Payment card for 13 year old

[BlinkyBlooTheSailor]

What’s good these days as a card for kids to use?

Ideally, contactless, top up-able, not connected to a full bank account and with a sensible app to use for topups and checking spend and balance

Would love your recommendations sensible people of mumsnet

My teens use GoHenry which we have found very good - I can top up and change their limits for atms, spending and online instantly. Pay pocket money weekly. Personalised cards! If a friend has it and refers you, you get £20 each.

We use Rooster.
It can be topped up from our bank accounts, linked to chores, contactless and they can use bank machines.
There’s an annual fee of 20£ or so.
If they lose the card the first replacement is free.
roostermoney.com/gb/

Also my son loses his fairly regularly when out and about, I can block it on the app and release it again when he finds it.

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

Is Go Henry able to be used contactless? Our ds is about to turn 13 and tbh we think we are just going to get him a Santander junior account which gives everything you want OP, I looked at all the options carefully because like you I thought a payment card might be best, but I changed my mind after reading a lot about it all.

Revolut is pretty good. Free if you have an adult account.
www.revolut.com/get-junior-card

The kids have a nimbl card which works contactless and is very closely supervised from the parent app. Seems to all work well.

I've used Santander junior accounts for both of mine. Debits cards that are contactless, no overdraft (of course) and free to use.

Hyperjar is free, but at 13 I'd be more than tempted by a kids bank account.

Both kids have HSBC accounts. They keep the majority of money in savings with £10 spends in current account that they can use contact less for. They have apps on phone to transfer if needed.
Older son uses Google pay on his phone and smart watch, and comes out of his current account.
They can control their own money with support if needed.

We use Go Henry, works really well!

At 13 I would be relaxing the oversight personally, unless you you are giving them a lot of money?! Our DC have Halifax Junior accounts which give them contactless debit cards from the age of 11. They only have around £20 a month pocket money so really it is up to them what they spend it on, I don't feel the need to monitor it. Our eldest (14) sometimes has more due to doing some part time work, and again this is his money so he gets to decide what he uses it for.

Why not linked to a bank account? They cant go overdrawn, there are no fees, can be manged via an app, what is the issue?

BTW the the kids use the Halifax app to manage their accounts themselves. We pay money in monthly by standing order and can top it up instantly by doing a regular bank transfer from our own account if we need to.

We use starling kids accounts. They're great

Nimbl works well for us

Thanks so much. Lots of food for thought.

I’ll take a look around these suggestions. Hadn’t even considered an actual bank account really, but I don’t know why beyond just not wanting them to have unrestrained access to large-ish sums. Hadn’t considered setting up a separate bank account for pocket money and spends.

Makes sense.

Dd had hsbc account. You get a savings and a current account. The debit card works for the current account.

Mine have savings account linked to my account & then a card for a children's current account with HSBC. So most money is in savings and it's not linked to their own account.

HSBC card is contactless & also costs nothing.

At 13 I'd definitely go down the route of an actual bank account in the child's name separate from any savings account you old.
My oldest, 10, has Hyperjar I think when he hits secondary I'll probably swap to a bank account.

I used Nimbl until 13, then Metrobank as they made it easy to set up a junior account, have an app, contactless debit card etc. Only annoyance is dd can’t stander money out, so she has to pay me back in cash if that’s needed. I can do her pocket money as a weekly transfer in, though.

Am I the only parent here who actually likes getting the notifications saying "£3.40 has been spent in Tesco" or wherever. Since he never turns his bloody data on and I can't see where he is on Find my iPhone

@Tailendofsummer

Am I the only parent here who actually likes getting the notifications saying "£3.40 has been spent in Tesco" or wherever. Since he never turns his bloody data on and I can't see where he is on Find my iPhone

In all honesty, no. I think it must be absolutely suffocating to be a teenager in these times of hyper parental supervision. How and where my DC spend their £20-odd quid a month is not something I need to know about and I want them to have this privacy. I am able to check their phone locations but I make a conscious effort never to do so out of curiosity - I only use it (rarely) when I feel it is justified (for a pickup etc).

DD1 (13) had an Osper account till this year. Now she has a Lloyds junior account. It means she can have the card on Apple Pay because she so often went out and forgot it. I don't have access to it at all so she can do what she wants with her money. I don't want to know what crap she buys in the pound shop 😀