13 Best Money Apps for Kids [Banking, Investing + More]

Could you imagine what the world might look like if kids learned how to manage money from an early age? Any number of positive developments might occur, from learning to live within your means, developing a budget you stick to, getting started early on investing as a teenager or kid and planning for a secure retirement, among many other desirable outcomes.

Thankfully, this idealistic start for making an investment in your child’s future isn’t as unreachable as it once may have been. In fact, there are several helpful resources to teach financial literacy to your kids. You might even find that your kids get exposed to a decent amount of financial knowledge from their everyday interactions with media, including video games, television, streaming services and more.

This article will focus on the best money apps for kids when you want to teach them about how to handle money.

Many of the apps are free and come with some basic offerings while others provide a free trial to test out the app before committing to an on-going subscription.

After we talk about our picks for some of the best apps for kids and their parents to manage money together for devices like iPhone, iPad and Android smartphones, we jump into talking about a few related topics. Namely, how kids can learn about handling money in the real world and making spending decisions of their own. In today’s cashless economy, that means starting with banking and debit cards.

Best Money Apps for Kids—Our Top Picks

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Best Debit Cards for Kids

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When you look for debit cards and banking solutions for your kids, you will want to be mindful of the available features that come with the bank account and debit cards.

Of particular importance, parents should look for features like no or low fees for funding and maintaining the jointly-managed account, easily accessible and customizable online account monitoring, convenient, and preferably free, ATM access, as well as the ability to set spending limits within your agreed upon terms.

We cover all the major considerations you should make in this complete article about the best debit cards for kids.

Below, we review a handful of apps which allow you to use some or all of these features.

1. Greenlight Card (Investment Account with Debit Card)

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• Available: Sign up here
• Price: Starts at $5.99/mo.

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.

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.

Read more in our Greenlight card review or sign up today.

Related: Best Greenlight Alternatives

2. Cash App Families: Cash App’s Debit Card for Teens

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• Available: Sign up here
• Price: Free* (no monthly fees)

Does your teen need to start learning smart saving, spending, and even investing habits? Cash App Families can accomplish all three—with no monthly 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 debit 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, 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 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.

3. Acorns Early (Best for Customer Service)

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• 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. The standard Acorns Early debit card itself is included in the monthly subscription; however, your child can also stylize their card with one of 35 different designs for a one-time fee. The account also allows kids to set savings goals, which they can fund manually or via autosave.

Acorns Early’s app hosts educational materials to help children and teens alike develop good money habits. One of the more impressive aspects of the program is that it’s explicitly segmented into different age groups, starting with money basics for kids in single-digit ages, then becoming more advanced over time, so the lessons really appear to grow as your children do.

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 offers a number of ways to fund the account. Parents, of course, can send money in a pinch whenever they want with instant transfers. They can also set up a regular allowance, or tie payment to chores. (And parents get to approve chores before they pay out—no half-done dishes allowed.) Teens can also receive ACH deposits from their employers. And loved ones can either get “Relative accounts” that allow them to send money to your kids, or they can send money via Acorns Early “Giftlinks,” which act similarly to an e-gift card.

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: 

1. Sign up for Acorns Early Lite. This subscription level provides you with everything mentioned above for up to four children.
2. 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.

Related: GoHenry vs. Greenlight

4. Copper Card (Best for Kid Independence)

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• Available: Sign up here
• Price: 30 days free. Copper $4.95/mo., 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.

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.

Related: Best Teen Credit Cards for Building Credit

5. Capital One MONEY (Best Free Teen Checking Account)

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• Available: Read our review and sign up
• Price: Free (no monthly fees)

Capital One MONEY Teen Checking is one of Young and the Invested’s top choices for parents who want to financially empower their kids at an early age. Yes, this free checking account is predominantly aimed at teenagers, but it’s actually available to kids as young as 8 years old.

This joint checking account offers flexibility for kids and a touch of tranquility for parents. Kids get a Mastercard debit card that they can use at millions of merchants across the U.S., as well as in roughly 210 countries and territories worldwide. Your teen also enjoys access to one of the largest fee-free ATM networks among kids debit cards—more than 70,000+ Capital One, MoneyPass, and AllPoint machines. They can also send and receive money via Zelle, receive direct deposits from employers, and even cash paper checks by snapping a couple photos within the highly rated Capital One app.

Parents, meanwhile, can also pay their kids a regular allowance, or make one-time payments as gifts or rewards. They also can monitor their teens’ transactions, lock and unlock their child’s card, and control their kid’s access to (and transfer limits within) Zelle.

To learn more about the account, read our Capital One MONEY Teen Checking review. Or you can sign up today by clicking “Get Started” above.

Related: 10 Best Money Apps for Teens [Invest, Spend, Budget + Pay]

6. Revolut <18 (Best for Parent-Paid Bonuses)

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• 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.

Related: Best Bar Mitzvah Gift Ideas [Financial Gift Ideas That Last]

7. FamZoo (Best for Financial Education)

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• Available: Sign up here
• Price: Free trial, then $5.99/mo

FamZoo is another prepaid debit card service parents can use 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.

Related: Greenlight vs. FamZoo

Best Investment Apps for Kids (and Teens)

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Kids need to begin first by understanding the value of money and how it can be used to save for important spending decisions or spent on everyday necessities. For kids to get the full value for their money, they will also need to manage it and invest. Doing so properly will help kids to develop financial literacy skills, have less fear of financial topics and set them on a better financial path.

The following are some of the best investing and money management apps for kids and teenagers. All of these apps require a parent or guardian to open if the owner is a minor, but will transition to the account owner’s name after turning the age of majority (18 or 21 in some states for financial items).

Related: Best Money Apps for Teens

8. Greenlight

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• Available: Sign up here
• Price: Max: $10.98/mo. Infinity: $15.98/mo. Family Shield: $19.98/mo. (All plans include cards for up to 5 children)

Greenlight is a premier kids’ financial app and debit card that teaches minors the ins and outs of saving, spending, and financial responsibility—and with a Greenlight Max, Infinity, or Family Shield plan, they can start to invest, too!

It’s easy to use and can double as a savings account and banking apps for teens. The investing app will teach the basics of investing, how to invest in stocks and ETFs, and more.

It works best if parents and/or grandparents are involved in the process because it requires linked accounts from the adults’ banks or brokerages. Plus, parents and guardians will need to approve trades made in the investment account.

The all-in-one plan teaches them important financial skills like money management and investing fundamentals—with real money, real stocks and real-life lessons.

You can use the investing feature to:

• Start investing with as little as $1 in your account
• Buy fractional shares of companies you admire (say, kid-friendly stocks)
• No trading commissions beyond the monthly subscription fee
• Teens can only invest in U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs that have either a market capitalization over $1 billion or a three-month average daily dollar volume of more than $500,000
• Parents must approve every trade directly in the app.

Read more in our Greenlight Card review, check out plan pricing below, or sign up for Greenlight Max, Infinity, or Family Shield today.

Related: Best Fractional Share Brokerages to Buy Partial Stocks & ETFs

9. Acorns ($20 Bonus)

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• Available: Sign up here
• Price: Acorns Gold: $12/mo.

Holy double-take, Batman! Is that an app making this list again? You’re right.

Acorns also again makes a second appearance on this list of best money apps for kids. This time, it shows up under the kids investing app section because it also acts as an all-in-one financial wellness app. If you sign up for Acorns Gold, you can open a custodial account for your child, and that account will transfer into your child’s name once they reach the age of majority in your state. You can invest together and make contributions to work toward financial goals over time.

 

10. UNest

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• Available: Sign up here
• Price: First year free, then $2/mo. + 0.25% annual fee*

UNest is a custodial account that allows parents to invest money for their kids for needs beyond just education but events like a new car, a wedding, vacation or anything else a minor might want some day.

UNest offers the UNest Investment Account for Kids through an app that makes it easy for families of all income levels and backgrounds to set up and manage savings and investment plans for their kids. The platform will also support 530A/Trump Accounts.

UNest also has a gifting feature that allows friends and relatives to contribute to your kid’s account with just a few clicks. These gifts can be automated, too, so they never miss a birthday or holiday!

The app offers up to nine investment options for account owners:

• A conservative option investing in fixed income and bond ETFs
• Three age-based options with varying degrees of risk reflected in the investment mix (conservative, moderate, aggressive); these transition from more aggressive investments to conservative as the child gets owner and gains access to the funds
• Socially responsible age-based options also with varying degrees of risk (conservative, moderate, aggressive), likewise on the investment mix transition strategy from aggressive to conservative over time
• An aggressive option that invests 100% of the funds in Vanguard equity index ETFs, and a shortlist of popular cryptocurrencies.

Account holders can receive bonuses for their children’s UNest accounts via partner offers from companies such as Disney, AT&T, Uber, DoorDash, Levi’s, etc., through the UNest Rewards partner program.

Best Allowance Apps for Kids

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Establishing a link between working and money is a good habit to develop at an an early age. This can motivate kids to work hard and set savings goals for themselves.

They can also be rewarded for their patient saving by making a purchase they really want as an achievement.

The following best allowance and chore apps for kids enable parents and their children to manage allowance payments and work toward important financial goals.

11. Savings Spree

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• Available: Only available on iOS
• Price: $5.99

This gamified app emphasizes the concept of how small purchases add up in the long run. It demonstrates the opposite effect as well by letting you see how small, consistent savings can accumulate to be a significant amount over time.

The app works like a game show hosted by a talking pig. Users assume the role of the game show’s contestants and see how daily lifestyle changes can affect your long-term savings potential.

It also shows the impact of unexpected expenses which crop up and could potentially derail your savings plans. The proposed solution is none other than having a well-funded emergency fund.

While this app might be more appropriate for younger teens than older teens and young adults, the lessons taught are worth understanding at any age.

12. PiggyBot

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• Available: Only available on iOS
• Price: Free

This app acts as an allowance app which allows kids to spend, share and save smart. PiggyBot allows users to track allowance spending and saving, including staying on top of IOUs and missed allowance payments.

This app doesn’t use cash, but instead tracks a virtual balance held with you. You can think of this as a virtual IOU tracking app with each child having a separate Spend-It, Share-It and Save-It accounts.

You can set mutual goals to work toward satisfying your wants and needs, and learning the difference between them. This app would pair well with Greenlight’s debit card and bank account when you’re ready to transition to spending money in certain, pre-approved stores.

13. iAllowance

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• Available: Only available on iOS
• Price: $2.99

iAllowance boasts over 30 million chores completed with 20 million allowances paid using the app. You can use virtual piggy banks to manage your children’s finances and teach them about saving and spending money.

You can set up weekly allowance payments that automatically transfer at regular intervals to your teen’s bank account, like one from Stash, Greenlight or Acorns Early.

It’s a win-win where you don’t have to be pulling out cash constantly and your child always gets their money on time.

If your teen is responsible for chores, you can track them through iAllowance and even send push reminders for ones that still need to get done.

Making Spending Decisions on Your Own

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As a father to a 1-year old, it’s been an adventure seeing my son allow his mother and I make all of his decisions for him while he sat back and (mostly) enjoyed the ride. But since he developed some independence by learning to crawl, then cruise and now walk, he’s learning to make decisions on his own about what he wants to do and say. Inevitably, this will lead to other choices he will need to make. While we made these decisions for him, we want to encourage him to evaluate his options and decide what’s best for himself.

One such topic will relate to money. Specifically, what to do with it.

When my wife and I were kids, we saved pocket money in piggy banks. Our household shopping happened in person, not online. We would often see our parents handling cash, as debit cards and credit cards weren’t always the go to payment method. Now, as we spend more time online, money has become far less tangible. As a result, how can we expect our kids to learn about it and truly appreciate its value? The answer to this question comes from the numerous apps listed in this article.

We expect our son to start learning about money by seeing his mother and I spend money at places like the grocery store, a restaurant, online or any other place of business. Even though he won’t see physical money change hands in many of these transactions, we want him to tie the cause and effect of this together. We would like for him to understand how we manage our money. In particular, how we choose to weigh our wants and needs, and how we decide what is the most important. We also want him to understand how he can identify these by himself and make his own choices.

Once he has his right on these topics, we’ll need to begin discussing how to make the purchases.

Increasingly, that means understanding how spending on cards works. Debit cards to start, and eventually credit cards when he’s much older. The best debit cards for kids teach them how to manage their money and not be wasteful. Though, because most kids won’t qualify for a teen checking account by themselves, you’ll need to pursue other debit card and banking options available to minors. Let’s talk about debit cards for kids.

The Best Money Apps for Kids

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Money apps can help kids to pick up financial skills quickly, often by gamifying the topics but also by including adults in the conversation. This can lead to better guidance and life outcomes. Thankfully, teaching kids about money doesn’t have to be a boring experience. The best money apps for kids will make money management your kids’ favorite subjects for discussion.

Consider signing up for some of the apps above and see how they work together to build a better financial future for your kids.

Disclosures

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Revolut <18

¹ Customized cards may require fees.