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

[VPC]

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.

Good old piggy banks seems so naive now!

Really not the point, but Starling do a free kids card with no monthly fees or charges, and pays interest on the balance. I had to open an account with them before I could open one each for my DTs, and I can set all the parental controls etc.

I'm sorry this has happened to you @VPC and I can understand how it’s happened, but I’m not sure that it’s gohenrys fault as such. I hope you’re ok!

I guess thats 4k worth of chores to do @VPC

I thought the whole point of a Go Henry was you set limits? Can even set where they spend the money.

My son was manipulated by others online to buy these online gift cards for them and exchange them for items in Roblox. I did not notice because the great majority of the sum was spent in a single month and I get monthly statements from my bank at the end of the month. I only noticed because I suddenly had 3 emails in a week showing top ups I had not authorized. None of the other top ups were notified to me. I am only trying to post this to warn other parents of the potential hazards. I don't think GoHenry really explains the risks or try to stop this. Auto top up should either be properly advertised or not even exist and all spending should be notified to the parent. There should be more advertising, prevention and protection. Kids at 11 have no sense of the value of money. My son was spending £5 here, £10 there and did not realize until it was too late that these added up to a huge sum. Virtual money is not real for kids.

Very confused. My son can only spend when I add money to his ?

But how did the money get from the parent account to his? When you have auto top up it tops up the parent account part of go Henry not the child account

I mean I managed my own savings account from the age of 10 and had a debit card on my own account which my parents didn't/couldn't access from 12. I managed to spend within my means and not spend my savings.

So not certain that all children that age don't understand virtual money but I do agree that an auto top up system should probably also have an automatic cap that you have to manually override.

It says in their t+c that unless you changed the limits, the default limit is in place which should have restricted your DS to £60/week

Yes this..the children can't access the parent balance and you get a top up email

You didn't set it up right.. 3 of my Grandkids have one.. mums get notifications when the spend even a penny.
It works great if you do it right.. l put money in their accounts for Birthdays.. Christmas etc.

You should’ve ensured the automatic top up wasn’t active. And if your child isn’t mature enough to know that money spent on a game is real money they need to get off the game.

yes absolutely.

op had come back on to say why her son did it, but again is completely ignoring the fact that she allowed it.

Actually, at 11 he should know better. Of course he can understand the money is real money, if someone shows him and explains it to him. Never mind the fact that he should've been aware that the money actually comes from your account so it's not even his money. 4k is a lot of money, even more so in 5/10 increments. That's at least 400 different transactions where he made a choice , he didn't tell you or check with you and you didn't check either.

This would only be possible if you put 4k on it because it's a debut card with no overdraft facility. Are you saying your son put the money over without you knowing / can access your phone?
And all 11 year olds definitely know the difference between 10 here and there and 4k which is multiple 10s a day in a month. More than 10 a day.

Sorry maths doh.
4k at 10 pound increments over 30 days is 133 pounds a day.

I'm very tired. But you get the gist.

Thanks for the warning and sorry this happened to you.

Not sure why people feel the need to tell you what a crap parent you have been when you only posted to warn others - talk about kicking someone when they are down!

This could only happen if you have your son access to the parent app, so he could transfer the money from the parent account (which is where to auto top up goes) onto his account (which is where the money he can spend is).

You’ve given him access to the parent account, so he has been transferring money to himself as needed.

GoHenry is extremely easy to used, everything is clearly explained when you first set up the app and go through it all. This is entirely on you.

I don’t believe this I’m afraid. He would only have been able to spend £4k if you put it on his card yourself. The auto top-up feature relates to money being transferred from the parent’s own bank account to their GoHenry account. The child can’t transfer money from the parent side of the GoHenry account to the child side (unless you’ve allowed him to do this, in which case it’s definitely on you!). Also you get a notification every time the child spends anything!

And you’d get a notification through the parent app every single time any transaction happens. I’m guessing you turned them off? Because they’re on when you add the app, u less you say no to notifications. Or, since your son obviously has access to the parent app, you only put it on his phone and didn’t bother putting it onto yours?

What you’re saying has happened isn’t possible unless you actively went in and removed the automatic spending limits and gave him access to the parent’s app. The auto top up doesn’t go to his card; it goes to the parent account and you have to transfer the money. So that’s what he has been doing, which means he knew exactly what he was spending.

This isn’t gohenry’s fault. Not at all.

Because it's about as useful as saying that if you leave your child to play unsupervised in the street they might get run over.

@VPC your only option is to contact roblox customer service, send them any proof you have of your child being manipulated/scammed (it will help if he hasn't bought stuff only for himself), and hope they will offer some kind of refund.

Then stop allowing him access to the internet/money unsupervised until some proper chats are happening about money,internet safety, rules etc. No card or access to online money for at least a year after this.

What she is saying isn’t possible unless the parent actively makes every wrong choice; removing the automatic spending limit, giving the child access to the parent portal app so he can transfer top ups to his card, turning off all notifications from the app etc. This literally can’t happen without the parent take steps to allow it because GoHenry set up doesn’t allow this.

Echoing what everyone else has said- what you describe is not possible unless you have actively bypassed the settings eg allowed your child access to the parent app, switched off notifications and the default daily spending limit.

My son has GoHenry, I get a notification each time he spends anything, telling me what and where. Once he has spent his money then he has no access to any more until the next pocket money day and he gets his next pocket money instalment. The auto top up is for the parent app only, and only transfers a small amount if my parent balance drops below the next pocket money amount. Nothing gets auto transferred to the child account.

I think maybe the op has given her child her card instead of ordering a child one?
Hyperjar is free and fantastic, one off fiver for the card now.
But you have a main parent app then order the kids ones.