All About Greenlight
If you’ve been here for five minutes, you know that I’m VERY interested in personal finance and money management (in fact, once upon a time, my mom and my sister and I ran a money blog!).
So you won’t be surprised to hear that teaching our children financial literacy is a big priority for Bart and me.
Last year, we signed Ella up for a Greenlight debit card and it’s been a fun step into a new stage of financial independence (for her AND us!).
ALL About Greenlight debit card for kids
If you’re unfamiliar with Greenlight, it’s a debit card and app designed specifically for families that make it really to help your child learn to manage, save and spend money (and even invest!).
You can set up automatic allowance payments, turn on chores or assignments that they can get paid for as they check them off, transfer money into their account, earmark money to be spent at certain stores (so, for instance, you could turn $10 on for Target but they can’t spend MORE than that at Target. This is really great if your child is prone to going crazy at the movie candy counter or whatever).
Basically, if you’re looking for a first debit card for your child with a lot of control options on the parent side, it doesn’t get better than Greenlight.
When I asked about it last year, before we signed up, here are some of the messages I got about it.
My kids (almost 6 and 9) each have a Greenlight debit card for kids. They were already getting paid allowance and now I have an app to track their chores/tasks and it allows us to set up what goes to spending, saving and giving. Sometimes they still ask for cash and they’re allowed to take cash out but they’re responsible for not losing it. They LOVE the autonomy and I love that they’re learning how to manage money so young.
We love Greenlight cards! It makes it so easy to keep track of and pay them and no more arguing over whose #1 that was on the floor in shared bedrooms!
We use it for my 11 year old daughter! We’ve had it for over 2 years and it is amazing. She a strategic saver and she loves all the saving features. We got it for her to learn how to manage her own money but an added bonus is when she goes places with other people we can load money for certain stores and restaurants and i never have to worry about having cash to send with her. So if she were to go out to eat with friends or family we can “assign” our money to pay for her meal instead of her own. There are tons of other great features! I recommend it to everyone I know!
We love it! My 9 year old has it and it’s been great. It’s easy for her to check to see her balance and to make purchases after she checks to see how much she has. I feel like having her check her balance helps make it more like real money. She loves that it’s a card like we often use. I rarely have cash on me so I like that we are helping to teach her to be responsible with a card.
We have it for our 14 and 12 year old and love it! My 12 YO son will spend every penny he gets as soon as he gets it, so l like that I can set limits on how much and where he can spend and help him learn to save. My 14 YO daughter has created different savings groups (college, car, laptop, etc) and loves seeing what she needs to do to budget to hit her goals
The main complaint about the Greenlight debit card for kids is the fee – Greenlight has three plans. The first one is Greenlight and it’s $4.99 per month. The second is Greenlight + Invest and it’s $7.98 per month and Greenlight Max is $9.98 per month.
Those prices include up to 5 kids/debit cards, so if we added Ani or Star on, it wouldn’t cost us more than just having Ella on it.
We were in luck because we’ve had a Chase account for about 20 years and they’ve partnered with Greenlight so we have access to the Greenlight app features and a child’s debit card without having to pay a monthly fee for it. If you’re already a Chase account holder, definitely look into it (it’s called Chase First Banking).
You can also try Greenlight for free for a month. If you’re curious about it, I’d definitely sign up for a free month to play around with it before you actually have to pay for it,
Or you can check with your bank or credit union and see what options they have for children (you probably won’t get the controls and benefits of the Greenlight app, but it might be a good trade off if you don’t want to pay the $5 monthly fee).
I love it that when Ella babysits for us, we can transfer money right into her account, I can give her money to spend at a certain place and she can set savings goals and watch her money grow.
Ella is also a lot like me – she’s a natural saver and hates to spend money and I’ve realized from my own growing up that learning to spend money is just as important as learning to save money. You need both skills! And Greenlight helps in both cases.
I also got a bunch of questions on Instagram about Greenlight and how it works and I’ve done my best to answer those below!
Questions about the greenlight debit card for kids
WHAT’S THE BEST AGE FOR THIS?
There’s no minimum or maximum age for Greenlight, so it’s up to you to decide when the best fit is for your child. Some kids are ready for more financial responsibility at younger ages while others need longer to mature. Ella is eleven and it felt like a great age for us. I always think about the line from The Secrets of Happy Families about money – you want your child to make mistakes when they’re on a tricycle, not when they’re driving a BMW. They’ll make money mistakes for sure! You just want it to be when the stakes are low and you’re still around to help navigate them.
IS IT WORTH THE COST?
This is one of those questions that’s entirely personal. Only you can decide if any expenditure is worth it for your own values, budget, and needs. I personally don’t see any need to pay for Amazon Prime, but millions of other households can’t imagine living without it. Neither of us are wrong – we just value different things and have different needs.
DOES GREENLIGHT REQUIRE A STANDING BALANCE?
Nope! I actually called in to verify this with them. You need to make an initial deposit of $20 but after that you, don’t need to stay at any balance at all.
HOW TO START TEACHING FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY?
There are a million ways to start (I love the book The Opposite of Spoiled and I’m currently reading Make Your Kid A Money Genius (Even If You’re Not)), but one thing I think is that you can’t start learning about how to use money without HAVING MONEY TO USE. Just like you’ll never learn to really cook well if you’re not actually in the kitchen dealing with real food – you have to have that hands on practice. And as a parent, I think it’s important to understand that there will be mistakes (on both your end and your child’s end!) and that this shouldn’t keep you from starting. You learn from doing. And there is no single right way to do it.
WHAT ARE IMPORTANT PREREQUISITE SKILLS FOR A KID TO HAVE BEFORE THEY GET A GREENLIGHT DEBIT CARD?
I think the most important skill they’ll need is to be able to keep track of a debit card. That’s not something that’s easy for lots of kids and if they’re going to be leaving it around, I’d wait a bit (let’s be honest, lots of adults struggle with this too). Even Ella, who is very responsible in general, has left her purse a few places and she’s been lucky to get it back each of those times.
Other than that, I see Greenlight as primarily a teaching tool to help them develop those skills, not something I need to wait until they HAVE a lot of skills to introduce.
You know your child best so you’re best equipped to decide when the time is right. The other good thing is that if you introduce it and your child clearly isn’t ready, you can cancel your account and try again in six months or a year or two.
WHAT ARE THE PROS TO A GREENLIGHT CARD VS OPENING A BANK ACCOUNT/DEBIT CARD?
For me, the pros are all the app controls – I love being able to earmark money, help them set up savings goals, set up recurring payments and more. The debit card itself is nothing special – it’s the Greenlight app that’s the major difference.
DOES GREENLIGHT WORK OUTSIDE THE US?
Yes, you can use it internationally just like a regular Mastercard card. There aren’t international transaction fees.
WHERE IS THIS CUTE WALLET FROM?
My parents gave this sloth wallet to her for her birthday last year – it’s from Amazon!
IS THIS CONNECTED TO THEIR OWN SAVINGS ACCOUNT?
Yes, it comes with its own account and has both a checking and savings side.
DO YOU THINK THIS WORKS BETTER THAN CASH?
For us, yes. I HATE cash – I think it’s so gross and it feels like a hassle to me and I don’t like that I can’t easily track where it went. It’s hard for me to have cash to pay Ella for things, whereas I can transfer online at a moment’s notice. It’s also wildly important to me that my children are very comfortable with digital money since the world is going more and more that way. If they can’t handle money that isn’t cash in their hand, they’re at a huge disadvantage going into the real world.
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE FOR MONEY TO HIT THEIR ACCOUNT IF YOU TRANSFER MONEY?
Because we’re running ours through Chase, we can instantly transfer money from our Chase checking account right into her account. If you’re using a traditional Greenlight account, you have what’s called a Parent Wallet where you can transfer money into (basically like a staging ground for money). That will take 3-4 days (or whatever your bank’s transfer time is) but once the money is in the Parent Wallet, you can instantly transfer it to your child’s Greenlight account. So ideally, you’d keep a little backstop of money in your Parent Wallet so you can transfer instantly at any time.
DO YOU GIVE ALLOWANCE OR HAVE A CHORE CHART? HOW DOES SHE EARN MONEY?
We don’t do allowances or pay for chores (although Greenlight is set up to make it very simple to automatically pay allowances or for chores). Ella earns her own money through babysitting or entrepreneurial ventures like selling frozen cookie dough, a neighborhood cookie stand or selling drinks and snacks to college students playing frisbee or tennis or soccer at a local park.
IS IT ACCEPTED ANYWHERE?
Pretty much anywhere that takes Mastercard takes Greenlight!
IS IT LINKED TO ANY SPECIFIC BANK?
Community Federal Savings Bank is the bank that Greenlight uses. But you don’t need to sign up for a new account – signing up for Greenlight sets it all up for you. And yes, it’s an FDIC insured bank.
HOW EASY IS IT FOR A CHILD TO TRACK THE BALANCE?
They can look on your app at any time or if they have a tablet or smartphone, they can download the app and sign in as a child and see their balance and transactions there.
DO YOU HAVE TO PROVIDE YOUR CHILD’S SSN?
No, but you will need to provide YOUR social security number.
WHAT HAPPENS IF THE GREENLIGHT CARD GETS LOST?
Like any other credit or debit card, you report it lost/missing (there is a place to do it on the app) and then they’ll send you a replacement. The first Greenlight replacement card is free – after that they’re $3.50 each.
Any other questions about the Greenlight debit card for kids or the app? I’d love to help! Leave any questions in the comments or let me know of other options that have worked well for your family!
I think this is so cool, and I loved your point about how learning to spend money is equally important! As a super-saver myself that resonated 😉
Thank you for this post! My kids have been asking for Greenlight cards and it’s on my list to look into – thank you for answering some of the questions I had.
Love reading this! I remember you’ve posted in the past about your family economy and paying for chores – has the system changed in your house? We’re considering starting a family economy and love the idea of actually giving our kids money to manage (as you said!), so wondering how you do this if not through allowance/chores? (Or maybe just Ella has money right now through the avenues you noted above?)
I found the family economy more to keep up than I was really willing to do. We haven’t done it for more than a year.
How did you link your account to your bank to have the fee waived? Did you call the bank or was there an option when you signed up to be linked to them?
You have to do it directly through Chase (https://account.chase.com/banking/first-banking)
Is there anyway for a kid to get cash out on their own, if the occasion arises? Maybe from an ATM?
I love reloadable debit cards. I have a bank that offers these. We use them with our oldest, she sets her budget and then can spend as she chooses. And once the money is gone, it is gone. She is a little older than your Ella. But it has been a game changer. She is very conscious of her money, and how to spend it and what to spend it on. And she will treat her siblings to a drink or treat on occasion. It’s awesome to see her grow!