Credit cards are a powerful tool for building credit and teaching kids about money. But with all the worries of credit and the responsibility that comes with it, diving straight into credit can present a lot of stress and quickly lead into a deep hole of debt – which is precisely why, historically, there haven’t been any credit cards for kids.
But that’s OK, for two reasons.
- That’s changing as banks and other financial companies are exploring special credit cards tailored toward minors and beginning to introduce them to the market.
- If you don’t feel comfortable with your kids having a credit card for now, you can take an important first step toward that by setting them up with their very first debit card.
Today, we’ll explore your options. We’ll discuss this emerging class of card, teach you more about the best debit cards for kids, and explain more about the relationship between kids and credit cards.
The Best Credit Cards for Kids
Any parent can counteract poor money habits through financial education. With the right tools, you can give kids an edge that’ll help them build credit and make smart financial decisions.
Simply put: Unsecured credit cards—the traditional type of credit card that doesn’t require a deposit beforehand—are considered too hazardous a tool for kids. That’s why there are rules preventing companies from opening individual credit card accounts for anyone under age 18.
Historically, parents have had two solutions:
- Get their child a regular or prepaid debit card.
- Make their child an authorized user on the parents’ credit card.
The former, which we’ll talk about in a minute, is considered the safer and more traditional route. Traditional (and especially prepaid) debit cards for kids offer a number of guardrails to control a child’s spending, and over the past few years, several child- and teen-focused debit-card solutions have popped up.
While some parents have gone the latter route, making your child an authorized user on your credit card has some serious flaws. Many consumer credit cards won’t allow you to set spending limits on authorized users, for one. Also, if you make poor credit decisions, your child’s credit could suffer. And because kids at most are merely authorized users, credit card providers naturally don’t make their cards, websites, and apps with minors in mind.
However, multiple financial companies are working on an emerging class of kid-focused card, and one such product is already on the market.
Step (Best Secured Credit Card for Kids)
The Step Visa Card is a unique “hybrid” secured credit card that’s tailor-made for kids and teens. It functions just like a Visa credit card, but it offers the safety features of a debit card—and most importantly, it can help build your child’s credit history.
Parents, who sponsor the card, can opt to have Step report the past two years’ worth of information—transactions, payment history, and more—to the credit bureaus when their child turns 18. Credit scores are assigned once someone turns 18, and most teens will begin with a score of under 600. But based on a Step survey, 18-year-olds who used Step for at least seven months had an average credit score of 725.
How much of a difference could that better credit make? Step says that an 18-year-old user with a score of 725 could expect these kinds of savings compared to users with lower credit scores:
- Car insurance: $147 per month instead of $250 per month
- Student loan: 6.24% interest rate instead of 10.46%
- Security deposit: 1 month’s rent instead of two months’ rent
Step also provides a seamless experience for teens who “graduate” into young adulthood. When they turn 18, Step allows cardholders to keep their old credit card number and account, doing the legal heavy lifting in the background to get them appointed as the legal owner of their account, and transitioning them to an independent account. Everything—from how they access the app to their account numbers to their investments—stays the same from their perspective, and Step continues reporting credit on the same “credit line,” which allows them to keep building their credit history.
In other ways, Step acts like a debit card.
Parents can add money directly into their child’s FDIC-insured Step account. A regular Step account allows a child to have both a physical spending card as well as a virtual card in the Step app, while a Parent Managed Account only allows the child to spend via a physical card. Children can use both the virtual and physical cards to spend anywhere Visa is accepted, and they can use the physical card to withdraw money for free at more than 30,000 ATMs.
And parents needn’t fear their child overdrafting—they can’t spend any money they don’t have.
Other features include Savings Goals, where any money saved can generate 5% in annual interest (compounded and paid monthly) with a qualifying direct deposit*; Savings Roundup, where purchases are rounded up to the nearest dollar and the overage is put toward a Savings Goal; an “invest” function that allows users age 13 and older to buy and sell Bitcoin; and opt-in cash or Bitcoin rewards from companies including Hulu, Chick-Fil-A, CVS, and the New York Times.
The Step Card is protected by Visa’s Fraud Protection and Zero Liability guarantee. That means if your teen’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.
Visit Step to learn more or sign up today. Read more in our Step review.
- The Step Visa Card is a one-of-a-kind "hybrid" spending card that can help you to build your credit history via everyday purchases, even before you turn 18.
- Earn a high 5% annual rate on up to $250,000 in your Savings Goals with qualifying direct deposits.*
- Earn points that you can redeem for cash when you use your Step Visa Card at participating merchants.*
- Buy and sell fractional shares of stocks, ETFs, and Bitcoin for as low as $1.
- Send and receive money instantly, spend with Apple and Google Pay.
- Pay allowance weekly, biweekly, or monthly.
- Track your card balance from the Step App.
- Banking services, provided by Evolve Bank & Trust, are FDIC-insured for up to $250,000.
- Helps build credit
- Free secured card for kids, teens, and young adults
- High yield on money held in Savings Goals
- Free investment account for stocks, ETFs, and Bitcoin
- Fractional investing for as low as $1
- FDIC insurance
- High-yield savings only available with qualifying monthly direct deposit*
- Can't directly deposit checks into a Step account
Related: Best Debit Cards for Teens
Why Some Parents Opt for Debit Cards Instead
Many parents feel safer starting their children off with debit cards.
For young children without steady income or established budgets, or who haven’t yet developed a strong sense of money management, a prepaid debit card might be the best choice.
Prepaid cards allow parents to load funds onto their child’s spend card and monitor their activity.
If a child goes overboard, it’s easy to transfer funds from the associated parent account on the prepaid debit card, set spending limits on how much they can spend or where they can shop or even outright freeze their ability to make more purchases.
Prepaid debit cards for kids give parents the tools necessary to control spending, provide safeguards to teach their children about money management until the training wheels can come off, and offer children a sense of financial independence they want.
And because kids can’t spend what they don’t have on prepaid debit cards for kids, they can’t overdraw—meaning no credit implications for your kids’ future finances.
So, let’s talk about the lack of unsecured credit cards for kids, as well as what makes debit cards an attractive substitute. We’ll cover:
- Why aren’t unsecured credit cards for kids allowed?
- How old do you need to be to have a credit card in your name?
- How credit cards compare to prepaid debit cards for kids
- Best debit cards for kids
- What considerations you should make before opening a card
- What credit habits you should target
- Money lessons to consider
We’ll start out by discussing the problems with traditional credit cards for kids. Then we’ll look into why debit cards often make more sense as a starting point before transitioning into full-blown credit card options in their wallets—and discuss the best options for this important step.
Let’s dive in!
Why Aren’t Unsecured Credit Cards for Kids Allowed?
Why would you give a minor a credit card?
Well, a credit card for kids could help your child develop healthy money habits from an early age, allowing these financial literacy skills to compound from the start. However, if not managed properly, credit cards can quickly spell disaster. That’s because they front a line of credit, offering buying power you might not necessarily have the means to afford.
Combine this lack of financial resources with a considerable marketing effort to attract young consumers, and it would spell disaster from which it could take years to recover.
That’s why unsecured credit cards for teens simply don’t exist.
Typically, teens can’t get a credit card unless their parents grant them access on their own credit card account as an authorized user. Some credit cards allow this as young as 13, while others don’t specifically state a minimum age requirement. Otherwise, teens can’t get their hands on a credit card until they turn 18.
Even then, you’ll want to make sure you have the training wheels firmly attached to this credit card. That’s because one of the most common mistakes encountered by young adults is accumulating costly credit card debt.
You might be able to help your child out if and when this happens. But why not head it off at the pass instead? Share, practice and instill financial literacy skills with your child as early as possible—before real money is at stake.
Kids can learn about money management through several means, though the best option is through modeled behavior (in other words, seeing you handle credit cards responsibly as an adult).
In general, though, it’s best to think of credit cards for kids as an opportunity for a teen to access credit for the first time and begin building a credit history.
Along with that comes a responsibility–one you can teach them about by explaining how managing their credit well will build their credit scores and put them on the path to financial security.
How old do you need to be to have a credit card in your name?
Minors don’t meet the eligibility requirements to receive a credit card under their own name. Even once your child reaches the age of majority (18 in most states), they’ll still face a hurdle to obtain a card by themselves.
They’ll need to meet other criteria outlined in the CARD Act of 2009 related to income or expectation of having access to financial assets. As a result, parents interested in getting a credit card for their kids will first need to consider adding them as an authorized user to their own account.
18- to 20-year-olds can have their own credit card under certain circumstances:
- Have income from a job or other independent sources of income; or
- Qualify with third-party income if they have a reasonable expectation of access to it; and
- Have a registered Social Security Number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (usually)
If your child meets these items, and is age 18 to 20, you might consider pointing them toward credit cards for those with no credit history (starter credit cards). And if your child is a student looking to build credit, consider these best credit cards for students with no credit history.
Let’s now talk about kids’ debit card options, how they allow you to establish important concepts such as savings goals, and what they entail.
What Is a Debit Card for Kids?
Minors do not have the legal capacity to enter into contracts themselves. Thus, children can’t open their own bank account until they reach the age of majority in their state—often 18 years old.
Parents interested in offering their kids a bank account and paired debit card can still choose a number of possible paths:
1. Opening a sub-account from their own bank account
This can provide your kids with a card to use while you can maintain control over the account itself. Under this situation, it’s still likely that your child will need to be at least 13 years old before receiving a debit card.
However, these accounts might not come with the features you want for maintaining control over your child’s spending behaviors.
2. Opening a joint banking account
Another option to consider includes opening a joint bank account with your kid or teen. This means you both have ownership over any joint accounts you share, as well as the assets held inside them.
3. Opening a debit card for kids (and teens)
This is a great route for balancing parents’ desires to teach their kids about money and providing sufficient parental controls and oversight to make sure a child makes smart spending and money decisions.
Debit cards for teens offer parents custom spending controls, spending notifications, merchant blocking, daily ATM and spending limits, plus other controls enabled through feature-filled mobile apps.
Some new apps even allow you to lock the card or limit where your child spends money.
These cards also effectively function as a prepaid debit card for kids and teens because you can establish parental controls. Traditional banks or debit cards might not allow you to do this beyond keeping the balance at a certain level.
Related: 5 Best Free Debit Cards for Kids & Teens [Earn, Save & Spend]
What Are the Best Debit Cards for Kids and Teens?
The most natural moment to place plastic in the hands of your children with their name on it is in high school when they’re beginning to develop independence, getting a driver’s license or spending time away from with friends.
Though, instead of credit cards for kids, you can start them off with debit cards for kids and teens that withdraw money directly from the prepaid card balance or from the associated bank account.
A child will become familiar with the responsibility of carrying a card and not purchasing more than they can afford. You can load it with weekly allowance payments, money from a summer or after-school job or even financial gifts they receive from friends and family.
After they show enough responsibility and they turn 18, you can move on to credit cards for kids.
Have a look below at some debit-card alternatives to credit cards for kids, or consider adding your child to one of your existing credit cards as an authorized user. We’ve compiled a list of the best debit cards for kids and teens so you can compare them and determine which card makes the most sense for your (and importantly, your child’s) needs.
| App | Apple App Store Rating + Best For | Fees | Promotions |
|---|---|---|---|
 Greenlight | ☆ 4.8 / 5 Customer rating and parental controls | Core: $5.99/mo. Max: $9.98/mo. Infinity: $14.98/mo. (Each plan supports up to 5 children.) | None |
 Copper Banking | ☆ 4.8 / 5 Teen financial independence | Copper: $4.95/mo., Copper + Invest: $7.95/mo. | None |
 Acorns Early | ☆ 4.7 / 5 Accessible customer service support | Acorns Early: $5/mo. for 1 child. $10/mo. for 2-4 children. Acorns Gold: $12/mo., includes Acorns Early for up to 4 children. | Free month trialFree 30-day trial + $5 allowance upon signup |
 BusyKid | ☆ 3.4 / 5 Teaching balanced financial approach via chores & allowance | $3.99/mo. (5 cards); $38.99/yr. | 30-day money back guarantee |
 FamZoo | ☆ 4.6 / 5 Financial literacy resources | $5.99/mo. per family | Free month trial |
 Axos First Checking | ☆ 4.7 / 5 Teens ready to learn about money management | Free | None |
 Chase First Banking | ☆ 4.8 / 5 High customer satisfaction from a major bank without fees | Free (no fees) | None |
| *Apple App Store Rating as of Dec. 11, 2024. | |||
1. Greenlight (Best Overall Debit Card)
- Available: Sign up here
- Price: Core: $5.99/mo. Max: $9.98/mo. Infinity: $14.98/mo. (All plans include cards for up to 5 children)
The Greenlight debit card allows kids to begin spending, but provides parents with peace of mind by giving them control over where their kids can spend money. Parents also can choose to receive alerts that tell them when, and how much, money is spent on the Greenlight debit card.
Greenlight works like a prepaid debit card, allowing you to transfer money onto the card for your child to pay for expenses at approved locations. You can choose how much money to load onto the card, and your child will be cleared to make approved purchases so long as a money balance backs up the card.
If your child asks for extra money to get added to the card, you can have them take a photo of the purchase they want to make and receive your approval. This gives you control and allows you to have discussions with your child about why a purchase might be a good or bad idea. And if your child has a job, they can add their own funds to the card via direct deposit.
The Greenlight debit card is a good choice for parents looking to teach their kids the importance of saving money and making prudent financial decisions. This financial product can be an effective learning tool for helping kids to understand why saving should be a priority and how to simplify paying an allowance or tracking chores.
Greenlight boasts numerous other features, too.
For instance, parents can open an investment account for kids to get their children investing in stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for the first time.
Greenlight offers monthly savings rewards based on your tier, listed in the box below. You may also set up “Parent-Paid Interest” between you and your child, which allows you to foot the bill and pay interest on accounts for up to five kids.
Any Greenlight subscription also lets users qualify for the cash-back Family Cash Card. Parents can add their teenagers as authorized users to this Mastercard help them learn how credit cards function and establish a credit history. This credit card offers the following cash-back rewards:
- 3% cash back when you spend at least $4,000 in a billing cycle
- 2% cash back when you spend at least $1,000 (but less than $4,000) in a billing cycle
- 1% cash back when you spend less than $1,000 in a billing cycle
There is no limit to the cash back that can be earned, and users can also auto-invest the cash-back rewards.
Each monthly Greenlight subscription includes debit cards for up to five kids. Replacement cards cost $3.50 each but are free the first time. If you need to replace your card quickly, you can get express delivery for $24.99. The company also offers a personalized card, with your own photo or design, for $9.99. Greenlight has no minimum age requirements for this card, but recommends starting at age 6 or older.
The Greenlight debit card is a good choice for parents looking to teach their kids the importance of saving money and making prudent financial decisions. And that’s why it’s one of our highest-rated cards for kids.
Read more in our Greenlight card review or sign up today.
- Greenlight is a financial solution for kids that allows them to spend with a debit card, earn money on savings, and even invest their money.
- Greenlight offers flexible parental controls for each child and real-time notifications of each transaction. And it's the only debit card that lets you choose the exact stores where kids can spend on the card.
- Parents can use this app to teach kids how to invest with a brokerage account through Greenlight Max and Greenlight Infinity plans.
- Families can earn 2% (Core), 3% (Max) or 5% (Infinity) per annum on their average daily savings balance of up to $5,000 per family. Also, Max and Infinity families can earn 1% cash back on their monthly expenditures.
- Unlike many apps that simply provide features and controls, Greenlight is also designed to spark discussions with children about spending, investing, and more, fostering a better educational experience.
- Best-in-class parental controls (can prohibit specific stores)
- Can add brokerage account to invest in stocks
- Intuitive Parent + Kid apps
- Competitive cash back & interest rates
- Parent-Paid Interest
- High price points
- No cash reload options
- No parent / child lending
Related: 13 Best Allowance and Chore Apps for Kids [Easier Family Life]
2. Copper Card (Best for Combined Teen Independence and Cost)
- Available: Sign up here
- Price: 30 days free. Copper: $4.95/mo. and Copper + Invest: $7.95/mo.
Copper Banking was founded on the belief that kids and teens should have equal access to financial education and should be empowered to learn by doing. Now, the company is on a mission to help children gain real-world experience by giving them access to their money in a way that traditional banks can’t.
The Copper app and debit card teaches your child how to make smart financial decisions by creating a platform where parents and their kids can connect. With the Copper app, you get easy snapshots of your accounts. And with the Copper Debit Card, it’s easy to shop in-store or online, including with Apple Pay or Google Pay.
Plus, users get exclusive access to engaging advice curated by a team of financial literacy experts who provide tips on how to take control of their financial future.
Copper Banking Features:
- Send/Request: Kids and parents can easily send and receive money all at the touch of a button.
- Spend: Spend using Apple or Google Pay, or using the Copper Debit Card.
- Withdraw: Access your money from more than 55,000 fee-free ATMs.
- Monitor: Get a snapshot of all your child’s spending in an easy-to-read dashboard.
- Save: Gain quick snapshots of your kid’s savings and helpful tips on how to save even more. Set up savings buckets and save for the things that you want.
- Learn: With the help of Copper’s team of financial literacy experts, gain bite-sized tips on how you can maximize your money and prepare yourself for your financial future.
The basic Copper account includes the above banking features. With Copper + Invest, your child also gets access to automatically curated smart portfolios built with their preferences in mind. Your child is given a questionnaire that helps Copper determine a portfolio based on their age, income, net worth, investment objective(s) and investment horizon. Copper then recommends one of three ETF portfolios—Moderately Aggressive, Aggressive, and Extra Aggressive—made up of thousands of stocks. Parents can review the portfolio to ensure it matches with not just your child’s preferences, but your family’s. (Portfolios can be changed later on by accessing the Support chat.)
Your child can begin investing for as little as $1, then add more contributions down the road. Copper will automatically rebalance the portfolio as needed to make sure it always keeps up with your child’s investment preferences.
Copper is available to kids 6 years and older.
Read more in our Copper Banking review.
- Copper is the digital bank and debit card for teens built with the mission of creating a financially successful generation.
- Send/Request: Teens and parents can easily send and receive money all at the touch of a button.
- Spend: Pay with a digital wallet via Apple Pay or Google Pay or use the physical Copper Debit Card.
- Monitor: Get a snapshot of all your spending in an easy-to-read dashboard.
- Save: Gain quick snapshots of your savings and helpful tips on how you can save even more. Set up savings bucks and save for the things that you want.
- Learn: With the help of Copper's team of financial literacy experts, learn more about how to maximize your money and prepare yourself for your financial future.
- Allowance administration
- Financial education resources
- Network of 55,000-plus fee-free ATMs
- No chores tracking or assignment
- No parental controls beyond notifications
3. Acorns Early / GoHenry (Best for Customer Service)
- Available: Sign up here
- Price: Acorns Early: $5/mo. for 1 child. $10/mo. for 2-4 children. Acorns Gold: $12/mo., includes Acorns Early for up to 4 children.
A longtime player in the kids’ debit card/financial app space has a new name and a new face: GoHenry, which was acquired in 2023 by Acorns, has officially become Acorns Early.
Many reviewers have long painted Acorns Early/GoHenry as just a way to spend. However, I see it as a real financial solution for minors—a debit card, yes, but also an app-based ecosphere that provides education and experience for the child, as well as ways for parents to keep their kids safe and teach them responsibility.
When you open an Acorns Early account, each child receives an Acorns Early Mastercard debit card that can be used anywhere Mastercard is accepted (so, millions of vendors), online, in stores, and even in ATMs. An Acorns Early account also allows kids to set savings goals, which they can fund manually or via autosave. And it also hosts educational materials to help children and teens alike develop good money habits.
This FDIC-insured account also enjoys a variety of safety features, including chip and PIN protection, secure PIN recovery, and Mastercard’s Zero Liability Protection, which means your child won’t be liable for fraudulent purchases as long as they take care in protecting your card from theft and you promptly report any fraudulent activity.
Acorns Early also offers parents additional peace of mind by providing a number of controls, including:
- Real-time spending notifications
- Card lock/unlock
- Savings goal lock/unlock
- Adjustable spending limits on a per-transaction and per-week basis
- Card category block/unblock for in-store purchases, online purchases, and ATM withdrawals
- Adjustable spending block/unblock at stores that sell age-restricted goods such as firearms and alcohol
Also, kids can only spend whatever money is available on the card because it’s a prepaid debit card. That means parents don’t have to worry about costly overdraft fees or their kids running up a debt.
Acorns Early doesn’t allow kids to invest. However, an Acorns Gold subscription comes with not only a free Acorns Early account for up to four children, but also the ability to open an Acorns Early Invest custodial account, which you can use to invest toward your kids’ future.
GoHenry really stuck out to us as one of the best prepaid debit cards for kids because of their outstanding customer service. Good news there: Acorns Early users should expect a similarly high level of customer support, including seven-day-a-week phone service from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. PT, as well as 24/7 live chat support.
Acorns Early has no minimum age requirements but recommends starting at age 6 or older. Sign up for an Acorns Early account or Acorns Gold to get started today, or read our Acorns Early review to learn more.
A note for current GoHenry users: For now, your app, features, and cards will continue to work as normal. However, if you want all of the latest features, you’ll need to download the Acorns Early app from the iOS App Store or Google Play.
- Acorns Early, formerly GoHenry, is a debit card and financial app designed to give young people (ages 6-18) education, experience, and confidence in saving, spending, and earning.
- Kids get a Mastercard debit card that allows them to spend in stores and online, and withdraw money from ATMs.
- Kids can also earn allowance, complete chores for money, set savings goals, even give to charity.
- Parents can rest easy knowing there are plenty of guardrails in place, including chip-and-PIN technology, Mastercard Zero-Liability Protection, and parental controls such as spending notifications, card locking, and adjustable spending limits.
- Acorns Early also provides educational resources tailored for kids of all ages.
- Acorns Early appears primed to keep up GoHenry's reputation for excellent customer service among kids' debit card providers, offering everyday phone availability and 24/7 chat support.
- Subscribing to Acorns Gold includes not only a free Acorns Early account for up to four children, but also Acorns Early Invest, a UGMA/UTMA custodial account where you can save toward your kids' future.
- Special offer: Get a free 30-day trial and $5 allowance when you sign up.
- Strong parental controls (including card-use controls and adjustable spending limits)
- Chores and allowance
- FDIC insurance
- Allows for ACH payments
- Convenient "Giftlinks" for non-accountholders to give money to kids' accounts
- Customizable cards ($5-$6)
- No investing feature
- No fee-free ATM network
Related: Acorns Early (Formerly GoHenry) vs. Greenlight
4. FamZoo (Best for Financial Education)
- Available: Sign up here
- Price: Free trial, then $5.99/family/mo.
FamZoo is another service for parents interested in opening prepaid debit cards to manage their children’s spending.
It works by having parents release money into their child’s account and then having the card work with a loaded balance. Money can be loaded onto the cards at any time.
FamZoo acts like a regular checking account with a linked debit card except FamZoo makes sure the account can’t be charged overdraft fees, saving you money.
Adults are able to monitor the transactions being made. After a free trial, this app costs $5.99 per month, but the price goes down if prepaid in advance.
FamZoo is our top education choice because of its strong financial education library which improves its overall value.
The product has no minimum age requirements, but recommends starting earlier than later.
- FamZoo is the prepaid debit card used by families to teach children good financial habits from an early age.
- FamZoo lets you fund your account in a variety of ways, including bank account, debit card, payment app, digital wallet, and cash.
- Many of the app's functions also have financial literacy in mind, including Parent-Paid Interest, parental loans, and reimbursements.
- Robust, customizable allowance and chores functions.
- Prepaid card without overdraft fees
- Highly customizable allowance and chores functions
- Strong financial education resource library
- High fee at monthly rate
- No paired investment account
- Weak parental controls
Related: Greenlight vs. Famzoo
5. First Checking by Axos Bank (Best Free Debit Card for Teens From an Online-Only Bank)
- Available: Sign up here
- Price: Free
First Checking by Axos Bank is the ultimate starter checking account for teens which also comes with a debit card. The world of banking can be a little scary, but not with the simplicity and power of Axos’ First Checking Account.
The account works as a joint account between a parent or guardian and their teen, allowing for easy-to-set, customizable parental controls with a debit card dashboard.
Parents and teens can manage almost every part of the banking experience through a convenient mobile app or through the online desktop portal. Perfect for modern families who always find themselves on the go.
The First Checking account from Axos Bank gives teens their first taste of financial independence by giving them their own checking account (which pays interest!) and free debit card for teens that has daily cash withdrawals limits of $100 and purchase limits of $500.
This provides safeguards against teens getting carried away with the money held in their account.
Further, you can have up to $12 of domestic ATM fee reimbursements per month, avoid any monthly maintenance, overdraft or non-sufficient funds fees—essentially making the account free!
The account carries the highest level of security through biometric authentication techniques like fingerprint readers, voiceprints and facial recognition (pending smartphone feature availability).
The product has a minimum age requirement of 13 and will convert to an Axos Checking Account after reaching the age of majority.
Read more in our Axos First Checking Account review.
- 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
6. BusyKid
- Available: Sign up here (Devices: Android, Apple iOS/iPhone/iPad)
- Price: $3.99/mo., $38.99/yr. (up to 5 cards)
Are you looking for a way to teach your kids about money through chores, earning an allowance and managing their money on prepaid debit cards for kids?
BusyKid is an award-winning, parent-approved app that educates kids about money. It’s a way to teach your children how to manage their allowance and learn important money lessons.
The BusyKid Visa Prepaid Spend Card lets them spend their money in stores or online with just one swipe of the card. You can even set up automatic savings. The product has no minimum age requirements, but recommends starting earlier than later.
Your child will be able to earn real money by completing chores and tasks around the house each week while learning valuable financial skills like budgeting, saving and giving back.
Plus they’ll have fun earning rewards from brands like Disney on BusyKid’s weekly challenges!
BusyKid is an easy-to-use, interactive kid chore app with a debit card that will help them learn and practice important real-life lessons from the palm of their hands.
They can earn, save, invest, donate or spend—all while having fun! And it couldn’t be more simple.
Parents set chores and allowance gets directly deposited each Friday!
- Earn: Kids can earn by completing tasks assigned by parents
- Save: They can save up to 10% of their weekly allowance automatically
- Donate: They can give back by donating 1% of what they make to charity
- Spend: When they’re ready for independence, BusyKid has a Visa Prepaid Spend Card so kids are never without cash in hand.
To get paid, parents need to approve the Payday text message sent through the app each Thursday if your kids are to be paid on Friday.
Some fees apply for various actions you can take through the app and with the card as well.
Finally, BusyKid also allows children to invest their earnings through the app. Doing so requires setting up a separate Stockpile custodial account.
- 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
Related: 10 Best Greenlight Alternatives
7. Chase First Banking (Best Free Debit Card for Kids From a Major Bank)
- Available: Sign up here
- Price: Free (no fees)
Ready to teach your little ones about money, but not quite sure if you have the time, patience and expertise?
Chase First BankingSM offers simple banking for both of you in one location: the Chase Mobile® App—for free. Manage all accounts with this mobile app and encounter no fees as well as find yourself able to withdraw money on 16,000 Chase ATMs around the country. The account is designed with kids 6-12 in mind, and available for ages 6-17.
At the heart of Chase First BankingSM sits one of the best free debit cards for kids and teens that works anywhere Visa is accepted.
Need insight and oversight into your child’s spending and saving? You can set spend alerts and limits as well as specific locations all in your Chase Mobile® app.
Teach your kids to spend, save and earn—all from the Chase Mobile® app. Chase First BankingSM helps parents teach teens and kids about money by giving parents the control they want and kids the freedom they need to learn.
To get started, you’ll first need to be a Chase customer with a qualifying Chase checking account.
Consider opening a Chase Total Checking SM or Chase Secure BankingSM account to qualify.
- Chase Total CheckingSM also grants access to more than 15,000 Chase ATMs and more than 4,700 branches. You can pay $0 in monthly fees, subject to meeting certain conditions.* And if you set up direct deposit within 90 days of coupon enrollment, you can earn a $300 sign-up bonus!
- Chase Secure BankingSM offers the same Chase ATMs and branch locations as well as a $100 sign-up bonus when you make stated qualifying activities and meet certain conditions.
Once you open a qualifying Chase Checking account, you may apply for a Chase First BankingSM account for your child.
Read more in our Chase First Banking review.
- Chase First Banking offers simple banking for both of you in one location: the Chase Mobile® App—for free.
- The account is designed with kids 6-12 in mind, and available for ages 6-17.
- You can set spend alerts and limits as well as specific locations all in your Chase Mobile® app.
- Teach your kids to spend, save and earn with Chase First Banking. The account helps parents teach teens and kids about money by giving parents the control they want and kids the freedom they need to learn.
- No monthly maintenance fees
- Chore and allowance functionality
- Parental controls on types of expenses
- No paired investment account
- No interest
Related Questions on Debit Cards and Credit Cards for Kids
What is a prepaid card?
A prepaid card is a type of payment card that can be loaded with money in advance and then used to purchase goods or services without incurring debt from the issuer.
The most common type of prepaid card is a prepaid debit card, which acts like making bank account withdrawals when purchasing goods and services.
You can also use a secured credit card, which works similarly to traditional plastic but requires you to front the money you spend to avoid overspending your balance.
You can also have another type of prepaid card, such as gift cards, which can only be spent on one merchant offering a particular product or service.
Do debit cards for kids help build credit?
Despite a prepaid debit card having the same look and feel of a regular credit card, these cards don’t tend to help to build your credit like a credit card can.
For an account to impact your credit score, it needs to count as a debt or liability. To build good credit, you need to make regular payments on these debts over long periods of time. This factor plays the biggest role in building your credit. The secured Step Visa Card, for instance, can report two years’ worth of payment history once you turn 18, and will continue providing updated data to the credit bureaus after that.
A prepaid debit card, on the other hand, works like a regular debit card where you load the card with money (or, in the case of a debit card issued by a banking app or institution, have a balance in your account) and draw on the funds when you make purchases.
You can use a prepaid card like a credit card, but it won’t necessarily build credit like a credit card. Some debit cards do offer the ability to run them as credit cards when processing payments, acting as a means for building credit history and your credit score.
Though, for most prepaid cards, because you don’t borrow money, the account doesn’t get reported to credit bureaus and therefore has no effect on your credit score.
Related:
- How Parents Can Help Their Children Build Credit
- Joint Credit Cards: Can They Help to Build Your Credit?
What Goes Into a Credit Score?
1. Payment history
Making timely payments is important for your credit score, representing as much as 35% of your total FICO score. Missing one payment can have a negative impact on your credit score (though it shouldn’t ruin it entirely).
Why such a big impact? Lenders want to assess your ability to repay debts in a timely manner, meaning you pay what you agree to pay when you agree to pay it.
Do this consistently and over long periods of time and you will see your credit score increase.
Because of the outsized importance of this credit factor, staying on top of payment due dates and amounts becomes a necessity to build credit.
Keep track of when payments must go to creditors by setting up automatic payments where possible. Setting your bills on auto-pay can save not only time for individually initiating each payment, but also the headache of being late and dinging your credit score.
2. Total available credit / credit utilization ratio
Your credit usage, especially in relation to your available credit, also has a big impact on your credit rating, accounting for 30% of your score.
The metric used to measure this credit usage, called the credit utilization ratio, is calculated by dividing your outstanding revolving credit balances by your total available revolving credit balances. This ratio provides valuable insight to creditors about how you use credit. Lenders want to know how much credit you are using, especially in relation to how much credit is available to you.
A high credit utilization ratio (above 30%) will likely hurt your credit score, while a low one (below 20%) might help it or not have any effect at all on your credit rating.
3. Length of credit history
Lenders want to see how long you’ve had credit and how well you’ve handled that credit since it’s been open. This credit factor can determine 15% of your FICO score by evaluating the average age of your open lines of credit.
All things equal, longer average credit histories result in better credit scores.
4. Types of credit (diversity or mix of credit lines)
Not only do lenders care about your credit history and your ability to make timely payments (both huge credit factors), but they also like to see a diversity of good credit opportunities you’ve had in the past and maintain today.
Children won’t have many opportunities to have a wide array of credit lines, but they don’t need these just now. Instead, they can start with a single line of credit as an authorized user through a family member’s existing or new credit line.
If teenagers start building credit now, this new line of credit will still help them in the long run—so long as the account remains open.
5. Credit inquiries (new attempts to access credit)
Creditors also want to see how often you seek new credit. Going after financing regularly might indicate an increased risk because you constantly seek new forms of funds to stay afloat. Whether or not that’s actually the case, this can still serve as a red flag on your score, potentially hurting your credit if done too often.
These pulls on your credit, called hard inquiries, stay on your report for two years or longer, depending on the type of inquiry.
A child shouldn’t worry too much about this because any inquiry that hits their report now will likely fall off before they need it.
At this age, the child wants to establish credit and slowly build their credit limit through having smart credit use and a longer credit history.
A Smart Way to Approach Credit Cards for Kids
Although children can get credit cards for kids early enough to build their credit, they can just as easily end up damaging it by using them irresponsibly.
Instead, you might consider getting the best of both worlds by instead getting them a kids debit card and adding them as an authorized user to your own credit card.
This way, they get the kids debit card to learn good financial habits without risking irresponsible spending while also benefiting by building good credit scores through being added as an authorized user to your credit card.
After all, as a general rule, minors can’t get credit cards under their own name. So, until they reach the age of majority in their state of residence, they really only have the option of being added as an authorized user on credit cards you hold in your own name.
With debit cards for kids, you can still get them into the practice of learning about credit cards while only having the exposure of a prepaid debit card.
Step Disclaimer
Disclaimer: Step is a trademark of Step Mobile, Inc.
Chase Disclaimer
* Chase Total Checking charges a $12 monthly service fee. However, that fee may be waived with one of the following, each monthly statement period: 1.) Electronic deposits made into this account totaling $500 or more, such as payments from payroll providers or government benefit providers, by using (i) the ACH network, (ii) the Real Time Payment or FedNow℠ network, (iii) third-party services that facilitate payments to your debit card using the Visa® or Mastercard® network, OR a balance at the beginning of each day of $1,500 or more in this account, OR an average beginning day balance of $5,000 or more in any combination of this account and linked qualifying Chase checking, savings, and other balances.
