Having your own money or becoming independent from a young age can be quite liberating. Sometimes, parents also support their children until they are teenagers or go off to college. This is when it can be very important to create a budget or keep a check on the financial habits of youngsters.

This is where debit card apps such GoHenry and Greenlight come into play. In case you are confused between the two, it is a good idea to consider or compare both their features and settle the debate between GoHenry vs. Greenlight.

Importance of Budgeting for Youngsters

Budgeting is just a fancy word for keeping a track of how much money you get, how much money you spend, and how much you are left with. Ideally, you’d want to spend less than what you earn.

Today, there are plenty of those apps available that people can use to help youngsters learn about managing their expenses.

 If you are looking to save money and plan for the future, it is a good idea to look up tools for creating a budget and start from an early age. Parents of teenagers can also guide them or offer useful advice that can encourage them to become financially responsible.

GoHenry vs. Greenlight

GoHenry was founded back in 2012 with a vision to improve spending habits among youngsters. It comes with a lot of features to help your kids learn financial planning in a fun way. Since it was a relatively unique idea at that time, the company found immediate success. The thing that parents love the most about GoHenry is that it enables kids to spend their money themselves while allowing parents to monitor it as well.

Greenlight, on the other hand, came into being in 2014. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, the company has the same vision as GoHenry and provides debit cards designed for children. While both apps provide the kids with the opportunity to become financially smarter, both differ in many ways. Let’s discuss them in detail so you make an informed decision about it.

What Makes the GoHenry Debit Card Special?

GoHenry debit card is one of the best debit cards that parents use to monitor their children’s spending habits. It is operated by parents on an app so it gives them the luxury of operating a debit card for their kids. It’s designed for kids from age six to eighteen years old. The app is highly integral to what makes GoHenry stand apart from the rest.

Features

Using the GoHenry debit card app, parents get all the control and decide where the card can be used and how much money could be spent there. The customer service in GoHenry is also highly responsive and a team of customer service enthusiasts is always there to help you out!

The debit card at GoHenry is customizable. Your child can create a unique card if they want. This may sound silly, but it works wonders as it makes your kids more passionate about the debit card. They can customize it to their liking and the card will do the same job.

At GoHenry, parents can control pretty much everything. They can set up chores and fun tasks for learning. It can help youngsters learn about finances from an early age. When they perform a specific task, such as washing dishes or cleaning their room, they can get money as a reward. Furthermore, the parents can limit spending at certain places. If someone has exceeded their budget or spending limit, people may also place restrictions on further withdrawal.

The GoHenry debit card app lets you set up a weekly allowance for your kids that they will get every week. The cool thing about this allowance is that you can set it to automatic allowance so that you don’t have to set it up every week. You can set different prices for different household chores so that your kids can earn more.

The GoHenry debit card offers you a 30-day free trial first. So if you think that the debit card is not working well for you or you come across another service with lesser prices, you can turn to that company without spending a penny. Reloading to a debit card is also free of cost, and the subscription fee is quite affordable as well.

Limitations

One thing that may offend you is that the subscription fee will be charged per child. If you want debit card services for more than one child, the cost will be multiplied. Moreover, card reloading is also limited to three times per day and $500 in total. So you’d have to plan it beforehand to make sure that everything goes smoothly.

What Makes the Greenlight Debit Card Special?

Greenlight debit card also offers plenty of cool features for your kids. As with GoHenry, Greenlight also allows you to send children weekly pocket money as well as the bonus money for completing the household chores. Also, you can choose where your kid will spend money and where they will not.

Features

What sets the Greenlight debit card apart from GoHenry debit card is that it gives you control to decide how much money can be spent in a certain location. Imagine that your kid likes to hang out with their friends and they often overspend their money. You can restrict that by stopping them from visiting a certain restaurant.

Parent-paid interest is another ground-breaking feature in the Greenlight debit card. This allows parents to set an interest rate to pay their kids every month. This feature has been particularly helpful for kids as they get to know that their money can grow in case of interest. Furthermore, you’d be notified whenever your kid makes a purchase.

Premium

In Greenlight Plus and Greenlight Max, there are features for investment as well. We all know the importance of the right investments to make a big fortune. If everything goes well, good! If not, then they will learn from their mistakes in a relatively safe and low consequence environment. These mistakes will make them wiser and they can make informed, effective decisions in the future with the available resources.

Greenlight is one of the most cost-effective debit cards for kids in the market. You won’t have to pay any card purchase fee, money withdrawal deduction, or card reload fee. If you have a big family, the good news for you is that you won’t have to buy separate subscriptions for every child. Buy a family plan for five kids and that’s it!

Greenlight Plus and Greenlight Max, of course, are the premium plans. They will cost you a bit more than the regular plan and they come with their own perks. Usually, the regular plan works just fine. However, you can get the premium plan to give your kids more financial insight.

Limitations

One thing that parents complain about Greenlight is that the interface of the app is not that user-friendly. Non-techies will take some time to understand it. Apart from that, the plan is a bit pricey for a family with one kid.

GoHenry vs. Greenlight vs. Famzoo

The comparison between Greenlight vs. GoHenry vs. Famzoo is slightly different. Famzoo is another popular kid debit card company in the USA. Let’s compare their features to see how they stack up in general. At Greenlight, you get an investment account, which both other companies don’t offer at the moment. If you want your kid to learn about investment, you can’t go wrong with Greenlight.

When it comes to identity monitoring, Greenlight has the edge again. Greenlight hosts a feature for identity monitoring so you rest assured knowing that your kids’ identities are safe. If you buy a smartphone or a laptop with your Greenlight debit card, you get protection in case of damage and theft.

As far as the pricing is concerned, all companies offer discounts if you go for an annual plan. On the surface, Greenlight may seem a bit expensive. However, that gets compensated as it offers plans for a bigger family and has plenty of cool features that other credit card companies don’t offer.

As a cherry on the cake, you get protection against theft and damage as well. If you have a big family, Greenlight may hit the nail on the head for you. However, if you want to keep a tab on the spending of one kid, then you can go for GoHenry or Famzoo.

Understanding personal finance is important for everyone regardless of their age. Since it often gets overlooked in schools, kids struggle with their finances most of the time. Gohenry, Greenlight, and Famzoo are the most popular kids’ debit cards providers in the USA. All of them work fine, but they differ in many ways which could leave parents scratching their heads. We reviewed them so you can decide which one suits you the most.