We won’t mince words. The Capital One MONEY teen checking account is one of the best banking products for kids and teens.
If you want a free account, anyways.
The past few years have seen banks and financial tech firms deliver feature-rich banking products to teens and children. However, these apps and debit cards have come with a cost—literally. Most of the high-powered teen banking products charge some sort of monthly subscription fee. You might get what you’re paying for, or you might not. But you’re paying.
The flip side is a free account. But while the price might be right, the product you get often reflects the cost—free kids debit cards and apps can be downright spartan, providing little in function, little in features, and thus little to keep a teen interested and engaged as they interact with their money.
Capital One MONEY bridges that gap, providing a good overall experience while keeping costs on the floor.
If you want to learn more about this product, read on as I review the Capital One MONEY teen checking account.
Overview
The Capital One MONEY teen checking account is an ideal option for forward-thinking parents interested in teaching their kids how to use their money, whether it’s at an early age or into their teen years.
This free checking account is available for anyone 8 years or older, so long as it’s linked to a parent’s account—this way, parents can easily set spending controls and track transactions. And importantly, parents can link Capital One and outside accounts alike, so you don’t have to change your bank just to get your teen their own checking account.
With a MONEY account, kids get a debit card and access to a mobile app, allowing them to spend money in person, send and receive money digitally, withdraw cash fee-free at tens of thousands of ATMs, deposit checks, and save toward their goals.
Money can be sent to the account in a wide variety of ways, including cash, check, Automated Clearing House (ACH), direct deposit, domestic wire transfer, Zelle, and more.
There’s no monthly service fee or minimum balance requirement to worry about. However, the account won’t be considered opened until it’s funded, so when you initially fund the account, you must start with at least 1¢.
Also, even though Capital One does have physical branches, you can only open a MONEY teen checking account online.
Related: Best Debit Cards for Teens
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|---|---|
| WealthUp Rating | ☆ 4.4 / 5 |
| App Store Rating | ☆ 4.8 / 5 |
| Price* | Free |
| Billing | No monthly fees |
| Special Offer | N/A |
| Allowed Cards Per Subscription | 1 |
| Minimum Age** | 8 |
| Features That Make This Card Stand Apart | TBD |
Basics | |
| Spending | Yes |
| Saving | Yes |
| Investing | No |
| Giving/Donating | No |
Funding | |
| Funding Source(s) | Bank account, debit card, depositing checks, depositing cash |
| Direct Deposit | Yes |
| Allowance | Yes |
| Chores | Yes |
| Gifting | Yes |
| Cash Reload Fee | N/A (No cash reload) |
Saving/Spending | |
| Savings APY | 0.1% |
| Round-Ups | No |
| Other Savings Features | None |
| ATM Network | Capital One, MoneyPass, AllPoint (70,000+ ATMs) |
| ATM Transaction Fee | $0 (Operator fee may apply at out-of-network ATMs) |
| Card Network | Mastercard |
| Compatible Mobile Wallets | None |
Parents | |
| Parental Controls | Low (Card lock, Zelle access control and spending limits) |
| Parental Monitoring | Yes |
| Parental Notifications | Yes |
Other Features | |
| Cash Back | No |
| Builds Credit | No |
| Customization options | No |
| Refund Policy | N/A |
| * Prices do not include processing fees when applicable. ** Many cards have different suggested minimum ages. We are only listing any hard-and-fast minimum age requirements. |
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Capital One MONEY Plans + Costs
Capital One MONEY charges no monthly fees and has no minimum balance requirements. It also charges no fees for transfers (internal or external accounts) or foreign transactions (though the paying bank may deduct a fee from the proceeds).
| Plan | Monthly Fee | Features Offered Under Plan |
|---|---|---|
| Capital One Money | N/A | - Mastercard debit card for one child/teen - Parental controls - Fee-free access to 70,000+ ATMs - Direct deposit - Mobile check deposit - Allowance - Savings goals - Zelle - Cash deposits - Easy transition to adulthood |
One fee to remember, as it might come up once or twice: If you buy a cashier’s check from a Capital One location, you’ll pay $10.
Related: Best Free Debit Cards for Kids and Teens
Capital One MONEY Features
Below, I’ve listed a number of Capital One MONEY’s most prominent features. They provide teens with a great deal of independence and flexibility with using their money … while still ensuring parents can stay up at night.
MONEY Mastercard Debit Card
A Capital One MONEY teen checking account comes with a Mastercard debit card, which can be used to make purchases or withdraw cash virtually anywhere Mastercard is accepted—which includes not only millions of merchant locations in the U.S., but millions more across roughly 210 countries and territories worldwide.
This also means cardholders enjoy Mastercard Zero Liability Protection, which means your teen won’t be held responsible for any unauthorized transactions as long as you used reasonable care to protect the card from loss or theft and promptly reported any fraudulent charges.
Teens can withdraw cash fee-free from any Capital One, MoneyPass or Allpoint ATM—combined, those networks amount to more than 70,000 ATMs nationwide.
While many financial tech offerings provide the parent or guardian with a debit card, Capital One’s offering is very much a traditional checking account in that only the teen gets a card.
Also worth noting: This teen checking account doesn’t come with … well, checks. They’re completely paper-free. To be clear, this is pretty consistent with how people are increasingly using their checking accounts. But it’s still worth pointing out for anyone who actually wants a physical checkbook.
Related: Best Prepaid Debit Cards for Teens [Reloadable Cards]
Parental Controls
Capital One MONEY offers fair, though not extensive, parental controls. Adults can access their minor’s account at any time, using their own username and password, to view transactions. They can use the Capital One mobile app to view their teen’s account history, receive text alerts and notifications for transactions and other activity.
Parents and guardians can also lock and unlock cards as necessary, and even remove money from the account. Adults also can enable and disable their teen’s access to Zelle (if the teen is under age 18), and set daily send limits on Zelle regardless of their child’s age.
Related: Best Debit Cards for Kids
Account Interest
Capital One offers a little interest on money in accounts, with a current APY of 0.10%. There’s no minimum balance to earn interest, and the rate is variable and subject to change.
While this interest rate isn’t going to make kids rich, it’s better than nothing!
Direct Deposit + Mobile Check Deposit
Whether your teen gets paid via direct deposit or physical checks, Capital One MONEY has them covered.
With direct deposit, money is sent straight to your teen’s account. Meanwhile, paper checks can be brought in directly to a branch, or more conveniently, they can be deposited through the Capital One mobile app with just a couple pictures of the check.
Allowance
Adults can set up automatic allowance payments. Did your kid do extra chores or get a perfect report card? You can also send one-time transfers as a special reward.
Related: 8 Best Allowance and Chore Apps for Kids
Zelle
Zelle is a digital payments platform you can access through Capital One and a host of other banks. The service allows a person to send money from their bank account to family and friends’ bank accounts. Zelle automatically sets a sending limit of $500 per day, but an adult can lower this limit. Parents control access to Zelle while their child is 17 or younger, but that restriction is removed when their teen turns 18. A parental-set limit will remain after the teen turns 18. But if the teen turns 18 and no limit has been set, Zelle’s limits will be dictated by overall account rules on transaction amount and frequency.
Cash Deposits
Cash deposits are a useful feature for teens with tip-based, part-time jobs.
Members can deposit cash into their accounts through a Capital One ATM (not MoneyPass or Allpoint ATMs) or by giving money to a teller at a Capital One bank. There is no fee for this transaction.
Easy Transition to Adulthood
Once your teen reaches adulthood, it’s simple to open a 360 Checking account and transfer over their account balance. However, if your kid would just prefer to keep everything as is, they can simply do nothing and the MONEY account will stay open.
What You Don’t Get
Capital One MONEY is lacking a few features offered by some of its pricier competitors.
The most noteworthy feature missing here is an investing function. Teens can save and even earn a little interest within the account, but if you really want your child’s money to grow and want them to learn about the stock market, you’ll have to look elsewhere.
Past that, a few other omissions worth mentioning:
- Savings amplifiers (cash back, round-ups, parent-paid interest, etc.)
- Charity/giving function
- Mobile wallet compatibility (Apple Pay, Google Pay)
- Educational resources
Related: Best Investing Apps for Teens Under 18 [Stock Trading Apps]
Our Take
Capital One MONEY isn’t necessarily a full-featured teen banking solution like some of its paid debit card competitors. But given that it’s a free product, I wouldn’t expect it to be.
If we had to pick nits, there are two features we’d like to see added:
- Learning resources. Educational articles and tools should be a staple of any teen financial product, and they’re a pretty low-cost feature to add. (That said, parents can find free educational resources across the web, including, ahem, on this very website.)
- Mobile wallet compatibility. Capital One MONEY seemingly leaned into our digital-first reality by eschewing paper checks and keeping all spending contained to the card and app. With that context, it seems a little odd that Capital One doesn’t also provide access to ubiquitous digital wallet options like Apple Pay and Google Pay. The Zelle feature blunts this oversight a little bit, but I’d like to see this product offer Apple Pay and Google Pay someday.
Honestly, though, those are minor complaints for what is an otherwise fantastic free solution.
Capital One Money is as complete as one could expect for the price. It delivers an excellent baseline of functionality, including a variety of deposit options, one of the largest fee-free ATM networks in the teen debit card world, decent parental controls, and even a seamless transition into financial adulthood.
That’s a lot of something for nothing.
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