Best Greenlight Alternatives—Top Picks
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Feature-Rich Teen App + Debit Card
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Best Kids Debit Card for Customer Service
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Prepaid Debit Card With Parent-Paid Bonuses
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Primary Rating:
4.5
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Primary Rating:
4.4
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Primary Rating:
4.2
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No subscription fees.
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Acorns Early Lite: 30-day free trial, then $8/mo. Acorns Gold (Includes Acorns Early Invest): $12/mo.
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No monthly fees.
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What Are the Best Greenlight Alternatives to Consider?
Below, we’ve compiled a list of the best alternatives to Greenlight that should work for your needs. Not all are prepaid or paid card options, so look at each and compare which one makes the most sense for your needs.
| App | Apple App Store Rating + Best For | Fees | Promotions |
|---|---|---|---|
 Cash App Families (For Teens) | ☆ 4.8 / 5 Excellent parental controls and no monthly fees. | No monthly fees | None |
 Acorns Early | ☆ 4.7 / 5 Accessible customer service support | Acorns Early Lite: $8/mo. Acorns Gold (Includes Acorns Early Invest): $12/mo. | Acorns Early Lite: Free 30-day trial + $5 allowance upon signup. Acorns Gold: $20 bonus investment when you sign up and make recurring investments. |
 Revolut <18 | ☆ 4.8 / 5 Parent-paid bonuses | No monthly fees | None |
 FamZoo | ☆ 4.6 / 5 Financial literacy resources | Monthly: 1-month free trial, then $5.99/mo. Annually: 2-month free trial, then $59.90/yr. (16% discount) | 1- or 2-month free trial (depends on payment schedule) |
| Note: Apple App Store Rating is as of Aug. 17, 2026. | |||
1. Cash App Families (Cash App’s Debit Card for Teens)
- Available: Sign up here
- Price: Free* (no subscription fees)
Does your teen need to start learning smart saving, spending, and even investing habits? Cash App Families can accomplish all three—with no subscription fees—putting the power of Cash App into your teen’s hands while keeping their financial safety firmly in yours.
Teens get an account with a designable Cash App Visa® Card, which they can use to spend money where Visa is accepted. Meanwhile, access to Cash App allows them to save money toward specific goals, send money to friends, accept offers for instant discounts at their favorite places, earn high interest on savings³, and check out securely in stores and online by using a QR code.
If your teen direct-deposits $300 or more each month, they’ll also unlock a bevy of other features, including getting paid two days earlier, no ATM fees¹ when withdrawing from more than 40,000 in-network ATMs, and one waived out-of-network ATM withdrawal per month.
Cash App Families even has an investing feature with fractional shares, allowing kids to purchase as little as $1’s worth of stocks and Bitcoin (parent permission is required).²
Meanwhile, parents/guardians who sponsor the teen** enjoy some of the best oversight features among teen debit cards. You can monitor your teen’s activity from your own Cash App or receive real-time transaction alerts for their payments and purchases. You control which features—stocks, Bitcoin², sending money, the Cash App Visa® Card—your teen can access, and certain spending categories are auto-blocked for teens. Parents can also send money for allowance whenever they want, and built-in tools allow parents and teens to budget and save together.
Parents/guardians must download Cash App (also free), then invite their teen to create a sponsored account. Cash App Families can be used by teens ages 13-17. Use our link to learn more about or sign up with Cash App today.
- Cash App Families is a money app and debit card that helps teens ages 13-17** learn about, spend, save, and invest money while under the protection of a large suite of parental oversight tools.
- Teens get a customizable Cash App Visa® Card*, can make and receive instant person-to-person payments, can fund their account with direct deposit, and can even buy as little as $1's worth of stocks and Bitcoin.²
- Your teen can earn 3.25% interest on savings. No account minimums.³
- Pay your kids an allowance, and use Cash App's tools to save and budget together.
- Safety features such as real-time transaction alerts, account monitoring (from the parent's Cash App), alerts for teen payments to new contacts, contact blocking, feature control, and payments control. Also, Cash App auto-blocks certain spending categories to teens, and strangers can't find teens in Cash App search.
- Features such as two-day early payment, free in-network ATM withdrawals, and a monthly reimbursement for an out-of-network ATM withdrawal are unlocked when $300+ is direct-deposited each month.¹
- Free account and Cash App Visa® Card*
- Excellent parental controls (including feature lock and real-time transaction alerts)
- Stock and Bitcoin investing²
- Fractional shares²
- Allowance feature
- Customizable cards ($5+)
- FDIC insurance available on a pass-through basis (if certain conditions are met)***
- Certain benefits, such as free in-network ATM withdrawals¹, require direct deposit of at least $300 monthly
2. Acorns Early
- Available: Acorns Early Lite | Acorns Gold
- Price: Acorns Early Lite: Free 30-day trial, then $8/mo. Acorns Early: $12/mo.
Many reviewers have long painted Acorns Early (formerly 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.
An Acorns Early account includes a smart money app, as well as Visa debit cards for up to four children. These debit cards can be used to spend anywhere Visa is accepted (so, millions of vendors online and in stores), as well as withdraw cash from ATMs. An Acorns Early account also allows kids to set savings goals, which they can fund manually or via autosave. And the app 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 fraud protection. 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 also stands out to us as one of the best prepaid debit cards for kids because of its outstanding customer service, which it inherited from GoHenry. Acorns Early users enjoy seven-day-a-week phone service (9 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET Saturday-Sunday), as well as 24/7 live chat support.
Acorns Early has no minimum age requirements but recommends starting at age 6 or older. Parents have two ways of signing up for Acorns Early:
- Sign up for Acorns Early Lite. This subscription level provides you with everything mentioned above.
- Sign up for Acorns Gold. Acorns Gold is the top Acorns subscription tier for adults, and it provides a wealth of banking, investing, and other features. However, it also includes a subscription to Acorns Early (again, good for up to four children), and it unlocks Acorns Early Invest: a UGMA/UTMA custodial account you can use to invest for your kids’ future.
Acorns frequently offers small bonuses for anyone who signs up with our links. You can check out current offers in the box below, or read more about this app in our Acorns Early review.
- Acorns Early is a debit card and financial app designed to provide education, experience, and confidence in saving, spending, and earning, to kids ages 6-18.
- Accounts come with a smart money app and up to 4 Visa debit cards, which allows your kids 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, fraud 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, as well as sterling customer service (including everyday phone availability and 24/7 chat).
- All of the above is available via the Acorns Early Lite subscription.
- An Acorns Gold subscription delivers everything in Acorns Early Lite, as well as access to Acorns Early Invest (a UGMA/UTMA custodial account where you can save toward your kids' future and get a 1% match on up to $7,000 in contributions annually). Parents also enjoy banking and investing features such as an IRA with a 3% match for your first year, a high APY on emergency savings, Acorns' "Round-Ups," and more.
- Special offer (1): Get a free 30-day trial and $5 allowance when you sign up for Acorns Early Lite.
- Special offer (2): Get a $20 bonus investment when you sign up for Acorns Gold.
- 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 (with fee)
- Must sign up for Acorns Gold to get investing
- No fee-free ATM network
3. Revolut <18 (Best for Parent-Paid Bonuses)
- Available: Sign up here
- Price: No monthly fees
Revolut <18 is a prepaid debit card for kids designed to teach them money skills for life. Aimed at building healthy money habits from an early age, the unique, customizable card1 empowers parents to have full insight into their kids’ card activity through providing instant spending alerts and parental controls.
You can choose to freeze the card, as well as set controls on how they use the cards online and with contactless payments through your Revolut app. You can also set spending limits on how much your child can use with the prepaid card.
Parents use the card and accompanying app to teach kids about earning, budgeting, saving and even investing money (depending on the plan chosen). You can also use the card to manage chores and allowance, set savings goals as a family, and help your children manage their money.
And if your child did something deserving of a reward? You can send parent-paid bonuses when they complete specific tasks. Simply add money to their digitized piggy bank through the app. You can send and receive money in seconds through Revolut’s payments feature, which allows fast transfers between account holders and also global transfers at transparent rates.
You must have a personal Revolut account before you can open a Revolut <18 account for your children. You can add up to five Revolut <18 accounts per parent account.
To learn more about Revolut <18, visit their site and open an account for yourself and your child.
- Revolut <18 is a prepaid debit card for kids designed to assist parents teach kids ages 6-17 about money. Families can handle chores and allowance, create budgets, set parental controls and more.
- Revolut <18 comes with unique, customizable cards* that parents can use to set up tasks and goals to work on together as a family.
- Prepaid debit card for teens
- Parental controls
- Round-ups
- Chore and allowance management
- Customizable designs (fees apply)
- Children can't load funds, only parents can
- Parents need to have a personal Revolut account
4. FamZoo (Best for Financial Education)
- Available: Sign up here
- Price: Monthly: 1-month free trial, then $5.99/mo. Annually: 2-month free trial, then $59.90/yr. (16% discount)
FamZoo is another service for parents interested in opening a prepaid debit card to manage their children’s spending.
FamZoo rates as our top education choice because of both its robust financial education library, and functions that have financial literacy in mind. For instance, its chore features include payment checklists that teach kids the value of a dollar by tying chores and odd jobs to rewards and even penalties. You can also teach younger children the basics of money through the automated allowance feature, which lets you set a fixed amount or even automatically raise it as they age.
Spending, Saving, and Giving accounts separate funds into different purposes. With “Parent-Paid Interest,” you can teach your kids the power of compound interest over time. Other features include direct deposit, savings goal tracking, and FDIC insurance.
Parents can fund a FamZoo account through numerous routes, including bank transfers, Direct Deposit, even cash. Typically, parents will load their primary funding card, then they will transfer those funds onto their kids’ cards. But you do have the option of directly funding kids’ cards.
There are plenty of safety features, too. And there’s no risk of having your bank account information stolen from FamZoo—because FamZoo never asks for it. Adults can monitor transactions, you can temporarily lock and unlock cards, and you can set up real-time alerts for card activity and remaining balances.
- FamZoo is the prepaid debit card used by families to teach children good financial habits from an early age.
- Many of the app's functions also have financial literacy in mind, including Parent-Paid Interest, parental loans, and reimbursements.
- Robust allowance and chore functions include features such as automatic allowance, payment checklists, even chore penalties.
- FamZoo lets you fund your account in a variety of ways, including bank account, debit card, payment app, digital wallet, and cash.
- Robust, customizable allowance and chores functions.
- Prepaid card without overdraft fees
- Highly customizable allowance and chores functions
- Strong financial education resource library
- Parent-paid interest
- No paired investment account
- Weak parental controls
Best Alternatives to Greenlight
When it comes to prepaid debit cards for teens and kids, there are few brands as well known as Greenlight card. From its low monthly fee, to its feature-filled product offering or its ease of use, Greenlight is a great option for parents looking to teach their children about responsible financial habits and how money works in the real world.
However, just because Greenlight stands atop the debit card for kids market doesn’t mean it is always your best choice. Other prepaid cards offer similar features at different price points better adjusted to your needs and situation. So, if you don’t want your child using a Greenlight card right out of the gate, there are several Greenlight alternatives that might be better suited to your needs!
What Are Prepaid Debit Cards for Kids?
A prepaid card is a type of payment card that can be loaded with funds in advance and then used to purchase goods or services without incurring debt from the issuer. The most common type of prepaid cards is a prepaid debit card (which acts like making bank account withdrawals when purchasing goods and services).
Prepaid cards for a child allow you to avoid non-sufficient funds fees or overdraft charges because they can only spend what they have on the card.
What Is the Greenlight Debit Card for Kids?
The Greenlight app offers a feature-filled financial platform meant to help parents teach their kids important personal finance skills and build useful money habits including how to save, earn, invest, spend and give money responsibly. The Greenlight app and prepaid card function as a purpose-built solution for families to learn about money through use of a prepaid debit card with parental controls, notifications and safety features.
Further, the Greenlight prepaid card and app offers a parent account for establishing chore plans and administering weekly allowance payments for successful completion of assigned tasks.
From there, parents can show their kids how to use the included investing platform (on a higher plan through Greenlight Max) to invest in stocks for kids and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). This can show real-life lessons of compound interest and encourage children to save and invest funds regularly.
- 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, Infinity, and Family Shield plans.
- Greenlight also provides educational materials such as "Level Up" lessons that simplify investing concepts, as well as videos about their favorite companies.
- Families can earn 2% (Core), 3% (Max), 5% (Infinity), or 6% (Family Shield) 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
Disclosures
Cash App Families
Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App’s bank partner(s). Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC. Cash App Visa® Debit Flex Cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC, and The Bancorp Bank, N.A., pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. See terms and conditions for the Sutton prepaid card, Sutton debit flex card, and Bancorp debit flex card. Direct deposit, Savings, Instant Discounts, Direct Deposit and Offers provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. brand. Offers may not be affiliated with third party merchants
* Card use fees apply. Free Cash App Cards come in black, white, pink, or glow-in-the-dark.
** Teens 13 to 17 can use Cash App with sponsorship by an eligible parent or guardian. To view the eligibility requirements for sponsoring a teen, please visit the Sponsored Accounts section of the Cash App Terms of Service.
*** With a Cash App Card, your money is eligible for FDIC pass-through insurance through Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Sutton Bank, and/or The Bancorp Bank, N.A., Members FDIC, for up to $250,000 per customer when aggregated with all other deposits held in the same legal capacity at each bank, if certain conditions are met. See the Cash App Terms of Service.
Cash App is a financial services platform, and not an FDIC-insured bank. Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC. Cash App Visa® Debit Flex Cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC, and The Bancorp Bank, N.A., pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc..
1 Cash App reimburses ATM fees for all in-network withdrawals when you deposit at least $300 monthly of Qualifying Deposits into Cash App, or spend $500 or more in Qualifying Purchases using your Cash App Card or Cash App Pay in a calendar month. Service fees may apply. See terms for more details.
2 Brokerage services provided by Cash App Investing LLC, member FINRA/SIPC, subsidiary of Block, Inc. Bitcoin services provided by Block, Inc. Bitcoin services are not licensable activity in all U.S. states and territories. Block, Inc. operates in New York as Block of Delaware and is licensed to engage in virtual currency business activity by the New York State Department of Financial Services. Investing and bitcoin are non-deposit, non-bank products that are not FDIC insured and involve risk, including monetary loss. Cash App Investing does not trade bitcoin and Block, Inc. is not a member of FINRA or SIPC. For additional information, see the Bitcoin and Cash App Investing disclosures. Additional fees for securities may apply such as regulatory fees and fees to transfer securities externally. Please see our House Rules for more information.
Fractional shares investing may involve additional risks such as non-transferability. For additional information regarding the unique risks and limitations of fractional shares, please see your Investing Customer Account Agreement.
3 Cash App will pass through a portion of the interest paid on your savings balance held in an account for the benefit of Cash App customers at Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Member FDIC. To earn interest on your Cash App savings balance, you need to have sponsor approval. Exceptions may apply. Savings yield rate is subject to change.
Revolut <18
1 Customized cards may require fees.
