GoHenry card - cautionary tale - my son spent £4,000 over less than 3 months

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I got my 11 year old a GoHenry card a year or so ago to get him to understand how to earn money by setting him chores which would get remunerated from his account on which I had put some pocket money and how to save. My 11 year old ended up spending just short of GBP4,000 over 3 months on online gaming sites using his GoHenry card. I did not even know this was even possible. They did nothing to alert me. They say on their website that you can set spending limits and get notifications in real time. I did not realise this was happening as auto top up from my account was on and notifications were off. I was not even aware of those functions as they are not well advertised. I was made to think by their own advertising that this card was just a pocket money card, not a debit or credit card. I think the marketing and advertising of this company is misleading. They have refused all responsibility for what has happened as they said that it was up to parents to enable/disable those functions on the app and some kids do spend vast amounts on online gaming and therefore this triggered no alerts on their system. I feel a duty to warn other parents that this is a risk for children who do fall into these gaming website traps that a GoHenry card can easily be misused.

So you didn’t set notifications and spending limits?

OMG this is horrific. You poor thing!

It's been a long time since DD had a go Henry card, but I couldn't believe that there was an auto top up function-it was on the top up screen back in the day and it was a tick box (I don't know where It is now) It shouldn't be allowed.

I can understand you not noticing you needed to set limits on his card, but how on earth did you fail to notice £4000 leaving your account?!?

At 11 you can get a normal bank card. My kids never had more than £40 on their card (usually £20) and kids accounts don’t allow overdrafts.

Sorry but you didn't read the terms properly, turned off notifications and didn't notice 4k coming out your account?

I'm not really sure it's go Henry's fault?

At 11 why didn't you just open a free bank account? You misread / didn't read the t and cs.

I don't like Go Henry but dropped a bollock on that one.

But you!

You didn't realise that £4000 had gone from your account?

at 11 your son presumably knew full well he was buying extras

You didn’t notice £4k leaving your bank account? Come on!

You also didn’t read the set-up info or restrict online purchases on whatever device he was using?

This is on you OP

As soon as you log into the app the first thing under parent balance is automatic top ups.

The limits is under the kids balance so I don't understand how you didn't set this up? It's in the email when you set the account up and they sent frequent reminders about limits and how to auto top up. Same when you first set up the app.

I'm failing to see how this is Go Henry's fault.

I think most people would go through the app when setting up to make sure they knew how it worked. Very shitty but a lot of people would know about £4000 coming out of their bank account.

What gaming sites has the card been used on?

Surely a go Henry card should be blocked for these as they’re for over 18’s?

How the fuck did you not notice £4000 missing from your account?
You enabled auto top up and you didn't check your bank account. It's awful to lose money but honestly I can't understand how anyone could fail to spot that much money missing!

Gaming as in PlayStation etc probably.

That's what I'm wondering 😲 🫨
I wouldn't have 4k to spare.

I googled it and this is the company's hit on google (i've put the relevant bit in bold)

GoHenry: Teaching Kids & Teens Money Skills For Life
GoHenry
https://www.gohenry.com › ...
GoHenry's debit card and app lets kids ages 6-18 learn practical money management skills that they can go out and apply in the real world.

And from Wikipedia:
GoHenry is a US and UK-based financial technology company, that provides a Visa debit card and financial education app for children aged 6 to 18.

So sorry, OP, I too would be horrified but I think that perhaps you need to refresh yourself on money management before trying to teach your child.

Did you never check the card in the three months he had it to see what he was spending on? I have a Monzo card and check it about six times a day!!

Oh yes obviously 🤦🏻‍♀️
Sorry, bit slow on the uptake there!

It's shit but I’d have to agree with the majority here, fail to see how this is Go Henry’s fault.

The internet is full of stories like this - it’s down to parents to know what their kids are doing online. I bet your kid is constantly telling you about his games and how you can buy things in game. You must have looked into how to top up his card where it tells you about automatic payments. You can also (apparently) set rules about where the child can use the card and block online spending.

if you didn’t set up the account with rules and you weren’t monitoring your 11 year olds spending then that’s on you I’m afraid

https://www.gohenry.com/uk/get-started/

Agree with others that this is on you really. But also at 11 your son must have a good concept of the value of money and know that he should t have all this cash available to him. Every time he bought something for £20 or whatever he must have known something wasn't quite right!

I'm horrified you have to pay £4 a month for one of these cards, nevermind the £4k. What a rip-off. The only people I know who have them for their kids are the least financially savvy, which is I suppose the point of this con.

I dont understand how this happened. You have a parent account which you can check. Your parent account allows you to set how they spend. You set the limit. You can decide whether they are allowed to spend online at all. That is the point of the GoHenry, that the parent is in complete control. You must not have even glanced at it in months for him to spend that. You must have chosen not to receive notifications too. And you must have set the top up value. For what reason was he allowed top ups? Mine had to tick off chores to get a top up which i could set to give final word.

but at 11 he should have absolutely known better. He will have absolutely known what he was doing snd that needs a consequence. Was he even doing any of the GoHenry online money management courses?

but ultimately you fucked up here. Massively. Nobody else. GoHenry has every facility going to prevent this.

Youre not even allowed to buy sweets in a shop registered as a tobacconists with a gohenry.

My dd has a go Henry card, and I have auto top up into my parent account. Each time it dips below £5, it transfers £30 from my bank account into my parent account. She has no access to the money without me transferring it to her. I don’t even see where you can auto top up from parent to child?