Does anyone have any experience of go-henry

redheaded

I have a go henry card for my 14 yr old autistic son. I don't always have cash on me to give him his pocket money and this way I can load money onto it through the parent app and it goes on immediately, great if he is stuck somewhere and needs cash to get home.
I can also immediatly restrict the use of the card or block it, if i need to. I can also see exactly what he spends his money on and when as i get a notfication to my phone the moment he uses it.

I am in complete control of his finances as he is unable currently to control them himself. If i gave him a normal debit card, I wouldn't see his transactions in real time. I can load his card with a pound at a time if i want to reward him for something and then he can choose to spend it or save it. He can see what he has spent and what he has left by using the child's mobile app.

It has saved us lots of hassle in the past when he has needed cash to go out and i haven't got any, I can load his card with a fiver and he can go and get it out of the cash point.

You can also set daily and individual spend limits so that he could only spend eg £3 in any one transaction.

There is a fee of around £2 a month for the account but tbh i feel its worth it for the peace of mind I have. If he loses his card, which he has on more than one occasion, I can immediatly block it so that it can't be used. If he then subsequently finds it, which can also happen I can then unblock it rather than waiting for another one to be issued by the bank. They can also customise their cards if they want.

I don't work for go henry but do feel that its a good idea for certain children and a good way to introduce them into the idea of financial independence with a safety net.

I have a friend who gave her 12 yr old a debit card and put £60 on it to last him a couple of months. He decided to treat all his friends to macdonalds the next day and spent the lot. Understandably there was a consequence for this but the parent was still £60 down with no way of controlling the spend.

Hope this helps.

Chino

I'll say this for the goHenry shills - they're a persistent bunch.

Jaikido

A monthly charge (that should cover admin) but then a 50p charge when you add money. No thank you, whole thing sounds like a waste of money.

I'm not going to comment whether I think an 8 year old should have a debit card or mobile phone or other adult like items but I would add that if you want to teach your child about spending money correctly and especially when using plastic then just wait until they're 12 and they can get all these things for free through a bank (a regulated bank).

There's no hurry to make your children grow up even faster than they do!

Blockflutejane

It's fantastic, but I wouldn't have used it from 8. We started when our son went to secondary school. The advantage is you have full control...You can see what they are spending and where and you give allowance for good behaviour/tasks. You can block the card at any time (fabulous punishment for poor behaviour, he hates it) and you can control what how much they spend each wee, or each transaction and where.
I am finding it a great stepping stone to full independence, as we can help him with where he goes wrong. The saving scheme they have is also great. Each time he gets an allowance he automatically transfers so much into a saving scheme and it tells him how long he has to save for that item. he also uses it to budget for Christmas presents. it's not cheap, and I will transfer to a normal bank card eventually, but this is peace of mind and I really don't mind the monthly charge for that...Oh and my son developed a saving habit from it, and instead of squandering his money on sweets he has saved up pocket money and birthday money for an Apple Watch. Fantastic training in my opinion.
You don't have to pay to transfer money, only if you use a card. You can transfer free from your bank account.

MKB666

We have them for our 10 and 12 year old children. They are not Credit cards, they are pre-pay cards that you top up online. They are fantastic for my children as they don't have to worry about taking cash with them and the risk of either losing it or having it stolen from them. I find all the negative comments rather disturbing, posted by people with no experience of the product yet hugely opinionated in what they think is right and wrong. They really need to get a LIFE.

Armorica

eDicky wrote: »

Although I've not used it myself, an alternative would be Soldo:

https://www.soldo.com/en-uk/

It seems to be cheaper than GoHenry, especially for overseas use so the subsidiary card available for under 18s would be useful on foreign school trips etc. I like the feature where various kinds of transaction can be switched off, for control and security.

Yes. I had go henry but didn't use. Soldo we've been using with the kids more successfully. The level of control is very useful. At 16 now the kids are relatively independent but their spending still needs to be constrained! And cards provide a reassuring level of transparency that cash simply doesn't.

jimjames

MKB666 wrote: »

I find all the negative comments rather disturbing, posted by people with no experience of the product yet hugely opinionated in what they think is right and wrong. They really need to get a LIFE.

So comments are pointless unless you use the product? What rubbish! How is it disturbing to point out cheaper or free alternatives when this is a site about saving money. Maybe signing up to post a comment about this product gives an indication of who needs to get a life....

You can tell from the fees and T&Cs if something is suitable or not. I don't need to buy a motorbike to know that a car is more appropriate transport for me.

PrincessJuls

I love the go Henry cards, they have an offer at the minute were you get £10 and 1 month free so you should download it and give it a go and if you don’t like it you haven’t lost out on anything? I get a text each time the kids have spent money and can top it up really easily.

Rudetube

The absolute worst customer service of any organisation I have ever had the misfortune to deal with. No matter of what time of day you call them they never answer their phones and do not have a queuing system they just cut you off after a few minutes. They took money from my daughters account four times and did not immediately refund it, they declined transactions even when money was available on the card. I would not recommend them under any circumstances.