banking app on 12 year old's phone?

wallofbeans

Hi All,

So my 12 year old has just got a HSBC bank account. It would be great if they could check the balance etc easily but I'm not sure if putting the app on her mobile is the best of ideas. HSBC are pushing the mobile app as the easiest option, but I wonder if just a website login is more sensible for now... Has anyone been through this recently? 

wiseonesomeofthetime

My daughter has had Hyperjar on her phone since she was 11 (now 13), PIN access.

Also PIN required to access her phone, so it's as secure as she is with her details.

Depends on your maturity assessment of your 12yo tbh.

Rob5342

I think only you can decide that really. Our daughter has had the Nationwide app on her phone since she got a current account at 13. She logs in with Face ID so it's quite secure, and we thought it was important to learn how banking worked. Doing it via the website is a bit old fashioned now.

TheMilkmansDad

my 12 year old has the app. no issues, he can view his current and savings balance and moves his own money when he needs to spend something.

Guess it all depends on the 12 year old.

a_car_person

I’ve had my banking app on my phone since I got my card (aged 12), I don’t really see an issue with it but it depends on how good they are financially (I’ve been interested in finance since I was 7 and read every bit of information on there). They can’t really do much harm on an app so I’d let them do it - they’ll need to one day!

pridehappy

I believe it’s perfectly fine, as long as there isn’t excessive amounts of savings in an account available on the app. If you’d like to be extra safe, if your child has a large amount in the savings account, contact HSBC and ask them to remove online service for the savings account temporarily until they are old enough to manage large amounts safely. I’m not sure how this would work with HSBC however.

I’d also advise taking some time to take your child through the app and explain how to use it, how to be safe and the basics of banking really. 

TheBanker

I think it's probably safer to use an app, which they can open using touch/face ID and perhaps a short PIN, than to use Internet Banking where they are quite likely to make a note of the log-in details somewhere.

The point above about savings is a good one. If for some reason they've got more than a couple of hundred pounds, I'd keep the bulk of their savings with a different bank which they can't access (and won't be visible to other people if they decide to show off their banking app to friends etc). 

[Deleted User]

Yes i am sure they will do damage by sending the £5 they have saved somewhere!

wallofbeans

TheBanker said:

I think it's probably safer to use an app, which they can open using touch/face ID and perhaps a short PIN, than to use Internet Banking where they are quite likely to make a note of the log-in details somewhere.

The point above about savings is a good one. If for some reason they've got more than a couple of hundred pounds, I'd keep the bulk of their savings with a different bank which they can't access (and won't be visible to other people if they decide to show off their banking app to friends etc). 

That's a good plan - they've already got £400 saved and are planning on building on that! I'll look into a seperate savings account too. 

wallofbeans

[Deleted User] said:

Yes i am sure they will do damage by sending the £5 they have saved somewhere!

It's getting to be a lot more than that. They don't want to spend any money, just save it all!

Rob5342

Have you looked at switching them to a Starling Kite account instead? That would let you monitor their spending and set  daily spending limits which would give some protection.