Teaching your child financial literacy from an early age can help them build a solid financial foundation, resulting in healthy budgeting, spending, and saving habits. In fact, 75% of American teenagers reported learning about personal finance from their parents, while only 52% learned about it in school.

While teaching your children money management on your own may seem challenging, there are numerous money apps for kids that can make the job easier. In this article, we’ll explore the top choices and provide additional tips for teaching your child about finances. 

Top Money-Saving Apps for Kids Under 10

Exploring money management apps for kids before your child is ten years old may seem early, but there are apps designed specifically for children aged 5–10. Two popular options include:

1. Bankaroo
2. Saving Spree

Bankaroo

Bankaroo is a virtual bank for children aged 5–14. Since all your child needs to use this money app for kids are basic reading skills and a phone or computer, it’s a great option for users aged 6–8.

In its free version, the app lets you set up an allowance and add money to your child’s app account. Then, they can set goals for items they want to buy and manage the available money accordingly. This kids’ money app also allows children to save money, and you can match your child’s savings to instill healthy saving habits.

If you want a more realistic banking experience, the paid version of the app, Bankaroo Plus, lets your child split their money between savings, checking, and charity accounts, teaching them to allocate funds more efficiently.

Savings Spree

Savings Spree offers a fun way to teach your child about money through an interactive game based on careful decision-making. Every choice made in the game can either help your child save money or lead to setbacks, teaching them about the impact of their decisions on everyday life. Plus, they’ll start learning about budgeting, saving, and investing.

The app is recommended for children aged seven and older, but younger children can also use it with their parents’ help. It’s only available on the App Store and costs $5.99.

Best Money Apps for Kids Aged 10 to 12

While the previous two apps are great for younger children who are just starting to learn about finances, older children will benefit more from financial apps for kids with more comprehensive features. The top two options are:

1. GoHenry
2. Kiddie Kredit

GoHenry

GoHenry is among the most popular money apps for kids, and it offers lessons about credit cards, investing, and budgeting. It provides a real-life banking experience since it lets your child earn, save, and spend real money. The app supports a broad age range (6–18), so it’s great for children aged 10–12 who already have some financial knowledge because it evolves along with your child and offers features appropriate for their level. Here’s how it works:

1. You assign your child chores
2. You pay them when the chores are finished
3. The child spends or saves the money

You also have the option to send your child a weekly allowance automatically. 

This money management app for kids provides your child with an FDIC-insured debit card, which is protected with a PIN and a chip and offers a zero liability protection policy through Mastercard. The app isn’t free, though—while it has a 30-day free trial, it later charges $3.99/month.

Kiddie Kredit

Although not as comprehensive as GoHenry, Kiddie Kredit is a free app recommended for children aged 9–11 that can help you teach your child about the importance of maintaining a good credit score. You assign in-app tasks to your child and set a deadline, and the tasks that aren’t completed on time can impact your child’s credit score within the app (not their actual credit score). To make the learning experience more fun, you can also set rewards when your child masters lessons or levels up.

Money Management Apps for Kids Aged 13 to 17

Money apps for teens are much different than those for children aged 12 or younger. Teenagers typically want and need to learn more specific money management skills, like investing wisely or earning cashback on purchases. The apps that can help them do that are:

1. Greenlight
2. FamZoo

Greenlight

Greenlight is a debit card and a money app for kids and teens that lets your child earn money by collecting allowance or doing chores. They can then use the money to:

• Earn a 1% cashback on some purchases
• Earn up to 5% interest on their savings
• Make purchases via mobile by connecting the app to Apple Pay or Google Pay
• Invest in stocks within the app (with your help)

While other apps only teach your child about investing, this one actually lets them make investments, which makes it a good option for teenagers. To ensure responsible investments, you get a real-time notification when your child is ready to invest, and you must approve every trade.

The app offers different pricing plans, with the most affordable plan starting at $4.99.

FamZoo

FamZoo is a money management app for kids who already have some financial knowledge and perhaps even a part-time job. Its advanced features will provide your child with a more thorough learning experience on managing personal finances.

The app allows children to receive deposits to their FamZoo debit card and lets you pay compound interest to your child for their saved funds or offer them private loans they can repay through the app. Your child can also set money management goals and create sub accounts for more efficient budgeting.

The app offers a 1-month free trial and later costs $5.99/month.

Tips for Teaching Your Child Money Management

Besides relying on money apps for kids, you can help your child further expand their financial knowledge by teaching them how to deal with finances from your personal experience. If you want to tackle more complex topics that apps typically don’t cover in great detail, you should:

1. Teach them about debt
2. Help them learn about banking
3. Discuss the importance of credit

Teach Them About Debt

Since younger generations use electronic money more often than paper bills, it may be easier for them to exceed their spending budget without noticing. Teaching your child about debt and its consequences can help them pay more attention to their spending habits and reduce their chance of getting into debt when they become adults. 

If you have a personal story related to debt, consider sharing it with your child as it can make a valuable lesson in finances. You may also offer to help your child keep track of their spending habits, especially if they use a credit card or have access to yours.

Help Them Learn About Banking

Learning about banking is much easier if you show your child how everything works in real life. A money management app for kids typically can’t teach children who to speak to when they go to the bank, which documents to bring, or how to fill out forms. 

If your child is a teenager, you can start teaching them about banking by letting them go to the bank for deposits and withdrawals. You may also include them when you fill out forms or allow them to do so themselves with your help. You can later teach them about interest and how it can impact their earnings and debt.

Discuss the Importance of Credit

While learning how to earn and save money is a big part of financial literacy, teaching your children about the importance of obtaining and paying off credit is just as important. As your child grows older, they may need to obtain credit or loans for their higher education, housing, or vehicle. To teach them about how this process works, you can give them money for an item they want to buy with the condition they return it in an agreed-upon period. 

Besides paying off credit, you should also teach your child the importance of building a strong credit score. If they don’t pay attention to maintaining a good credit profile, they may not be able to obtain loans with favorable terms and interest rates in the future. 

A great way to help your child start building credit early is to rely on FreeKick. This platform offers a simple parent-sponsored credit building solution for children as young as 13.

FreeKick—The Best Solution for Credit Building and ID Protection

Provided by Austin Capital Bank, FreeKick is an FDIC-insured deposit account and subscription service that offers parent-sponsored credit building for minors and young adults aged 13 to 25. FreeKick also helps protect the identities of your whole family by providing a comprehensive set of identity monitoring and protection services for up to two adult parents and six children.

Start Building Your Child’s Credit Early With FreeKick

Establishing strong credit early can help your child ensure a promising financial future and potentially save over $200,000 throughout their lifetime. FreeKick provides a credit building service to assist your child in establishing good credit with your help, starting from the age of 13.

Here’s how to get started:

1. Create an Account—Go to FreeKick.bank and opt for a plan that best fits your needs and budget
2. Set It and Forget It—As soon as the account is activated, FreeKick will automatically start building your child’s credit over the next 12 months
3. Keep Growing—After the first 12-month period ends, you can either close the account and get your full deposit back or renew it and keep building your child’s financial future

Protect Your Child’s Identity With FreeKick

Using money apps for kids means your child may get exposed to the risks of identity theft since they’ll be sharing their personal information online. This could be cause for concern as shocking statistics reveal that a child’s identity is being stolen every 30 seconds. However, this doesn’t mean your child should stop using money apps. Rather, there are measures you can take to keep them protected from ID theft.

A great way to ensure your whole family is safe from identity criminals is to rely on FreeKick’s comprehensive identity monitoring and protection features for minors and adults. Here’s what the service includes:

Services for Adult Children and Parents	Services for Minor Children
Credit profile monitoring SSN monitoring Dark web monitoring for personal information Up to $1 million identity theft insurance Full-service white-glove concierge credit restoration Lost wallet protection Court records monitoring Change of address monitoring Non-credit (Payday) loan monitoring Free FICO® Score monthly FICO® Score factors Experian credit report monthly	Credit profile monitoring SSN monitoring Dark web monitoring for children’s personal information Up to $1 million identity theft insurance Full-service white-glove concierge credit restoration Sex offender monitoring—based on sponsor parent’s address

FreeKick Pricing

FreeKick offers plans that fit any family’s needs and budget, and the deposits on both plans are FDIC-insured up to $250,000. Find the details in the table below:

FDIC-Insured Deposit Amount	Plan Fee
$3,000	$0 (Free)
No deposit	$149/year

Build a strong credit profile for your child and protect your whole family from the risk of identity theft—sign up for FreeKick today.