A Debit Card for Kids

Chores and allowance have been a part of our family life for the last couple of years or so.  I’ve had a hard time remembering to hand over what’s due and even if I remember I NEVER have actual cash on me.  I bet I owe my youngest like $40 at the very least.  Hopefully this card for kids will help, not only teach my little how to be financially smart, but it’ll for sure make paying him easier as well.  It’s called the Green Light Card and it’s only $4.99 per month with the first month being free.  It includes debit cards for up to five kids, first replacement card is free, there are no transaction, transfer or overdraft fees, no minimum age and no minimum balance. You can schedule allowance amounts to transfer automatically weekly or monthly and you can allocate funds to spend, save and give accounts.  One of the things I know Doc will like is that it includes real-time transaction notifications.  You’ll receive alerts anytime the card is used even when the card is declined. Another thing that’s really cool is that you can choose the only places that the card can be used.  It’s the only card that allows exact stores to be listed.  It allows gifting, so like if grama or grampa want to send some birthday money ect…they can send that money directly through Greenlight Gift.  If you happen to be giving this card to a kiddo that has a job, for example a teenager, like our teenager, who has a part-time job but at 16 they still shouldn’t be allowed complete unsupervised access to large sums of money, you can set the card up for direct deposit from their job.  I would be curious as to whether you can set the card up to automatically send money from the card to another account…like the insurance payment that our teenager has to hand over every month would be way easier if it just automatically pulled the funds out of the card and deposited it in another.  I don’t think it has that capability thought considering it’s really just a pre-paid card with very specific card controls.  My little, our youngest, would really benefit from a card like this, as long as he could keep up with it.  Who knows, maybe it would teach him how to keep up with things better.  Either way, I’m going to go ahead and give it a try just to see how it works. You can find more information and sign up for the card at Greenlightcard.com.