Read what Mumsnet users thought of NatWest Island Saver

[LucyBMumsnet]

This is the feedback thread for the Mumsnet users who have been testing NatWest Island Saver with their child aged 5 to 12 years. NatWest Island Saver is a fun and educational video game designed to teach children aged 5 to 12 about money management.

Here’s what NatWest has to say: “NatWest Island Saver is the world’s first video game that teaches children all about money. Set on the once idyllic ‘Savvy Islands’, players are tasked with an exciting quest to clean up polluted islands and save the bankimals whilst learning about money along the way. We know that it is crucial for children to develop good money habits at a young age to help them make better financial decisions in the future, and studies have shown that games outperform textbooks in helping children learn fact-based subjects.

So, by introducing important money themes such as interest, taxes, loan sharks and debt management through gaming, NatWest Island Saver is the perfect way to help your child become money savvy, without ever feeling like a lesson. Island Saver is free to download here on iOS, Android, Steam, PlayStation®4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.”

Testers, please give your feedback by answering the following questions, as well as completing the short survey we’ve emailed you.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?
2. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?
3. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?
4. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?
5. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

All testers who leave their feedback on this thread and complete the survey will receive a £5 Amazon voucher and will be entered into a prize draw to win a £100 voucher for a store of the winner’s choice.

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Insight Terms and Conditions apply

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

Collecting the trash and cleaning the island

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills?

Yes, to some extent

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

No

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Yes, my child is 5 so one of the younger ones but I thought it was great & definitely useful for parents as a tool

1. My daughter is 6 years old and found it hard to control the game. After many goes and getting frustrated she gave up!
2. No but that’s because the game was too hard for her. She knew beforehand it was a game about saving and speaks about savings and spending prior to the game so is clued up.
3. No, maybe if she could have played more of the game and got further along she would have been interested in talking about it.
4. No we didn’t use any activity sheets.
5. I’d probably recommend it to older children, I found 6 years to be a little too young for this type of game.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver? She loved collecting trash and the different creatures.
2. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? I think it’s made her learn that it’s good to put money in a bank where it’s safe and you can earn interest.
3. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about? Yes absolutely. We spoke about saving and where tax goes. We talked about using cards and keeping PIN numbers safe.
4. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions? No we didn’t but I will have a look!
5. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why? Yes absolutely. I would have never known how to discuss things like interest and tax with my child. This was a great way to do it.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

Collecting coins

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills?

yes

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

no

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

no

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Yes, my daughter enjoy playing games i already recommend to my friends

1- enjoy most? - dd is 5 and struggled to control the game. She liked the idea of collecting plastic trash but couldn't operate the controls to play it effectively. She tried a couple of times then gave up.

2- taught money management skills? - No. she probably didn't get far enough into the game to learn anything. Lots of information as the game was loading but she couldn't read it so would need an adult to read it out loud.

3- encourage saving conversations? - No. we talk in general about saving money but the game did not prompt this.

4- activity sheets? - No

5- recommend? - I would possibly recommend to older kids. 5 is definitely too young for this game.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver? Unlocking new bankimals
2. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned? Learnt about interest and tax
3. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about? Yes, we had a conversation about why some of his money was being taken for tax and what that money is used for
4. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions? No
5. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why? Yes, he enjoyed playing the game although is still on the early levels. He did find the controls quite difficult to play and I had to Google how to do some of the bits

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver? Collecting the coins and seeing the different bankimals.
2. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

Yes, the importance of keeping money safe and earning money.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

Yes, we talked about saving and keeping money in the bank.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Yes, it is a fun game to play and teaches about money.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

She enjoyed playing the game and would ask to play it again - I didn't need to encourage her to give it a go at all, she was very happy. I think there was enough to keep her engaged trying to figure out how the game worked and what she needed to do, but it wasn't too tricky for her.

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

Yes, to an extent.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

Well it seems to have started a conversation about pocket money.....but we've also talked about saving and money for jobs.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No, we didn't use them.

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Yes, because she enjoyed the game.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

They loved the tasks they had to do to get money. The water shooter was a win!

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

Yes its been good for them to save money to then buy things later on in game.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

Yes we talked about having to save so they would have money to complete tasks later on. We talked about the coins being collected so they didn't get taken by the blob.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

I didnt realise this was a thing (missed point on my part) will definitely have a look into that!

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Yes its a very fun clear easy way of teaching children. I love the fact it also encourages recycling and looking after the planet

1. What did your child enjoy most Saver? Collecting the rubbish and receiving coins. He liked saving the coins too.
2. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?we used it to discuss savings
3. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about? Yes we talked about savings and tax. Also how interest works which led on to discussing investments.
4. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions? Yes we read through them together, I think these could be developed further too.
5. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why? Yes, it’s fun and my son enjoyed playing the game. We discussed money, savings, tax etc it’s a nice gentle introduction for a young child. My son compared the saving and spending aspect to the bank machine in animal crossing.

My other children also wanted to play but we couldn’t find a way of adding an extra couple of players so if you could change that that would also be good!

short survey we’ve emailed you.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

My daughter loved the whole game the look of it she said was like fortnight with the graphics. She also liked the characters and tasks

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

Yes it did it showed her how to do things to earn money and how to then use it best.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

We talked a lot about how you earn money for doing work and also about buying big things like houses and cars using help from the bank.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

We did have a look at a few and they were really helpful in explaining things.

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Yes this is a really innovative way of teaching kids the value of money and how to spend but also to save for the bigger things.

What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver? She enjoyed collecting the rubbsh, but the controls were very hard for her to use, and in places it was very frustrating for her (I tried to help and struggled too!). She got veyr cross with having to go back and forward between areas to find things especially when it was hard to control the character.

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

Not really, it taught her that money comes from work, but there weren't options about what to spend money on or to spend vs save, she just had to follow the game. Also, although it mentioned interest at the beginning there was no interest earned during the game which negates one of the purposes of putting the money in the bank.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

Not really, she saw it just as a game, and didn't really see it as a link to real life, although we did discuss how grown-ups pay tax to help everyone

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No, they were pitched too high for my 5 year old.

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Not really, it was too frustrating to control, too little focus on actual money management and I felt it could have been far better designed to address more real life situations.

What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver? Collecting the rubbish and making the island clean.

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned? I don’t think she learnt that much about money no.
2. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about? We spoke about needing to work to make money to pay for our lifestyle etc and about saving money for things we wanted to do but that was more me which initiated the conversation.
3. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions? No as they were a bit too difficult for my 5 year old
4. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why? Yes I would recommend it to parents of children about 6 years and older as I don’t think children under 6 would get as much from it

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?
Being allowed to play a game on my phone was a novelty for her. The message of looking after the environment was clear and was something she enjoyed, she has been learning about it at school.

2. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?
Not sure that it has. At six, she is probably a bit young to get this message through a game. It might be a useful concept for older children but I think money management is best taught through practical methods, e.g. having a savings account or a savings goal.

3. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?
We did talk about what she is saving for (new watch) and how much more money she will need to save towards it.

4. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?
No, at six she is too young.

5. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?
Perhaps for older children it would be useful, however it was too abstract a concept for my six year old.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

They enjoyed the whole concept of it, the fun graphics and learning about all the different bits and pieces

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

I think it helped to instil the concept of working for reward

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

we talked about working for money and what rewards you can get

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

no

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Yes, absolutely! its a really well made educational game, there is a bit of reading though so if your child isn't a fluent reader you would need to be on hand to help

1. My son’s iPad hated the game and would only allow him to go so far before it crashed. Tried on repeated occasions, same thing happened.
2. No because the game never got to a stage where he could learn anything.
3. A little while we tried to sort out the dilemma of the non working game.
4. No we didn’t use any activity sheets.
5. I wouldn’t recommend it. I have had no issues with a variety on this iPad, so have no clue why it didn’t work for us. Just caused irritation.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver? He liked cleaning up what he said was crab poo haha
2. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned? I'm not sure he thought that deeply about it.
3. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about? No, because the text on there about money was interrupting the game play he just skipped through it quickly and I had to stand over him asking him to slow down and read it.
4. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions? No
5. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why? Yes because I think it might work better for other parents who are able to sit and play it with their child or a child who isn't so used to fast game play and will take the time to think it through. My son really enjoyed it as he does most games but he didn't ask any questions

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver? The gameplay.

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

I think it's encouraged and stimulated conversation about savings, but I don't know that it'll change his behaviour with respect to money.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

Yes, we talked about saving and the importance of saving and about the way tax works in the UK.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

Not really.

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Yes, but alongside other activities. It's a useful, easily accessible tool for children.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

Elliot has just turned 5, He struggled with the controls of the app ( How to move around.) and so gave up quite early, I continued to try out the app instead. He liked the idea of the game, Cleaning the environment and collection coins.

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

Yes, in the short time he played he enjoyed the game and putting the coins in the bank, We had a conversation about this. He's a bit too young for anything to meaniful about money yet but we will try the app again when he's a bit older.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

Yes, We talked about bank accounts and having savings.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No, I didn't realise there was any, I will take a look now though.

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Yes, It's a really good app and game, Just unfortunately he was to young for it at the moment but we will use it again in the future, I like that the Tax was added in also.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

The colours, animals, sucking the water, firing the water, collecting the doubloons

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

A little bit. We talked about earning money through work, saving it in the bank to keep it safe and paying tax for things like schools, libraries, lampposts (!) etc.

It taught my DC more about the environment and the need to not litter, pick up litter and the dangers of plastic bottles.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

Yes we talk about money during every day circumstances so it gave us the chance to talk about tax which we've never done before.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

Apologies. I didn't know there were any so no.

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

It could be a fun game to play and to start money management conversations but it felt more environment focused as that's what my DC wanted to talk about spontaneously.

Feedback on the game:

My 8 year old got very frustrated because she couldn't work out how to do things. Even with me sitting next to her working it out together. E.g

When we tried to collect the tax token it wasn't clear we were 'full' and that's why we couldn't pick it up. That was when my 5 year old got bored. Eventually I worked it out but Googling didn't help. Nor checking settings etc. Nor talking to Kiwi the parrot. An explanation as to why we couldn't and what we needed to do would have been helpful.

Kiwi the parrot kept repeating the same instructions. I know it's a parrot but my 8 year old got fed up with the nagging and just said 'what doesn't he just do it himself!!'.

Firing seeds into the pots to grow. You'd fire a seed and find it really far away on the other side of the area! The target area should be increased. It's only children playing!

Having to trek back really far to get tax tokens to empty the recycling machines. Could have had a few more dotted around or short cuts.

Needs a bank in every area. I know NatWest like every bank is cutting its high street branches but treking around looking for the bank was not engaging for children.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

Collecting trash and coins and the animals

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

I think it’s made them think more about earning money, although they were always reluctant to spend any money they have so they have always been a saver!

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

We talked about how important it is to save something each month, rather than spend everything.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No, but we will go back and look at them now.

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Yes, it was a good starter for my 10 year old, especially if used with real life scenarios.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

Squirting water

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? No but environment awareness

If yes, what have they learned?n/a

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? A bit

If yes, what did you talk about?what dd would do if she was rich

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions? No
2. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why? Not really the game was clunky to use and had a tenuous connection with money

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

My child enjoyed playing the game, there wasn't a particular part they enjoyed most.

We particularly did not enjoy downloading the game as it said my phone was not compatible, despite being android. Luckily it worked on my daughter's phone. Also when it was loading for the first time, the screen looked like the start of the game but we couldn't do anything and it took a long time to load, so we thought it was frozen.

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

No, my daughter says that she didn't learn anything new about money management skills from the game. She is aware of most of it through experience and conversations. She is 12.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

No, my child and I downloaded the game together and I watcher her play it for a while and then she played independently - she did not speak to me about money as a consequence of playing the game.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No, we did not know about these, so have not even looked at them. We might have a look, now we know about them.

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Maybe for younger children as it was very basic and my child didn't feel she learned anything new from it.

Also, please note that my child is now stuck in the game - she is on Wallow Hole Way, she has finished the island and the hippos made stepping stones, however she went back to collect some gold doubloons before she moved on and now she can't find the hippo steps and so can't move on to the next island.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

"It's just fun."

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

When I saw her using 1234 as a PIN we had a conversation about suitable and unsuitable PINs and passwords. Otherwise she seems to mainly think she's learned about looking after the environment although I suspect she's learning more than she realises.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

Yes we discussed suitable/unsuitable PINs/passwords after I saw her using 1234.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No, I didn't realise there were worksheets. I'll definitely check them out now I know.

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Possibly but I don't think we've used it long enough to give a definite yes.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

She liked how pretty it looked once she’d got rid of the litter and gunk and how you sometimes got interest and you got to put your money in the bank where it couldn’t get stolen from the blue monsters.

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

I didn’t watch her whilst doing it so asked her if she learnt anything. She said she learnt more about banking interest. She was aware of interest before but she didn’t understand it but she says she does now.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

Yes it encouraged a conversation about interest and linked with a PSHE lesson on what things earnings are spent on.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No.

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

My daughter enjoyed it and said it was fun. She has actually recommended it to one of her friends! If it came up in conversation then I would recommend.