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As parents, we want to do the best for our kids and prepare them for adulthood. One crucial life skill we can teach our kids is managing money well. Financial education is not widely taught at school, yet it is instrumental to our success in adulthood. We have a responsibility to build the financial independence and confidence of our children from a young age so that in their teens and beyond, they are able to budget, spend and save wisely.
However, with many banks not offering child bank accounts before the age of 11, prepaid debit cards are a great solution to help teach your kids money skills. In this post, we will highlight the pros and cons of prepaid cards for kids so you can find the right payment card for your kids.
What is a prepaid debit card?
A prepaid card is a payment card that you pre-load with money to spend on a physical or digital card. As you’re pre-loading the card, you can only ever spend as much as you load onto the card. This helps protect users from debt and overdraft fees.
What are the benefits of a prepaid debit card?
There are many benefits of kids using a prepaid card to begin learning about managing their money and to provide peace of mind for parents.
1) Monitor Kids Spending
Many prepaid card providers will have an accompanying app which controls the different features of the prepaid card. Different prepaid payment card providers offer different features to monitor your kid's spending. For example, the app is where you could top up the prepaid card with more money, set spending controls and even track your kid's transactions. Helping give your kids financial independence while giving you peace of mind. Explore and compare the different features that these kids' prepaid card companies provide.
At ImageNPay we offer a prepaid card product designed specifically for families – ImageNPay Family. ImageNPay Family allows ImageNPay+ users to connect up to 3 additional cards to their account for their kids (aged 8 to 18) to use. Through this parents can directly monitor their kid's spending in their own ImageNPay app, set spending limits, answer top-up requests in the in-app chat feature and more! All whilst allowing kids to learn money skills and have fun with their payments through 100+ FREE images to personalise their digital card with!
2) Teach Positive Money Habits
As already mentioned, prepaid cards are a great tool for kids to learn money skills safely. With a prepaid payment card, they have the independence to spend their own money, but they’re protected from interest and overdraft fees as they can only ever spend what’s loaded onto their card. This means they have to become smart with their money and begin understanding the importance of budgeting and saving their money to afford the things they want to buy. This is crucial for later in life.
With ImageNPay Family, kids can view their transactions easily in-app on the ‘My Transactions’ screen. Here kids are able to view a handy pie chart which breaks their spending into categories so they can clearly see where they’re spending most of their money. This helps them build awareness of their spending to identify where they could be spending less.
3) Better than Carrying Cash
There are many issues involved with carrying cash. For example, being the target of muggings, or easily losing notes and coins. However, by using a prepaid payment card to spend money, instead of cash, your kids are safer and less likely to lose their money.
At ImageNPay we take this one step further by only offering a 100% digital prepaid card that your kids cannot lose or misplace. Your kid's prepaid card is stored on their phone and is protected by a PIN code to access the ImageNPay app.
What are the cons of a prepaid debit card?
Despite the many benefits of a prepaid card for kids, there are some negatives to consider when choosing a payment card for your kids.
1) Age Limits
Depending on the age of your kids you may struggle to find a payment card provider that can provide for them. There are different regulations in place to help protect kids in the financial sector which is why some companies have age restrictions on their prepaid products. Double-check what age restrictions there are and what happens when your kids become an ‘adult’ (18 years old).
ImageNPay Family is available to those aged 8-18 years old. However, once your child turns 18 they are automatically enrolled into an ImageNPay Standard account where they will have full control of their spending. As a parent, you will still be able to send them money, but you won't be able to monitor their transactions or set spending limits.
2) Fees
Another thing to consider when choosing a prepaid card for your kids is the different fee structures of the prepaid providers. There is much difference in how much you’ll need to pay for your kids' prepaid card. Some companies will charge you a monthly subscription for using their service, whereas others will charge you for loading and other payments. Always carefully read the T&Cs for any hidden charges.
For only £1.99 a month, you can add up to 3 extra ImageNPay digital cards to your account for your kids to use! Each extra card has a £1 card issuance fee but after that, you just pay the standard £1.99 ImageNPay+ monthly subscription and get access to all of the features of ImageNPay+ and ImageNPay Family!
3) No Interest
The main negative of using a prepaid payment card is that it is not connected to a bank account so you do not receive the interest rates you would get if the money was stored in a regular bank account or savings account.
If you are looking to teach your kids about spending then a prepaid debit card is the best tool. However, if you do not want your kids to manage their own money, and instead want to help them accumulate interest and build up their savings, then a prepaid card is not right for you.
There are lots of things to consider when deciding whether to take out a prepaid card for your kids. It's important to weigh up the pros and cons to see what works best for you and your family. Overall, there are lots of positives of kids using a prepaid debit card to build their financial awareness and confidence.
If you are interested in opening a prepaid card for your kids then ImageNPay can help you! Find out more about ImageNPay Family and how you can sign up for an account here.
ImageNPay is FREE to download on iOS and Android.