Created by: Christine Cox

At a recent event, the topic of kids, spending, and allowance came up. Several of us shared that we use Greenlight, a debit card for kids and teens, to send allowance or payments for specific chores our children complete. This allows them to make purchases on their own, and enhance their financial awareness as they grow. We love this resource so much that we wanted to share with all of you!

Greenlight is more than just a debit card; it’s a financial tool designed to help teach kids about money management and even investing. Additionally, their highest paid tier includes a safety app, which you’ll learn more about below (and I learned more about while researching this 😊). 

We’ve definitely noticed some challenges in using the card instead of cash, as our kids are still pretty young and a card is more conceptual than the hands on tactics with cash. However, overall, the benefits have far outweighed the challenges. Below, I’ll outline its features, as well as some pros and cons. Writing this blog has been an eye-opener, as I realized we weren’t taking full advantage of all the options available. This blog also turned into quite a valuable exercise for our family!

WHAT IS GREENLIGHT?

Greenlight is a financial platform designed to help children and teens develop essential money management skills under the direct guidance of their parents or guardians. Through its mobile app, families can allocate money into categories like saving, spending, donating, or investing. Parents can set up automatic allowances or assign chores with payments linked to their completion. Both parents and children can determine how funds are distributed, with savings accounts even earning interest monthly. As Albert Einstein famously said, "Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world," making it never too early to teach children this powerful concept. For older kids, Greenlight also offers investing features, introducing them to basic principles of building wealth.

For those who opt for the highest-tier subscription, Greenlight includes a robust safety app with features like family location sharing, SOS alerts, crash detection with automatic 911 dispatch, and real-time driving reports. While our family currently uses the base subscription, the safety features look impressive and are something we’ll explore in the teenage years. Greenlight’s holistic approach to financial literacy and safety makes it a valuable tool for preparing children for the future.

*Side note: We have GPS watches through T-Mobile for our kids. We’ll talk about this in a later blog. We used to have MyGabb but ran into a lot of issues. We use T-Mobile because of some super technical things related to StarLink that you can ask my husband about. 

FEATURES

Greenlight offers a comprehensive suite of features designed to teach children about financial responsibility under your direct supervision, which are: 

Parental Controls

• Spending Limits: Set specific spending limits for different categories or merchants to guide your child's spending habits.

• Real-Time Notifications: Receive instant alerts for every transaction your child makes, keeping you informed of their spending activities.

• Card Management: Easily lock or unlock your child's card through the app if it's lost or if you want to restrict usage.

Chore and Allowance Management

• Chore Assignments: Create and assign chores with corresponding monetary rewards to instill a work-earn relationship.

• Automated Allowances: Schedule regular allowance payments on a weekly or monthly basis, with flexibility to adjust as needed. You can also pause these as needed. (We’ve done this more than once as our kids ‘forget’ to do their chores - especially when there are a lot of friends around at a Thousand Trails or Full Time Families event).

Savings and Interest

• Savings Goals: Enable children to set and track personal savings goals, fostering a habit of saving.

• Parent-Paid Interest: Encourage saving by offering interest on balances, with rates you can set, teaching the concept of compound interest.

Educational Tools

• Financial Literacy Content: Access in-app educational games, videos, and quizzes that cover essential financial topics tailored for kids and teens.

Investing Platform

• Stock and ETF Investing: For plans that include investing features, children can research and propose investments in stocks and ETFs, subject to parental approval.

• Fractional Shares: Invest with as little as $1, making it accessible for young investors to start early.

Discounts

• For the nomads, Greenlight offers a ton of discounts to many theme parks and attractions in most major cities across the U.S. 

Additional Features

• Customizable Debit Cards: Personalize cards with custom images for a one-time fee, adding a personal touch.

• Round-Ups: Automatically round up purchases to the nearest dollar, depositing the difference into savings to encourage incremental saving.

• ATM Access: Withdraw cash from ATMs, with parental controls over withdrawal limits and locations.

• Enhanced safety features through the GL app, details are below in the Greenlight Infinity section - the highest tier subscription level.

EVALUATING

When evaluating the Greenlight app and card, we found several notable pros that make it a great financial tool for families, though there are a few potential drawbacks worth considering.

Pros

• Our kids can’t spend endless amounts of their money on ‘games’ in the game room

• You the parent can get huge discounts on theme parks and more through the app if you are a member (can also get discounts on hotels, plane tix and car rentals)

• We’ve set up a portion of each payment to go to savings, encouraging our kids to start saving really early. They currently earn a small amount of interest on the balance each month, which we talk about with them. Greenlight does offer a feature where parents can pay additional interest, above and beyond the small percentage they pay out. The percentage varies from 1%-5% depending on the plan you are on. 

• Since our kids do have to ask us for their balance, we very frequently have conversations about how that extra toy/stuffy/fidget they want now will limit their future purchases. 

• The card has given us a means to discuss that you can’t just ‘put it on the card’ because that’s not how life works. I can see where this will be useful when the conversation of credit cards come up in the future. 

• As a nomadic family, we love the discounts offered to various attractions around the U.S. 

• I can probably keep this list going and we would love to hear more from those of you who use the additional features! 

Cons

• Our kids don’t have devices and can’t check their balances on their own

• Not sure it had the same impact as the tangible nature of cash creates in the beginning, but they are starting to get it.

• It is a card and does have the possibility of being hijacked by hackers. We keep a close eye on things for our kids. 

COST

Greenlight offers several subscription plans to cater to different family needs, and each plan covers up to five children per family. The plans are:

Greenlight Core

• Includes the debit card and basic features for $5.99 per month. 

Greenlight Max

• Adds features like 1% cash back on purchases and investing tools for $9.98 per month. 

Greenlight Infinity

• Offers all features, including advanced safety tools and a 5% savings reward, for $14.98 per month.

• Enhanced safety features through the GL app.

Our kids are pretty young, so we currently have the Core plan. Our intention at this time is to just concentrate on teaching them good financial habits, including savings. We frequently ‘shut off’ their allowance when they are not or have not completed their chore list and we discuss why and what it means. 

Greenlight Infinity (Highest Tier with Safety Features)

The Greenlight Infinity plan includes all of the financial features listed above, plus it also includes these safety tools and features not available on the other two plans:

Family Location Sharing

• Allows family members to share their real-time locations with each other, facilitating easy check-ins and ensuring everyone's whereabouts are known. 

SOS Alerts

• In emergencies, users can send immediate alerts to designated emergency contacts, 911, or both, with a single swipe, ensuring prompt assistance when needed. 

Crash Detection with Automatic 911 Dispatch

• Detects potential car crashes and automatically notifies emergency services, providing them with the driver's location and trip details to expedite assistance.

Driving Reports and Real-Time Trip Alerts

• Monitors driving behaviors, offering insights into aspects like speeding and phone usage. Parents receive real-time alerts when trips start and end, promoting safe driving habits among teens.

General Safety and Security

Greenlight prioritizes card security features that includes:

FDIC Insurance

• Funds are FDIC-insured up to $250,000 through Community Federal Savings Bank. 

Card Controls

• Parents can instantly freeze or unfreeze the card if it's lost or stolen.

Zero Liability Protection

• Mastercard's Zero Liability Protection safeguards against unauthorized purchases. 

If you are interested in checking out this financial platform, the general website can be viewed here. In addition, if you sign up using our referral link, both you and we will receive $30!