow their children to invest earnings through BusyKid, with as little as $10.
- Feature-heavy allowance function
- Offers investment functionality
- Combines several kid-focused financial needs in one app
- Charges a fee
- Lower customer user ratings than competitors
BusyKid Plans + Costs
BusyKid has a simple, single subscription tier that costs $3.99 per month, which is billed annually, so you pay $38.99 once per year.
Plan | Monthly Fee | Features Offered Under Plan |
---|---|---|
BusyKid | $4/mo. (Billed annually, so $48/yr.) | - BusyKid Visa Spend Cards for up to five kids - Core financial tools - Parental controls - Chores - Allowance - Savings matches - Ability to earn, save, spend, invest and give |
BusyKid Features
Below, I’ve listed a number of BusyKid’s most prominent features. Like with all debit cards aimed at children and teens, some of these features are for the kids, but others are meant to keep parents happy (and sane).
BusyKid Visa Spend Card
The BusyKid Visa Spend Card is a prepaid debit card that acts as the physical central point of the BusyKid experience. Each BusyKid subscription comes with up to five of these kids’ debit cards, which are intended for use by children ages 5 through 17. Kids can choose from a small selection of more than 10 designs. The adults can instantly transfer funds at any time. Kids have to follow the set spending limits, so they can’t overspend as they learn money management skills. Every debit card is backed by the Visa Zero Liability guarantee, which means if your kid’s card gets lost or stolen, or misplaced and fraudulent charges crop up, you can dispute the charges within a certain time frame to avoid liability for paying. Related: Best Money Apps for KidsParental Controls
Parental controls are essential for parents who want to retain some peace of mind while their kids develop money management skills. With BusyKid, parents can monitor all transactions made either in the app or with the BusyKid Visa Spend Card. BusyKid’s parental controls are pretty rudimentary. By using the “Lock Money Transfers” feature, parents can prevent their kids from transferring money among their Save, Share, and Spend areas. Kids will still be able to use the money in these accounts, but each transaction will require a parent’s approval.Chores + Allowance
Some parents like to pay an allowance to their younger children, and this might or might not be connected to chore completion. BusyKid allows you to pay an allowance to and/or set chores up for your child. For chores, parents can set up their own chores and payment amounts, or they can use BusyKid’s preset chore chart, where chores and allowance are preset based on a child’s age. As kids complete their chores, they can click “I did it!” inside the BusyKid app. BusyKid pays kids each Friday based on any chores the child has marked “Done” since the previous Friday. Parents will be notified and asked to approve; when it is, it will be deposited into the child’s various account areas depending on how their allocations were set up.BusyPay
The BusyPay feature lets family and friends instantly send money to a BusyKid account, whether it’s as a birthday or holiday gift, payment for helping out, or just because. It’s easy, too—a child just has to share a QR code, and anyone can pay them. (Note: The payer is charged a $1 fee to use this feature.) Related: How to Get Free Money [Ways to Earn Money]Bonuses + Savings Matches
Several BusyKid features help your children accelerate their earning and saving. For instance, let’s say your teen stepped up to babysit a younger sibling, or one of your kids got a perfect report card—BusyKid allows parents to pay a bonus to any of their kid’s account areas or even directly to the BusyKid Spend Card. Parents can also establish a savings match, which is similar to a 401(k) match. Parents simply select a weekly percentage match, or a monthly max that’s dividend equally across all the weeks in a month, and BusyKid will transfer the appropriate amount of additional funds to the kid’s account based on how much they save.Investing
Learning to invest is an important part of the personal finance journey. BusyKid helps children with that journey by providing commission-free stock trading. BusyKid offers commission-free trading of stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), allowing kids to start investing with as little as $10. BusyKid provides access to “hundreds” of popular stocks and ETFs—a considerably smaller selection than the thousands of stocks and ETFs available from traditional brokerage accounts, but a sufficient world of assets to get a child started.Charities
Parents who want to instill the importance of giving back to their children at a young age can allow their kids to donate a percentage of their allowances to charity. Kids can choose among roughly 50 charities, and BusyKid even welcomes suggestions for other charities to add. You can sign up for BusyKid here. Related: Best Credit Cards for Kids [Kid-Friendly Credit Cards]Axos First Checking vs. BusyKid: Our Editors’ Choice Is …
BusyKid and Axos First Checking are both solid choices for a kid’s debit card, but their are important differences between the two tied to age appropriateness that’ll likely determine which is a more natural fit for your child. More specifically, the better choice for your family largely depends on the age of your child. While BusyKid has no minimum age, Axos is designed for teenagers. And the reason for these differences largely comes down to the features offered for each card. BusyKid has many features tailored to younger kids that Axos First Checking lacks. The two most prominent of these child-centric features include the ability to set chores and pay an allowance. Other features are great for all ages. BusyKid lets kids invest, donate to charity, and show their personalities when they pick from 10+ preselected debit card designs. On the other hand, Axos First Checking has useful features for working teens that BusyKid doesn’t. Teens can get their paychecks directly deposited into their accounts and load cash onto their cards. They can even withdraw cash from the largest network of ATMs that we’ve found during our kid-centric debit card research (currently clocking in over 90,000 locations nationwide). And speaking of earning and spending features, the account pays a modest savings APY. It’s not much but it’s more than BusyKid’s 0% APY. Lastly, Axos Free Checking has no monthly fee. Overall, the better debit card for your family will depend on which features you need most. If you think these cards are good options for your child, you can signup with Axos First Checking or BusyKid. In truth, we think both cards leave things to be desired, with Axos First Checking offering a fairly minimal feature set (despite having the right price: free) and BusyKid failing to compete against its paid card-brethren. We think the weaknesses of both compared to other cards in the space make reviewing other alternatives (covered below) worthwhile.
Primary Rating:
3.6
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Primary Rating:
4.0
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Other Debit Cards for Kids to Consider
Here are a number of other highly competitive options if you’re looking for a debit card for your child or teen.
App | Apple App Store Rating + Best For | Fees | Promotions |
---|---|---|---|
Greenlight | ☆ 4.8 / 5 Customer rating and parental controls | Core: $4.99/mo. Max: $9.98/mo. Infinity: $14.98/mo. (Each plan supports up to 5 children.) | None |
Copper Banking | ☆ 4.9 / 5 Teen financial independence | Copper $4.95/mo., Copper + Invest: $7.95/mo. | 30 days free |
GoHenry | ☆ 4.6 / 5 Accessible customer service support | 1 month free. Individual: $4.99/mo. Family (supports up to 4 children): $9.98/mo. | 1 month free |
Revolut <18 | ☆ 4.7 / 5 Parent-paid bonuses | No monthly fees | None |
Axos First Checking | ☆ 4.7 / 5 Teens ready to learn about money management | Free (no monthly fees) | None |
*Apple App Store Rating as of April 1, 2024. |
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