GoHenry vs. Jassby [Which Is the Better Kids Debit Card?]

It tends to feel like your kids grow up too fast. You blink and your toddler is a teenager. It can be tempting to want to keep your child a kid forever, and in some areas, it’s certainly wise to shield them from the realities of adulthood for now.

But one adult subject you don’t want to delay is finances. The sooner kids start to learn money management skills, the more likely they will become financially responsible adults.

An excellent way to give your child hands-on financial experience is by getting a debit card designed specifically for kids—one with some parent controls in place, of course.

Since you’ve found your way to this article, I’d wager you’re considering GoHenry and Jassby, but aren’t sure which one to pick. I’ve been there. Here at the WealthUp, we’ve thoroughly analyzed all of the most competitive kids’ debit cards—including GoHenry and Jassby.

Today, I’ll pit GoHenry against Jassby. For each card, I’ll provide an overview, cost breakdown, and highlight all of the key features. At the end, you’ll get a recommendation as to which card you should choose. And just in case neither card seems perfect for your family, I’ll also give my thoughts on other kids’ debit cards worthy of consideration.

GoHenry vs. Jassby Comparison

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GoHenry Overview

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• Available: Sign up here

I view GoHenry as more than just a way for kids to spend—it’s a holistic financial solution for minors.

GoHenry includes an account, prepaid debit card, app, even financial lessons. Parents are given an online account that’s linked to, and allows them to oversee and manage, individual accounts for each of their children via both the GoHenry app and the online account portal.

Kids can only spend whatever money is on the card, so parents don’t have to worry about costly overdraft fees or their kids running up a debt. Plus, it comes with some parental controls.

But GoHenry really sticks out to me as one of the best prepaid debit cards for kids because of their customer service. They offer everyday phone availability, email access, and social media engagement, ensuring users can solve their problems quickly and with little hassle.

GoHenry has no minimum age requirements but recommends starting at age 6 or older. Your child will be able to do plenty with the card from the onset—and plenty more as they grow up to be teens. Not only can they receive an allowance, but they can also get paid by employers through their account. They can use that money to reach savings goals or shop within the limits you’ve set. Your teen can even receive money from (or send money to) friends!

With time, a combination of your parental guidance and the app’s features should help your kids develop good money habits around earning, saving, spending, and giving.

Users should know that the company was acquired in 2023 by Acorns—a popular investing app for young adults who invest spare change through Round-Ups and recurring investments. However, for now, it still operates as GoHenry, and as of this writing, I’ve seen no announced changes that would suggest it will stop operating as normal. (In fact, Acorns actually offers GoHenry for free when you sign up for its Premium plan.)

Related: 30 Best Side Hustles for Teens [In-Person + Online]

GoHenry Plans + Costs

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GoHenry offers a one-month free trial, then two pricing options, depending on the number of children:

GoHenry accounts don’t charge transaction fees nor foreign transaction fees. It’s also free for friends to instantly send money to your child.

GoHenry is one of the few cards that does not have a fee-free ATM network, however, so you’ll incur third-party fees at virtually every ATM.

You can customize debit cards at a cost of $4.99 each.

Related: 11 Best Debit Cards for Kids

GoHenry Features

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Below, I’ve listed a number of GoHenry’s most prominent features. Many of them are designed to keep kids and teens happy, but others help parents keep an eye on their children’s spending.

GoHenry Card

The GoHenry card is a Mastercard-branded prepaid debit card that can be used anywhere Mastercard is accepted.

Parents load their parent account via a linked debit card or credit card, though GoHenry doesn’t allow you to fund via American Express. Parents load their children’s GoHenry cards from the parent account.

Each child can choose from 45 different GoHenry debit card designs or create a customized card for $4.99. When you open a GoHenry account, you should receive your children’s debit cards in the mail seven to nine business days later.

ATM charges are a weak spot here. While many kids’ debit cards have fee-free ATM networks, GoHenry does not. GoHenry itself won’t charge your child for withdrawing money from an ATM, they will incur a third-party fee from virtually any ATM. GoHenry caps ATM withdrawals to $120 per day and $480 within four days, as well as three withdrawals in one day and four within four days.

The card offers chip and PIN-protected transactions, bank-level encryption, and secure PIN recovery through the app. Cardholders also benefit from Mastercard Zero Liability Protection. This means you and your child aren’t 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 to GoHenry.

Parental Controls

GoHenry offers a few parental controls to ensure children are using their debit cards responsibly, including:

• Spending overviews
• Real-time spending alerts
• Single-transaction and/or weekly spending limits
• ATM withdrawal limits
• Enabling/disabling spending at ATMs, in stores, and/or online

GoHenry also automatically blocks spending at “over 18” merchants, such as casinos, alcohol wholesalers, adult-themed sellers, and more. Optionally, you can turn on a “strict merchant block” from any businesses that sell age-restricted items, even if they also sell kid-friendly merchandise. (For instance, your child wouldn’t be able to buy candy at a convenience store that sells alcohol.)

You can also block and unblock the card as needed from your parent account. So, let’s say your child has lost their card—you can block any expenditures on it until it’s found, then unblock it once it’s back in your child’s care.

Allowance + Chores

Parents can reduce their mental load and put allowance on repeat every week. Just choose the amount, and the day of the week, and it’ll automatically be sent to your kids from then on.

You can also set chores for your child, such as walking the dog, doing homework, or sweeping. Kids get paid as chores are marked completed either by you or your child. Any chores marked as complete will be paid out when weekly allowance is due.

Instant Money Transfers

In addition to paying a regular allowance, parents can click “Quick Transfer” to instantly send money to a child at any time. Instant money transfers are a great way to reward a child, gift money for a special occasion, or send money in the event of an emergency.

Savings Goals

Kids can set up savings goals through GoHenry to start building the essential habit of setting money aside. They can set a target amount and/or date and, if they find it motivating, add an image. GoHenry also offers weekly autosaving to help children reach their goals faster.

Parent-Paid Interest

Earning interest is an excellent way to motivate kids to save. While GoHenry itself doesn’t pay interest, it does offer parent-paid interest. When this feature is enabled, parents can pay a predetermined rate on any deposits in the child’s savings account. The interest is paid on the first of each month from the parent’s account.

Money Missions

In addition to the hands-on financial experience kids gain through GoHenry’s debit card, they can increase their financial literacy through GoHenry’s in-app Money Missions.

The short stories, videos, and quizzes are easy to binge, and learning is gamified through earning badges. These lessons are tailored for your child’s age, so younger kids learn money basics and older kids learn more advanced topics. Money Missions are developed by teachers and financial education experts and follow the K-12 Personal Finance Education National Standards.

My suggestion? Give your kids small monetary rewards for successfully completing lessons.

Giftlinks

You’re not the only one who can send money securely to your child through GoHenry. Anyone you give a Giftlink to can send money as well. So if grandparents want to send money for a birthday or a family friend wants to gift money for a baptism, they can easily do so without anyone needing to deal with cash. They can even add a personal message.

The sender doesn’t even need to have the GoHenry app. All they need is a credit card or debit card registered to a valid U.S. address (Cash, checks, nor prepaid debit cards won’t work, however.)

Customer Service

GoHenry has some of the best customer service among kids’ debit card providers. They offer everyday phone availability (9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET), email access, and social media engagement.

Interested in GoHenry? You can sign up here.

Related: 4 Best Ways to Save Money for Kids [Children’s Savings Plans]

Jassby Overview

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• Available: Sign up here

Jassby is a mobile wallet app that families can use to manage chores, allowance payments, and money spent on the company’s flexible virtual and physical debit cards.

When you open a Jassby account, you receive digital debit cards that can be used online, as well as in-store anywhere Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Samsung Pay is accepted. But for extra flexibility, parents can order physical debit cards for their children that are good to use anywhere Mastercard is accepted.

Parents transfer money to their children’s Jassby debit cards via a linked bank account or debit card. Parents can receive real-time spending notifications, monitor the account, track purchases, block certain spending categories, and instantly lock or unlock their kids’ debit cards as needed.

The app also allows parents and guardians to share money with their kids while teaching them valuable financial literacy skills. Jassby offers courses, videos, games, and more through its Jassby University feature.

Jassby has an easy-to-use allowance function—just pick the amount, distribution (Spending and/or Saving account), frequency, and day of the week or month. Kids can also learn the merits of earning through Jassby through Activities (chores), or they can earn Jassby Rewards by logging into their accounts, receiving allowance, or even by completing Jassby University courses. (100 points = $1, which can be automatically transferred to the Jassby Spending account.)

There is no minimum age requirement to use the Jassby card, but Jassby says most kid members are between the ages of 8 and 17.

Related: Best Savings Accounts for Kids [Children’s Bank Accounts]

Jassby Plans + Costs

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Jassby has just one paid subscription tier.

The monthly fee is waived for the first month of service. Those who created Essential Plan accounts before April 1, 2023, are grandfathered in at a rate of $3.95 per month.
Replacement cards cost $4.95 plus tax.

Related: 25 Best Jobs for 15-Year Olds

Jassby Features

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These are some of the most prominent features of Jassby. The account aims to be easy to use for both kids and adults.

Jassby Card

The Jassby card you receive upon opening your account is digital-only—you can receive a physical Mastercard debit card for free, but you must request it. Both forms are accepted anywhere Mastercard is accepted.

The digital card can be used online, and it can also be added to Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay for use in stores and other in-person locations. The physical card can be used both online and at in-store locations.

One Jassby account allows you to have up to six cards. And unlike many accounts that provide one parent card and all remaining cards for kids, you can spread Jassby’s six cards across multiple children and multiple adults.

Parental Controls

Jassby has several parental controls worth mentioning.

Jassby automatically restricts kid spending for anything categorized as dating services, liquor stores, lottery/gambling, and money transfers. Parents can also manually restrict certain spending categories, including clothing stores, digital goods, restaurants, and retail stores.

Parents can monitor transactions, receive spending notifications, and quickly lock and unlock the card from the app.

Jassby doesn’t offer dollar-amount controls. But because kids can only spend what’s in the account, parents can limit spending simply by managing how much money is in their children’s accounts.

Financial Literacy

Jassby University is the app’s robust financial literacy feature. Lessons include topics on saving, budgeting, and more. This all feeds a proprietary Jassby Financial Literacy score that reflects their progress, and kids are rewarded with points as they learn.

Rewards

Speaking of points, Jassby Rewards are a great motivator. Kids can earn points by doing basic financial actions such as logging into their accounts every week, making transactions, and receiving allowance. Plus, as I just mentioned, they can also earn points by learning about money. Jassby’s points system allows a kid to redeem 100 points for $1, which is put into their Jassby Spending account.

Giving Back

Through Jassby, kids can see how donating small amounts of money to a charity can make a difference, helping parents teach their children the importance of giving back. (Note: When kids go to the Charity section of the app, they will be sent to an external link listing charities—so don’t be surprised when it seems like you’re exiting.)

You can sign up for Jassby here.

Related: Best Teen Checking Accounts [Banks for Teens]

GoHenry vs. Jassby: Our Editors’ Choice Is …

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In many ways, GoHenry and Jassby are similar. These are both paid plans with features for allowance, chores, and building financial literacy. To keep you from worrying, either account is easy to monitor and will send you notifications.

However, GoHenry offers several features that are missing from Jassby. This account lets you set single-transaction and or/weekly spending limits. Parents who want to encourage their children to save more can set up parent-paid interest.

A feature targeted towards the kids allows 45+ options for customization so they can show their personalities. Plus, kids aged 14+ can set up direct deposit for any paychecks they may receive at a part-time job.

Overall, here at WealthUp, we rank GoHenry higher than Jassby. You can sign up for GoHenry here.

Related: 13 Best Allowance and Chore Apps for Kids [Easier Family Life]

Other Debit Cards for Kids to Consider

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Are neither GoHenry nor Jassby the best fit for you and your family? You may want to try one of these other highly rated debit cards for kids.