Gohenry, Nimbl?

[howtotrainyourdragqueen]

Hi

Does anyone have any knowledge of these prepaid cards pros and cons?

Nimbl is much cheaper than Gohenry and there is another Osper?

This would be for DS (11) for pocket money rather than large amounts of money on there

The app for Go Henry gets good reviews but it appears to be the most expensive and you have to pay everytine you put money on it.

TIA

Why don't you just get him a bank account with a debit card. Charge free and available from age 11

We have Nimbl for our 11 year old ds and it works very well. We too pondered on Go Henry but couldn't justify the yearly charge for spending your own money! Nimbl is great as you can manage the account from your phone with the app. Set spending limits etc. The card came quickly and ds loves using the contactless feature. Guess they're all much the same but Nimbl being that bit cheaper swung it for us. Hope that helps

I'm so relieved they're not suggestions for children's names. Phew!

But a bank account is free. I wouldn't pay for something if you could get it charge free

I've just recently signed up to Go Henry for my 10 and 12 year old.

I signed up through a friends link and got £10 cash back plus one month free. It's £2.99 per child per month after that. You only pay a 50p charge
for topping the cards up if you top up more than once a month.

So far I'm finding the app really easy to use, as are the children. The cards came quick and can be used anywhere. I get a notification if they spend anything and there are options for setting up "tasks" so they can get more pocket money for doing housework etc.

Dd (9) has a go Henry card. It costs me £3.49 a month. She loves having her own card with her own money on. It's so much safer than her carrying that much cash. I can cancel it Instantly on my phone if she were to lose it.
The app is good aswell, and it sends me a notification Every time she spends money.

I can recommend the Santander mini 123 account, DS 11 has one.

They can have a contactless debut card can also be used at ATMs although you can restrict the card to ATMs only. He can bank/ check his balance online or at ATMs and I pay in a monthly sum equivalent to pocket money.

He can't go overdrawn either.

And it's free!

When he gets to 18 (or whenever he's allowed an adult account ) Santander migrate the account over to the adult 123 account.

My 2 also have the Santander mini 123

Dc4 is 9 and has a Nimbl card. The older dc have a Lloyd’s account with debit card that can’t go overdrawn but isn’t available for his age.

I did wonder about the bank account but I guess I don't know what he has spent and when etc unlike the prepaid cards and apps.

But yes the charges are annoying. Particularly the charge to load it with your own money

Monzo! An app-based bank account with no strings, really easy to sign up for and use

Monzo don't do accounts for kids

My DS has a Nationwide Flex One account with a debit card attached. No charges, has his own log in to be able to check balance etc.

If the point is to teach them to manage their money, then having complete lockdown parent control as provided by GoHenry etc seems counter intuitive and expensive to me. I don't want or need to know each time DS buys himself a chocolate bar or whatever. When I read the testimonials on their website with the gushing 'i love getting a text every time he uses it', it just smacks of big brother and control to me.

Metro bank comes with an app and is free.

And I completely agree with Salmon. Better for them to make their own mistakes and learn from them young. My DD is much more careful with money after inadvertently emptying out her bank account getting a bit heavily into shopping.

Metro bank says it's for over 18s

I've also been looking at GoHenry for my 11 year old, but have found out my bank (Halifax) do an account for kids with a visa debit card, anyone know if it's any good?

They are probably all very similar. I chose Santander as it had a good interest rate

www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/cards-for-under-18s/

Thanks, dementedpixie, I'll take a look.

I'm so relieved they're not suggestions for children's names. Phew!

Another who can't understand why you would pay when you can just get an account for free from banks and building society.

I think the prepaid cards are a bit of a stepping stone from cash only to a bank account. Although to be honest, we would use it purely for pocket money so it's not likely to be huge amounts of money at any time but he would see it add up and be able to save for something he wanted

I am with the Halifax too @alphajuliet123

It looks ok and the interest rate is 1.51% on any balance which is better than the Santander mini I think which doesn't pay anything under £100

It's 3% on £300 - 2k with Santander I think

If you go on the Halifax website it says 0.5%. Maybe it's changed since moneyexpert looked at them