Preparing DD for secondary, particularly money wise... does your 11 year old have a bank card?

[MeASunbeam]

DD is in P7. She's generally quite sensible but not quite streetwise. She'll get the school bus with a crowd and is used to using public transport. She really isn't used to handling money on a weekly/daily basis. She's quite sensible with birthday/Christmas money.

What do they all do for money? Especially now? How much do you give yours? I'd like her to keep having a packed lunch but willing to go for a few days' school lunch if that's the in thing.

DS has had a bank card from age 11, I transfer £20 a month pocket money and birthday and Christmas money to his account but he doesn't spend much at all. Money for school lunches is via parentpay, there is food he can take from home, or sometimes he buys lunch. I top up his lunch money to £10 each week, but he spends an average of £5.

Nimbl card here

DS turns 11 in Jan and wanted to open a bank account for him in prep for big school too, but Nationwide not opening children accounts at the moment. Just check with your bank OP in case...

My 11 year old (y7 in England) has a nimbl card. If Nationwide accepted online applications for 11/12 year olds or were currently accepting in branch applications I'd open him a FlexOne like my 14 year old has, but the nimbl card is fine for now.

Oh I didn't know that! I'll need to investigate the nimbl card too, thank you. She doesn't really go anywhere to practise spending sensibly though. I suppose that will come soon enough.

Aren't school lunches done via fingerprint at your school?
(Your comment about school lunches seems irrelevant to the rest of the discussion to me).

Otherwise, my DDs started with a cashpoint card, and then later upgraded to a debit card. But they walked to school.

Our secondary school lunches are pre-paid via parent pay and they use a fingerprint ID.

No bank card here, just a prepaid bus pass card and a parent pay finger print system. She spends the odd couple of quid in the sweet shop but they take cash.

A lot of secondary schools are cashless so you top up a lunch card online for them. You can keep tabs on what they spend, & what they buy.

We used pre-paid cards for public transport, & PAYG phones. They had to earn pocket money to pay for top ups & got creative over how to make it last eg using free wifi.

We gave them pocket money in cash - some to save & some to spend. Things like going to the shop to buy us a loaf, or going out to buy Christmas presents, with a bit of cash, helped them get used to dealing with money.

DD got a debit card at 18, when she got a full-time job. She's good at budgeting, but thinks that debit cards make it easy to spend more money because it's not as obvious as handing over cash. Having online banking so that she can check her balance has helped with that.

I think most schools have a prepaid, fingerprint system now, don't they? So your dd might want a bank card for her own spending money, but she probably won't need it for school.

I agree, lunches are likely to be pre paid so she'll only need money for the bus. You can get a pre paid card (eg goHenry) if you like, but she won't actually need one IME.

I wouldn't choose a bank card unless you just keep a small amount of money in there in case she loses the card.

Ds has a monzo card but you have to be 16, nimbl or Go Henry are a good bet but Go Henry has a monthly fee. Ideally you want to be able to transfer money easily via an app. Ds's card allows him to lock it via the app meaning no one could spend on it if it was stolen or he dropped it.

As above most secondary schools are cashless, normally requiring a fingerprint but at the moment all biometrics have been stopped and children have been issued with a lanyard to pay. We top up the dinner money on ParentPay.

I must look up the secondary school's system. The bus is free (atm...) but I'll still send her with emergency cash.

I'm not giving her access to a lot of money, but I'd like her to begin to start to take a little responsibility. I tend to do a weekly shop and rarely need to send her for top ups, but I might start doing it deliberately just to build independence.

Thank you everyone. I can't believe my pfb is off to secondary school so soon.

Mine got a bank account with card at age 11 -
with Santander Dont know which ones are opening them at the moment though

Our high school is cashless for lunches. I did open a bank account with her own debit card to start giving pocket money at 11. She doesn't spend much, saves it for bigger purchases.

My DD is now 22, so I am probably a bit out of date! I paid up front for the school bus, and lunches, so she didn't need any money for school. If they had a cake sale, or similar, she took cash.
She got an actual bank card, with Lloyds, at 16. Money could be paid in, and the card used, but it wouldn't authorise overdrafts.

DS got an HSBC online current account with debit card for Y7.

He rarely uses the card tbh as too worried about losing it. Mainly uses cash still.