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.

Oh dear, this isn’t going how OP imagined it would, is it?

It's took you 3 months to notice £4000 missing from your account?
I'd say you've too much money then, as us mere mortals don't have that to spare.

We use Go Henry and every time a DC spends something, I get an alert on my phone, it tells me how much and where it was.

You set limits - and can tick no online transactions for example. It’s a really easy app to work and the whole point of it is that you can keep an eye on spending.

The “auto top up” is one the parent sets, my DD has £1 a week for example. The child can’t set it unless they have your parent password, so I find it very hard to believe that your son spent so much. Unless he stole your password for go Henry?

If it was PlayStation you might be able to have at least some of it refunded by contacting them directly and stating your child made the purchases without your permission. It's worth a try and I know sometimes they can be reasonable.z

All of this OP.

I have a parent account so my little sister can have a bank account. It sounds like you didn’t even open the app and see what functions were available? How can the account auto top up £4K and you didn’t realise at all? This isn’t GoHenry’s fault. They literally make it clear that you can control your child’s spending!

We also use GoHenry and this doesn’t sound right to me.

I’ve been back to the app to check and the only auto top up is from my external bank account into the parent account - I top up £50 when it goes below £30. The parent account only discharges a set amount weekly, you can set tasks but you have to actively do that / we don’t. If my DC has spent all their money that’s it until the next weekly allowance.

So the only way I can understand this happening is if you’ve given your son not just access to the child login but also the parent side and he has then manually moved money over.

I honestly think this is pretty poor of Go Henry. If I used my lloydsbank current account, adult, no limits etc and a huge amount of transactions started being run through the account for something like a gaming site, it would trigger a further check from the bank.
I think that must constitute a hugely unusual level of transactions for the type of accounts GoHenry sell so its a bit crap they just let it all go through unchallenged.
But yes, you should have set up limits.
I also don't think people should be snarky about the fact it went through your account without you noticing.

How it works on Mumsnet OP, is if you have a high income or a surplus of cash, you don't deserve a crumb of sympathy from the crowd

DD has one, well it's not go Henry but a similar card. I can't get her to the bank to open an account because she is autistic and won't go anywhere that involves sitting in a room with a stranger. Her having a bank account is the least of our worries. These cards have their place.

The £4k needs to be on there isn’t that right?

I find it hard to believe that it’s taken you this long to notice that he’s spent so much, but also pretty unbelievable that you didn’t heck the parental settings not just on your son’s GoHenry card but also on the settings of his Xbox, PlayStation or wherever he’s been spending the money.

Does he have a mobile phone too? What are the parental settings like on there?

As for an 11 year old spending this much and not realising what he’s doing (or did he and just carried on regardless?) he needs a lot of education about the value of money, spending, debit cards etc and his current behaviour is worryingly immature.

I did DDs Lloyds account entirely online, passport was checked remotely etc. In branch stuff isn’t needed much these days

This

All on you OP.

You failed to set up and monitor the Go Henry account using all the tools they have provided. I have a limit set so my kids can't spend more than £40 a week and I get notifications of every transaction they make which includes how much is left of their weekly allowance. It's also very easy to turn off auto top up. All entirely your fault.

Also your 11 year old clearly has unrestricted access to his gaming platform which is entirely irresponsible on your part again. As a teacher we can't teach enough internet safety but kids are constantly let down by adults not being bothered to inform themselves about parental controls on devices and age limits for games and apps. Parents also can't say no to their kids so unrestricted access at all times of the day and night it is for a lot of kids.

@LittleBearPad

They have to be 13 for online opening

I find this odd. My DC have GoHenry and the only account that auto tops up is mine. I can then transfer to my DC but it certainly doesn't automatically top there's up.

Nope, she’s under 13.

@LittleBearPad

That's what it says on the website. Perhaps it's changed since you opened your DDs account.

Where does your parental responsibility start here then?

Why would go Henry put limits on the account? That's your job?

I don't want my kids to spend my money without my approval, so I've set up all the relevant protections. No purchases coming from my account without my fingerprint. I wouldn't dream of leaving it to Google play, or Amazon, or whoever, to place limits on my child for me!

The card is labelled VISA prepaid!!! It's clear what it is.

It also clearly has limits and controls as soon as you click on the child's card on the app.

And it flags you to auto top ups as soon as you click on the parent account.

You've clearly never been arsed to look on the app.

Go Henry has its faults (the charges!) but your cautionary tale is all about poor parenting, not about a company who need discrediting.

Op

i think it was you who needed a go Henry card!

We quit GgoHenry when they hoicked the charges, cards for 2 kids would have been £8 a month!! Pretty shit company tbh. Revolut are far better.

My dc have GoHenry cards because none of us have passports. We don’t have passports as they are an expensive luxury. Without passports it’s almost impossible to set up a kids bank account. So it’s not about being financially savvy!

I didn’t turn auto top up on as I need to know when every penny comes out of my account.

I have been impressed by GoHenry.

Rooster cards are brilliant and very clear about charges btw.

I am astounded no one would notice £4k leaving their bank account 😳

It may be because it’s the SmartStart one. Anyway it’s really good and no monthly fees which really put me off GoHenry.

I don't have a passport and neither does my dc but I still managed to open them a barclays account over a video call