Kids Accounts

Hi All,
Which kids accounts do you all use? 
I haven’t looked into them before and last night saw the £15 credit offer for the GoHenry accounts..and 3 months free. 3 months free I thought? What?

I was shocked to see they charge £4 a month and £0.50p to top up after the first top up each month! For an account which supposedly teaches kids about money this seems incredibly contradicting! 

The Nat West Kids accounts seem to be a very good option and other banks offer cards for kids so what about GoHenry…seems like a bit of a con to me or am I missing something extra special about it?

Comments

  • WillPS
    WillPS Posts: 4,930 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Newshound! Name Dropper
    edited 5 September 2023 at 8:40AM
    Hi All,
    Which kids accounts do you all use? 
    I haven’t looked into them before and last night saw the £15 credit offer for the GoHenry accounts..and 3 months free. 3 months free I thought? What?

    I was shocked to see they charge £4 a month and £0.50p to top up after the first top up each month! For an account which supposedly teaches kids about money this seems incredibly contradicting! 

    The Nat West Kids accounts seem to be a very good option and other banks offer cards for kids so what about GoHenry…seems like a bit of a con to me or am I missing something extra special about it?

    GoHenry is one of a handful of prepaid type offers focussed at children. Like their adult counterparts, prepaid 'unbank' accounts typically charge the consumer for things banks (+Nationwide) will give them for free, and deliver less for the service (+/- a fancy app).

    The only slight snag is that banks won't give young children debit cards; they become eligible for that at ages 11-13.


    Even so, for under 11s there are better value prepaid offers like Hyperjar, Natwest Rooster (free if a parent banks with Natwest) or Starling Kite (£2/month).

    If they're 11 or older I'd encourage them to look through the link above and choose themselves one off the list. My father told me to go to town, get some account brochures (ah, 2001!) and see which bank I liked most. I chose NatWest for reasons I can't fully remember now but it was an empowering experience which started an enduring obsession of getting the most I can from my bank accounts.
  • My son has had many bank accounts (some of which he's kept and some he's moved on from) as I wanted him to get a good grip on banking so he didn't have to take the 'leap' most people have to do at 16/18 and making poor choices.

    Overall, me and my partner never chose any 'prepaid cards' as we didn't find them useful and quite limited in features (plus higher fees).

    His first current account which he still has was his Lloyds Bank SmartStart current account. He found this the most useful for a while as it provided an easy-to-use current account with a parental overview and instant access child-friendly savings account which most banks don't provide. However, after a while, it became clear that this was not suitable due to Lloyds Bank's terrible service and lack of knowledge regarding their own accounts. 

    He now has moved over his main current account to Nationwide FlexOne and has had no complaints since. It provides all the features you'd expect an adult current account to have really except credit services (overdraft/credit cards etc) and is completely free of charge. It isn't suitable for parental overview but the free overdraft to 23, good savings rates when they turn 16, great customer service and building society benefits (possibility of an annual payout) were too good to miss.

    He's also used a Santander 1 | 2 | 3 current account as a second account for quite a while and found it to be good to use although nothing really stood out from Santander's products to make him choose it for his main banking.

    He made the decision to close his HSBC MyMoney current and MySavings accounts due to ethical reasons and a lack of decent customer service. These seem highly popular due to the high rate of interest but we didn't see much appeal other than that.

    Overall, there are plenty of options out there and I'd make sure to take a look and see which one is best for you. Just a tip - skip NatWest/RBS. Their children's current accounts are a little lacklustre and are just awkward to manage and use.
  • Interesting details . I am trying to open a smart start Lloyds account for my 12 year old. It requires an online application but then i need to visit the non existent branch as they are all closed nearby to show ID. Are there any other banks that offer a simple banking service for a 12 year old. 
  • xylophone
    xylophone Posts: 45,535 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Is there a Nationwide branch within easy reach?

    https://www.nationwide.co.uk/current-accounts/flexone/


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