This past year, I realized something. My kids needed one of those debit cards for kids. I was so tired of keeping track of my children’s money. And, I wasn’t teaching them about money by taking care of it all myself.
That’s when it hit me, a debit card for kids wasn’t really a bad thing. There are plenty of perks to kid debit cards. So, when I started looking for one, I was kind of surprised with how many companies make debit cards for kids. And, I had to really look at all the perks and benefits to find one that I thought would be perfect for my kids.
I eventually choose this ONE here but if you’re in the starting stages of finding your child a debit card, I am giving you some tips on what to look for so you can get the best experience with your child’s debit card.
Child Debit Cards, What You Need to Know Before Choosing One
Monthly Fees
It feels like everything in life is a subscription these days. And, after signing up to what feels like a bizzilion subscriptions a month, it gets expensive!
The last thing I wanted to do was to throw money away in order to help my kids save money – I mean that just doesn’t make sense – at all! So, when it came to finding a debit card for my children I refused to spend a monthly fee on it. And, this kind of made finding them a debit card for them hard.
But here are some of the debit cards for kids that I found do NOT require a monthly fee:
- Chase
- Capital One
- Fidelity
- AdelFi learn more about this Christian bank HERE.
Easy to add money to
The next thing that was important to me when finding a debit card for my kids was the ease of adding money to it. Since my local banks don’t off child debit cards, I knew I wouldn’t be able to just drive to the bank to deposit money into there accounts, but with the Capital One Teen Checking Account, I actually can! I can deposit money into my regular hometown bank and quickly and easily add money to my child’s account.
I just link my two accounts and I can easily reward my kids with allowance without ever having to visit a Capital One Bank! And, if that doesn’t sound good enough, Capital One also offers free access to your money at over 70,000 fee-free ATM’s.
Availability for Younger Kids Not Just Teenagers
A lot of the banks that advertise for debit cards for kids don’t actually allow children younger than a teen to signup for them. And, my kids are still young.
That’s why I was especially excited when I found out Capital One only required kids to be 8-years old to sign up. While my daughter has to wait until this year to sign up, I was able to sign my boys up for Capital One’s Teen Checking Account online without any issue.
Capital One is actually the ONLY child checking account that I could even find that had no fee and your child only had to be 8.
Parental Control
Having a child debit card is a big responsibility for any kid. That’s why I was adamant that any debit card I got for my kids had to have some sort of parental controls and Capital One’s does!
This card allows me to add money to their card for things like allowances and birthdays and remove money anytime I may need to. I can easily see everything my child does with his money and I can share parental control with my husband.
*Though it looks like most debit cards for kids allow some sort of parental controls, I only have experience with Capital One’s controls.
While I found Capital One’s teen checking account right for my family, I hope you take these factors into account when finding a debit card that’s right for your children. One thing that I didn’t mention, but almost all debit cards for children require, is parents having a bank account with that bank.
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Tell me, have you gotten your children a debit card yet and which one did you choose? Share in the comments below!
Last Updated on 4 years ago by Crystal Carder
Thank you for sharing! We do not plan for debit cards, for at least ten years. Actually, I don’t believe we will ever have one.
This was full of useful info. My children don’t have one just yet. I haven’t decided which to get.
This is a good way for my future kids to know the value of money. Start ’em young as they say so they know how it works!
Our three teenagers also got their own debit card, with parental control, although I don’t like when Westpac changes their rules of giving full control to kids when they reach 12-yrs old. We have to request the bank to make it 18 instead. Overall, they can somehow manage their money, but we can still see their expenses.
This is helpful. We are actually planning to give my daughter her own card but haven’t decided yet which one. I like the idea of still having parental controls on the card. Thank you for sharing this.