Read what Mumsnet users thought of NatWest Island Saver

[LucyBMumsnet]

This is the feedback thread for the Mumsnet users who have been testing NatWest Island Saver with their child aged 5 to 12 years. NatWest Island Saver is a fun and educational video game designed to teach children aged 5 to 12 about money management.

Here’s what NatWest has to say: “NatWest Island Saver is the world’s first video game that teaches children all about money. Set on the once idyllic ‘Savvy Islands’, players are tasked with an exciting quest to clean up polluted islands and save the bankimals whilst learning about money along the way. We know that it is crucial for children to develop good money habits at a young age to help them make better financial decisions in the future, and studies have shown that games outperform textbooks in helping children learn fact-based subjects.

So, by introducing important money themes such as interest, taxes, loan sharks and debt management through gaming, NatWest Island Saver is the perfect way to help your child become money savvy, without ever feeling like a lesson. Island Saver is free to download here on iOS, Android, Steam, PlayStation®4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.”

Testers, please give your feedback by answering the following questions, as well as completing the short survey we’ve emailed you.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?
2. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?
3. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?
4. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?
5. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

All testers who leave their feedback on this thread and complete the survey will receive a £5 Amazon voucher and will be entered into a prize draw to win a £100 voucher for a store of the winner’s choice.

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Insight Terms and Conditions apply

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

The graphics looked good, but overall they didn't really enjoy playing the game as the controls were very clunky and it was hard to get in the right place sometimes and then work out what you were supposed to do with them.

I had a go myself and really couldn't get past certain points like trying to collect water, and how to click on the parrot etc, it just seemed that it didn't flow

2. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

A little maybe about keeping money in a bank

3. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

No we didn't have any discussions.

4. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No, we didn't come across those

5. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

No I wouldn't as it wasn't that enjoyable to play

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

The colourful characters and game aspect

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned? Yes they've learnt how it's a good idea to save money and why it's useful to do this
2. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about? Yes we talked about interest etc snd how it works including compound interest
3. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions? Not yet but I think I will
4. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why? Yes it's a great starting point and captured my children's imagination

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

Cleaning the beach to earn money. She said she really enjoyed this game.

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

They learnt what tax is and to bank money when we have enough.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

Yes we talked about saving money.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No, I wasn't aware of these.

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Definitely, it's an interesting way to teach children how bank accounts and tax works and I love that the game encourages children to pick up their litter and recycle.

All of the but collecting coins the most

I don’t think she learned anything new from the game, she knew the basics of saving money and being safe but I think this game just reinforced all that info with her

No it didn’t encourage conversation about money between me and my daughter, she just got on with playing the game and said she enjoyed it.

No. I e didn’t know about the sheets but will define taking a look as I think it’s good to always remind her so it’s in the forefront of her mind

Yes. It was fun to play as well As educational with money so win win for us

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver? Enjoyed the fact it was a game and the tasks to earn coins.

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

Reinforced the benefits of saving and working for money

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

It led them to ask for pocket money to save/spend!

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No I didn’t but I might in future especially if they are easily accessible.

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Yes it’s engaging for children and more interesting than just a parent led conversation.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

My son loved cleaning up the island, earning money to unlock different parts of the island to progress the game.

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

How to save money. To work hard to save money. To save money towards something.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about? Where we save money in real life versus on the island. How much money he has saved in his bank account. What he could use this for in the future.
2. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No. Like many others to be honest I missed that they were there. I think we will look at these together in future though.

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why? Yes. We were actively looking for ways to talk to our young son (6 years) about money and money management. The combination of learning through a video game, when he loves playing video games was perfect. I think this game covers many topics related to money management and can be used by different age groups to demonstrate a number of money matters. We only really used it to talk about savings as my son is only 6, but I can see how it could be used by older children to cover other topics e.g. tax.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

My daughter loves picking up the rubbish and clearing the island, as well as shooting the coins at the bank and seeing the money go up

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

A bit, yes, she learned about saving and how working earns you money. She also learned a bit about environmental issues, recycling and not littering.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

We regularly talk about money, saving and how to earn it but the game did help her think about it a bit more and it made her ask about tax.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No, I didn’t know about that but I’ll go back and check them out.

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Yes, I think a lot of people would find it very useful. However, the game was a touch clunky and not always easy to control. It also took us quite a while to work out at one point why we couldn’t pick up certain things, we eventually realised it was because we were “full” but I didn’t think it was very clear and dc was starting to get a bit frustrated.

1. She loved the idea of it and the colours were appealing but it was too difficult for her to control or use. She’s 6 and usually very good with iPad apps and games.
2. It prompted us to talk about money and savings.
3. Yes. We talked about savings accounts and interest and future plans.
4. No not yet.
5. Perhaps to older children or as part of pshe in school.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

Squirting the water and cleaning up the island.

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

My Daughter enjoyed putting the coins away and saving. She found it all fun.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

Yes we talked about all the different money you can get. All their worth’s and PIN numbers and savings.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No we didn’t see them but we have now

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Yes I would as my Daughter learned front end game. It is a good way to start the children on their way and learning about money and savings.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

She most enjoyed discovering the Bankimals and discovering new areas. She liked the fact that it wasn’t frustrating to play.

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

Yes I think it’s taught her about tax and why we pay it, not something we had ever discussed before. Also loans and how they work.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

Yes we talked about saving for what you need rather than using credit and why, loan sharks, how banks make money and the purpose of tax.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No, I didn’t notice those.

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Yes, I think it’s a fun way to provoke conversations about money and how it works when you’re grown up, it also promotes the mindset of saving in the bank as opposed to the piggy bank.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

They enjoyed most saving the bankimals and earning money.

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

They have learned to take care of their money.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

We talked about tax having to be taken off earnings. They were very annoyed about this!

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No, we haven't looked at those yet.

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Yes because it was a fun way for children to learn about money management, also about saving the environment.

My son enjoyed the fact that sometimes you had to clean up dirt and muck with water and sometimes vacuum the bottles and even give the robots your money. He also enjoyed the numerous bankimals. It has improved him a lot about money management and now gets tax and why it’s used. Yes, we have had conversations about money management and the importance of saving as well. No as I didn’t know there were any worksheets, though if I have a second, I’ll be sure to show my kids. I would say yes but wouldn’t recommend in a heartbeat as we haven’t played it all that long.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver? My son is 7 and plays online games most days but really really struggled to move the character and do the tasks to really play the game. He lost interest quickly.
2. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned? He understood he needed to collect trash and water to earn but didn’t enjoy the game.
3. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about? No he saw the game and money as separate things.
4. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions? No
5. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why? No the game was really difficult to play and to control both for him and me when I tried to help. It was more frustrating than educational

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver? THE COLOURS.
2. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned? NO JUST HAD FUN BEING ON A GAME.
3. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about? NO.
4. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions? NO.
5. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why? YES, AS AN INFORMATIVE TOOL TO ENCOURAGE GOOD MONEY HABITS.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

She really liked the graphics and the idea of collecting the rubbish

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

I think at 5 she's a bit too little to have understood the game properly. I think she needs more experience of computer games to understand how to play.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

We talked about saving money

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

We didn't do the activity sheets

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management?

I would definitely recommend to parents of older children. It seems like a great idea

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver? Collecting the trash and cleaning the island

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned? Not really

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about? No

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions? No

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why? No, the game was enjoyable enough as a game but controls were fiddly and therefore didn't really encourage the opportunity for much conversation about money, we were more focused on cleaning the island.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

My daughter loved collecting the doubloons! The bright colours were attractive and the game looked very welcoming! However, minus points for the game to freeze every now and again, it took forever to load up and so we had to keep going back to it, around 8 minutes to start it all up was a bit frustrating.

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

Charlie is now adamant she wants to save her birthday money to buy a house when shes 16. Hope there are a lot of family reading this as her birthday money might have to be raised a little to accomodate this! lol

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

We talked about how I was a spendthrift and how her Dad is the careful one with money, and she wants to be more like her Dad thank goodness. She does still have savings from two Christmases ago because Charlie likes to recieve money, but not to spend it! Good thing really!

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

Yes, they were fun to do, very informative.

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

I have been with Natwest since I was a child myself, Me and my brother even had the Natwest Piggy collections (they were stolen sadly!) but I do love the way Natwest is getting children thinking early about saving up, especially with the current climate we are in financial wise where wages have stagnated and the price of everything has shot up! Kids are going to need all the info they can get.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

Collecting the rubbish and recycling

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

Not to a significant extent

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

Yes, we discussed how tax is collected and used

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No, I wasn't aware of them

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Not really...it was a fun game with colourful characters but at 6 years old, my DD found it frustrating and tricky far too often - it detracted from the overall focus on money management, which was a shame as it had potential

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

Enjoy wouldn't be the phrase I would use, he was very frustrated most of the time. Direction was a problem and I don't feel the instructions were the best either.

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

No.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

No.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

We didn't use the activity sheets.

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Depends on the age of the child but based on our experience -no. My son is 11 and really struggled with the game and the whole concept.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

Cleaning the island, collecting things

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

I think he learned about saving

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

We talked about security of accounts as he wanted to write down a PIN number he used in the game to remember it.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Yes, I think it opened up important conversations without having to be preachy about money.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

They enjoyed playing the game, recycling and saving money!

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

Yes it helped to talk about saving money

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

Yes we talked about saving money and how bank accounts keep the money safe

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Yes I would it is a great way to get children taking more notice by making it a fun way for them to learn about money through play very age appropriate

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

Cleaning up the environment to keep the creatures safe from pollution.

2. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

Maybe a little but for my sons it worked better as a reminder of how fragile our environment is.

3. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

Not really.

4. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No

5. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Yes, the game was engaging for children and it could lead to good conversations. I personally didn’t find the controls on the game intuitive but my sons had no problems.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver? My son is 6 he enjoyed Cleaning the island and putting the rubbish in the recycling robot collector

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

Yes, that you can keep your money in a bank and you need to save up for some things - like opening a different part of the island

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about? Yes, we spoke about the PIN numbers and tax and what tax is used for

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions? No, but I will have a look at them

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?yes it is definitely is a good way to discuss money with children in a way that would help them understand.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

Washing all the plants and having a bank account to save money

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

Yes- my dc said they learnt they could save up for lots of nice things

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

Yes- we talked about having bank accounts how the money we earn pays our bills

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Yes- it got the conversations started between us and dc about money. Dc said it’s a great game and they loved it when they got the hang of it.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

The thrill of looking for gold coins, getting rid of plastic bottles then putting all thr money in the bank.

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

I think my 5yo learnt the concept of earning, spending and saving. But i dont think he has applied that in his life yet. He puts all the coins he gets in a piggy bank, bit i have no doubt that he will spend it all in one go if given the chance. But it is a good start to get him to learn about money.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

I talked to him about taxes, but i am not sure how much hr actually understands. I talked to him about how mum and dad works to get money so we can buy him things, that he should be grateful wih what he has and not want everything he sees. I think he gets it now.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Not for 5 yo. I think playing the game on a tablet is very tricky, even for a seasoned 5yo xbox player. I didnt know how to download the game on the xbox from my email link. Also, thr game requires reading. My 5yo cant read that quick hence will not play without me reading out to him. Perhaps give an option for the game to narrate for those that cant read. Because of difficulty in controlling and not being able to read to understand the game, my 5yo lost interest in thr game quite quickly.