Finder Kids Banking Awards 2022

Finder’s Kids Banking Awards recognize accounts that stir kids’ interest in financial learning through hands-on practice as well as quizzes and games to improve their knowledge.

Our banking experts judged over 20 kids’ banking products, rating each one based on 16 scoring criteria, including financial literacy, monthly fees and rewards. Altogether our expert team analysed over 260 data points with the kids’ banking accounts with the highest score won the award in its given category.

Kids checking

Best overall: Till Financial

Till’s free account and debit card gives kids the tools to learn positive habits for spending and setting goals. Kids can get money from their parents through instant transfers, an automated allowance or chores tied to earnings. They can also set goals and invite friends and family to contribute, rewarding them for their smart money habits. Plus, when they’re in need of cash, they can use their debit card to withdraw from any ATM without charges from Till.

Read our review of Till Financial

Highly commended

• Alliant Credit Union Free Teen Checking
• Jassby

Best for ATM access: Copper

We like that Copper focuses on financial education, providing interactive quizzes and videos directly in the app. Plus, teens can use this account’s free Mastercard debit card to pull cash from any Allpoint or Moneypass ATM — a feature that isn’t offered by all kids’ cards. Teens can automatically save toward multiple savings goals, share goals with friends and family members and get active fraud monitoring for the account.

Read our review of Copper

Highly commended

• Alliant Credit Union Free Teen Checking
• Jassby

Best for teens: Jassby

This debit card helps teens learn smart financial habits by helping them keep track of chores, earn allowance and manage their spending. Teens earn reward points for completing tasks and improving their financial knowledge through Jassby’s courses. Plus, you can control notification settings and even lock your teen’s debit card access through the app.

Read our review of Jassby

Highly commended

• Chase First Banking
• Till Financial

Best for financial literacy: Jassby

Jassby encourages kids to learn and develop financial literacy through rewards for completing age-appropriate financial lessons, games and quizzes. Earned Jassby Rewards can be redeemed for real cash deposited to your kid’s spending account. Kids can also track their financial literacy score — and the higher their score, the more rewards they earn with each financial activity.

Read our review of Jassby

Highly commended

• Chase First Banking
• Till Financial

Best for multiple kids: Jassby

We like that Jassby parents can keep tabs on the family’s overall balance and manage multiple money requests and notifications. Jassby supports up to six virtual or physical cards for families — the highest number of allowed members we’ve seen across these products. Kids can also top up their accounts by requesting money from family members, making for smooth family collaboration. Plus, you can download monthly reports by account to talk through each kid’s spending habits.

Read our review of Jassby

Highly commended

• Chase First Banking
• Till Financial

Best for parental control: Chase First Banking

Chase First Banking helps kids develop healthy money habits with an account that’s powered by Greenlight, one of the most popular kids’ debit card platforms. This checking account lets you set spending limits on specific stores or categories, block ATMs and get spending notifications for free. Parents must own a regular Chase checking account to open this one for their kids.

Read our review of Chase First Banking℠

Highly commended

• Jassby
• Till Financial

Best for Rewards: Jassby

Jassby is the only platform we know that lets kids earn reward points — and points are redeemable for real cash in its app. Kids earn Jassby Rewards for completing chores and financial learning activities, like courses, quizzes and financial games. Once they reach 100 points, they can redeem the points for a cash deposit straight to their spending or savings account.

Read our review of Jassby

Best for Building Credit: Step

Step sets itself apart by offering teens a way to build a positive credit history through a type of secured spend card. Because kids aren’t able to spend more than what they have in their account, you can worry less about your swipe-happy teen overspending at stores. The result? Your child is one step ahead when it’s time to get a credit card, take out a student loan or pick up an auto insurance policy.

Read our review of Step

Best for no fee: Till Financial

Till Financial prides itself on its free platform, helping kids focus on tracking their earnings, spending and savings without paying the price tag that most kids’ debit cards charge. Kids can earn funds through one-time transfers, automated weekly allowances, completing chores or direct deposits from a regular job. They can also set savings goals that friends and family can contribute to or congratulate them on with a reward when it’s reached. Plus, you can boost savings with a match to kids’ contributions or as parent-paid interest.

Read our review of Till Financial

Highly commended

• Alliant Credit Union Free Teen Checking
• Copper

Best prepaid debit cards for kids

Best overall: Greenlight

Greenlight’s top-tier plan teaches your children the basics of chores and allowance and also investing. But it stands out for its safety and protection features, including protection plans for cell phones, debit card purchases and identity theft. And you can keep track of everyone’s whereabouts with location sharing among family members and stay in touch for emergencies with an in-app SOS button and crash detection.

Read our review of Greenlight

Highly commended

• Mazoola
• GoHenry

Best for teens: Mazoola

Mazoola gives teens access to a physical and virtual debit card and parents the ability to set limits on spending by categories or stores. Teens use the app to manage chores, set savings goals and even give to charity. And with Mazoola’s focus on online privacy for kids, you can rest easy knowing that information like age, location and shopping history is never stored, saved or sold. Use the platform free for a year before paying the service’s $4.95 monthly fee.

Read our review of Mazoola

Highly commended

• Goalsetter
• Revolut <18

Best for multiple kids: Greenlight

This top-tier plan from Greenlight is best for families because it offers the flexibility of teaching kids about allowance tracking, savings goals, investing and even personal safety. You can add up to five kids, and then turn on location sharing to keep tabs on everyone’s whereabouts. In case of an emergency, family members can access help through an SOS button and in-app crash detection. And with multiple family members, you’re more likely to use the purchase protection, cell phone insurance and identity theft protection the plan provides.

Read our review of Greenlight

Highly commended

• BusyKid
• FamZoo

Best for parental control: Greenlight

Greenlight Infinity gives you maximum parental control over your kids’ hands-on financial learning as well as protection and safety. You set spending controls to limit how much your child spends at specific stores or in spending categories — even how much they can withdraw from ATMs. You also must approve your kids’ transactions to spend, save or invest, giving you flexibility to coach your kids about their finances along the way. This plan also adds purchase and phone protection, family location sharing and crash detection tied to a 911 dispatcher — making it a platform rich with features and benefits.

Read our review of Greenlight

Highly commended

• Mazoola
• FamZoo

Best for rewards: Greenlight

Among the more popular kids’ debit card platforms available, Greenlight offers savings rewards from 1% to 5% that depend on your child’s plan. If your child is on the Greenlight Infinity plan, they can also earn 1% cash back every month on purchases made with the Greenlight debit card. Plus, you can set up parent-paid interest on savings and automatically send a percentage of any allowance earned directly into savings.

Read our review of Greenlight

Highly commended

• GoHenry
• Goalsetter

Best for no fee: Revolut <18

The Revolut prepaid card allows parents to track your kids’ chores and allowances, get instant notifications about their spending, set and track savings goals and set a monthly spending limit without paying a monthly fee. You also won’t pay fees for in-network ATMs or to add money via a US debit card or bank transfer. And spending is limited to what’s in your kid’s account, helping you avoid overdraft fees.

Parents must open a personal Revolut account to access kids’ features. But you can add accounts for up to five kids at no charge, and each account comes with a complimentary debit card.

Read our review of Revolut <18

Highly commended

• Mazoola
• Current teen banking

Best for ATM access: Greenlight

Greenlight Infinity not only offers chore tracking, allowance payments and an introduction to investing for kids and parents, but also comes with the ability to access a wide network of ATMs. Your kids can withdraw money from any Mastercard, Visa Interlink or Maestro ATM in or outside the States without a fee from Greenlight (though you could pay a fee from the ATM’s owner). Plus, Greenlight Infinity comes with family safety features, including location sharing and crash detection connected to a 911 dispatch.

Read our review of Greenlight

Highly commended

• Goalsetter
• GoHenry

Best for financial literacy: Greenlight

Greenlight Infinity helps your kids learn the ropes of finances through interactive quizzes and videos built right into the Greenlight app. Greenlight partners with the Million Bazillion podcast and Kahoot, a platform that offers short, age-appropriate quizzes to test your kids’ knowledge of math, basic personal finance concepts, investing and more. Along with Greenlight’s educational format, your kids get hands-on learning to track their chores, earn allowance, research and buy stocks — and understand personal safety from family location sharing and crash detection.

Read our review of Greenlight

Highly commended

• FamZoo
• Goalsetter

Best savings accounts for kids

Best for fees: Alliant Kids Savings Account

The Alliant Kids Savings Account stands out for its 1.8% APY on balances of $100 or more. This rate is higher than most kids’ savings accounts on the market, especially for the price. You and your kids can use the mobile banking app to monitor savings balances, track interest and transfer funds from linked accounts. Opt in to e-statements, and Alliant waives the account’s $1 monthly fee.

Read our review of Alliant Kids Savings Account

Highly commended

• PNC 'S' Is For Savings

Best for no fee: Northpointe Bank Kid’s Savings

Northpointe allows kids to save with tiered interest rates as high as 1.5% APY on balances up to $1,000 and still another 1.12% APY on balances of up to $10,000. You’ll earn another 0.35% APY on any balances above that amount. And you won’t have to worry about monthly fees or transaction charges.

Highly commended

• Capital One Kids Savings Account
• First Internet Bank Tomorrow’s Tycoons

Kids’ banking awards methodology

Our editorial experts conducted a review of the market, analyzing 24 kids’ banking products available to US residents as of August 2022.

We analyzed and reviewed kids’ savings, checking and prepaid debit cards separately using different metrics.

Checking accounts for kids

We evaluated kids’ checking accounts based on 16 metrics across nine award categories, which includes ratings from our internal kids banking expert, editor Alexa Cruz:

1. In-network ATM access
2. Debit card availability
3. Intro or bonus offer
4. Deposit methods
5. Monthly transaction limit
6. Monthly fee
7. Out-of-network ATM fee
8. APY
9. Minimum opening deposit
10. ATM location
11. Age limits
12. Number of cards included
13. Editor’s rating of credit building
14. Editor’s rating of financial literacy
15. Editor’s rating of rewards
16. Editor’s rating of parental controls

We weighted metrics differently across each award category as shown, using the total of all weighted scores for the winner and two finalists, where it applies.

Kids Debit Cards – Overall award weighting

• Monthly fee: 15%
• APY: 15%
• In-network ATM access: 10%
• ATM out-of-network fee: 10%
• Editor’s rating of financial literacy: 10%
• Editor’s rating of rewards: 10%
• Editor’s rating of parental controls: 10%
• Debit card availability: 2%
• Intro or bonus offer: 2%
• Deposit methods: 2%
• Monthly transaction limit: 2%
• Minimum opening deposit: 2%
• ATM locations: 2%
• Editor’s rating of credit building: 2%
• Age limits: 2%
• Number of cards included: 2%

Kids Debit Cards – Best No-Fee Award weighting

We excluded from this award kids’ checking accounts that have a fee, allowing us to weight and rate only products that don’t have a monthly fee as of August 2022.

• ATM out-of-network fee: 15%
• APY: 15%
• In-network ATM access: 10%
• Editor’s rating of financial literacy: 10%
• Editor’s rating of rewards: 10%
• Editor’s rating of parental controls: 10%
• Debit card availability: 3%
• Intro or bonus offer: 3%
• Deposit methods: 3%
• Monthly transaction limit: 3%
• Minimum opening deposit: 3%
• ATM locations: 3%
• Editor’s rating of credit building: 3%
• Age limits: 3%
• Number of cards included: 3%

Kids Debit Cards – Best ATM Access Award weighting

• ATM out-of-network fee: 15%
• ATM locations: 15%
• In-network ATM access: 10%
• APY: 10%
• Editor’s rating of rewards: 10%
• Editor’s rating of financial literacy: 10%
• Editor’s rating of parental controls: 10%
• Debit card availability: 2%
• Intro or bonus offer: 2%
• Deposit methods: 2%
• Monthly transaction limit: 2%
• Minimum opening deposit: 2%
• Editor’s rating of credit building: 2%
• Age limits: 2%
• Number of cards included: 2%
• Monthly fee: 2%

Kids Debit Cards – Building Credit Award weighting

• Editor’s rating of credit building: 50%
• Editor’s rating of financial literacy: 10%
• Editor’s rating of rewards: 10%
• Editor’s rating of parental controls: 10%
• Monthly fee: 5%
• APY: 5%
• ATM out-of-network fee: 1%
• ATM locations: 1%
• In-network ATM access: 1%
• Debit card availability: 1%
• Intro or bonus offer: 1%
• Deposit methods: 1%
• Monthly transaction limit: 1%
• Minimum opening deposit: 1%
• Age limits: 1%
• Number of cards included: 1%

Kids Debit Cards – Financial Literacy Award weighting

• Editor’s rating of financial literacy: 50%
• Editor’s rating of rewards: 10%
• Editor’s rating of parental controls: 10%
• Monthly fee: 5%
• APY: 5%
• Editor’s rating of credit building: 2%
• ATM out-of-network fee: 2%
• ATM locations: 2%
• In-network ATM access: 2%
• Debit card availability: 2%
• Intro or bonus offer: 2%
• Deposit methods: 2%
• Monthly transaction limit: 2%
• Minimum opening deposit: 2%
• Age limits: 2%
• Number of cards included: 2%

Kids Debit Cards – Best for Teens Award weighting

We considered only checking accounts available to kids ages 13 to 17 as of August 2022.

• Monthly fee: 20%
• APY: 20%
• Editor’s rating of financial literacy: 10%
• Editor’s rating of rewards: 10%
• Editor’s rating of parental controls: 10%
• Editor’s rating of credit building: 3%
• ATM out-of-network fee: 3%
• ATM locations: 3%
• In-network ATM access: 3%
• Debit card availability: 3%
• Intro or bonus offer: 3%
• Deposit methods: 3%
• Monthly transaction limit: 3%
• Minimum opening deposit: 3%
• Number of cards included: 3%

Kids Debit Cards – Rewards Award weighting

We considered only kids’ checking accounts that offer rewards as of August 2022.

• Monthly fee: 20%
• APY: 20%
• Editor’s rating of financial literacy: 10%
• Editor’s rating of parental controls: 10%
• Editor’s rating of credit building: 4%
• ATM out-of-network fee: 4%
• ATM locations: 4%
• In-network ATM access: 4%
• Debit card availability: 4%
• Intro or bonus offer: 4%
• Deposit methods: 4%
• Monthly transaction limit: 4%
• Minimum opening deposit: 4%
• Age limits: 4%
• Number of cards included: 4%

Kids Debit Cards – Families with Multiple Kids Award weighting

• Number of cards included: 50%
• Editor’s rating of financial literacy: 10%
• Editor’s rating of rewards: 10%
• Editor’s rating of parental controls: 10%
• Monthly fee: 5%
• APY: 5%
• Editor’s rating of credit building: 1%
• ATM out-of-network fee: 1%
• ATM locations: 1%
• In-network ATM access: 1%
• Debit card availability: 1%
• Intro or bonus offer: 1%
• Deposit methods: 1%
• Monthly transaction limit: 1%
• Minimum opening deposit: 1%
• Age limits: 1%

Kids Debit Cards – Parental Control Award weighting

• Editor’s rating of parental controls: 50%
• Editor’s rating of financial literacy: 10%
• Editor’s rating of rewards: 10%
• Monthly fee: 5%
• APY: 5%
• Editor’s rating of credit building: 2%
• ATM out-of-network fee: 2%
• ATM locations: 2%
• In-network ATM access: 2%
• Debit card availability: 2%
• Number of cards included: 2%
• Intro or bonus offer: 2%
• Deposit methods: 2%
• Monthly transaction limit: 2%
• Minimum opening deposit: 2%
• Age limits: 2%

Prepaid debit cards for kids

We evaluated debit cards for kids based on 14 metrics across eight award categories, which includes ratings from our internal kids banking expert, editor Alexa Cruz:

1. Maximum card balance
2. Daily ATM withdrawal limit
3. Daily signature or PIN limit
4. ATM withdrawal fee
5. Out-of-network ATM withdrawal fee
6. Monthly fee
7. Replacement card fee
8. Additional cardholder fee
9. Age limits
10. Number of cards included
11. Editor’s rating of credit building
12. Editor’s rating of financial literacy
13. Editor’s rating of rewards
14. Editor’s rating of parental controls

We weighted metrics differently across each award category as shown, using the total of all weighted scores for the winner and two finalists, where it applies.

Prepaid debit cards for kids – Overall Award weighting

• Maximum Balance: 1%
• Daily ATM Withdrawal Limit: 1%
• Daily Signature or PIN Limit: 1%
• ATM Withdrawal Fee: 5%
• Monthly Fee: 16%
• Replacement Card Fee: 5%
• Out-of-Network ATM Withdrawal Fee: 1%
• Additional Cardholder Fee: 1%
• Financial literacy Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 25%
• Best for teens Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 1%
• Rewards Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 25%
• Families with multiple kids Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 1%
• Parental control Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 15%

Prepaid debit cards for kids – Best No Fee Award weighting

We excluded kids’ debit cards with fees for this award to allow us to weight and rate only products that don’t have a monthly fee as of August 2022.

• Maximum Balance: 2%
• Daily ATM Withdrawal Limit: 2%
• Daily Signature or PIN Limit: 1%
• ATM Withdrawal Fee: 15%
• Monthly Fee: 0%
• Replacement Card Fee: 15%
• Out-of-Network ATM Withdrawal Fee: 15%
• Additional Cardholder Fee: 1%
• Financial literacy Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 15%
• Best for teens Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 1%
• Rewards Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 15%
• Families with multiple kids Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 1%
• Parental control Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 15%

Prepaid debit cards for kids – Best ATM Access Award weighting

• Maximum Balance: 1%
• Daily ATM Withdrawal Limit: 15%
• Daily Signature or PIN Limit: 1%
• ATM Withdrawal Fee: 15%
• Monthly Fee: 2%
• Replacement Card Fee: 1%
• Out-of-Network ATM Withdrawal Fee: 15%
• Additional Cardholder Fee: 1%
• Financial literacy Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 15%
• Best for teens Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 1%
• Rewards Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 15%
• Families with multiple kids Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 1%
• Parental control Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 15%

Prepaid debit cards for kids – Financial Literacy Award weighting

• Maximum Balance: 2%
• Daily ATM Withdrawal Limit: 2%
• Daily Signature or PIN Limit: 2%
• ATM Withdrawal Fee: 5%
• Monthly Fee: 7%
• Replacement Card Fee: 5%
• Out-of-Network ATM Withdrawal Fee: 2%
• Additional Cardholder Fee: 2%
• Financial literacy Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 50%
• Best for teens Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 2%
• Rewards Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 10%
• Families with multiple kids Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 2%
• Parental control Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 10%

Prepaid debit cards for kids – Best for Teens Award weighting

We considered only debit cards available to kids ages 13 to 17 as of August 2022.

• Maximum Balance: 1%
• Daily ATM Withdrawal Limit: 1%
• Daily Signature or PIN Limit: 1%
• ATM Withdrawal Fee: 5%
• Monthly Fee: 6%
• Replacement Card Fee: 5%
• Out-of-Network ATM Withdrawal Fee: 1%
• Additional Cardholder Fee: 1%
• Financial literacy Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 10%
• Best for teens Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 50%
• Rewards Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 10%
• Families with multiple kids Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 1%
• Parental control Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 10%

Prepaid debit cards for kids – Rewards Award weighting

We considered kids’ checking accounts that offer rewards as of August 2022.

• Maximum Balance: 2%
• Daily ATM Withdrawal Limit: 2%
• Daily Signature or PIN Limit: 2%
• ATM Withdrawal Fee: 5%
• Monthly Fee: 7%
• Replacement Card Fee: 5%
• Out-of-Network ATM Withdrawal Fee: 2%
• Additional Cardholder Fee: 2%
• Financial literacy Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 10%
• Best for teens Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 2%
• Rewards Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 50%
• Families with multiple kids Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 2%
• Parental control Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 10%

Prepaid debit cards for kids – Families with Multiple Kids Award weighting

• Maximum Balance: 1%
• Daily ATM Withdrawal Limit: 1%
• Daily Signature or PIN Limit: 1%
• ATM Withdrawal Fee: 5%
• Monthly Fee: 6%
• Replacement Card Fee: 5%
• Out-of-Network ATM Withdrawal Fee: 1%
• Additional Cardholder Fee: 1%
• Financial literacy Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 10%
• Best for teens Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 1%
• Rewards Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 10%
• Families with multiple kids Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 50%
• Parental control Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 10%

Prepaid debit cards for kids – Parental Controls Award weighting

• Maximum Balance: 2%
• Daily ATM Withdrawal Limit: 2%
• Daily Signature or PIN Limit: 2%
• ATM Withdrawal Fee: 5%
• Monthly Fee: 7%
• Replacement Card Fee: 5%
• Out-of-Network ATM Withdrawal Fee: 2%
• Additional Cardholder Fee: 2%
• Financial literacy Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 10%
• Best for teens Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 2%
• Rewards Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 10%
• Families with multiple kids Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 2%
• Parental control Alexa Serrano’s Rating: 50%

Savings accounts for kids

We evaluated kids’ savings accounts based on 11 metrics across two award categories:

1. Number of ways money can be access
2. Number of deposit methods
3. Nonsufficient funds fee
4. Outgoing domestic wire transfer fee
5. Outgoing international wire transfer fee
6. Paper statement fee
7. APY
8. Minimum opening deposit
9. Maximum age
10. Monthly fee
11. Monthly transaction limit
12. We weighted metrics differently across each award category as shown, using the total of all weighted scores for the winner and two finalists, where it applies.

Savings accounts for kids – Best No Fee Award weighting

We considered only kids’ savings accounts with no monthly fee as of August 2022.

• APY: 60%
• Number of ways money can be accessed: 4%
• Number of deposit methods: 4%
• Nonsufficient funds fee: 4%
• Outgoing domestic wire transfer fee: 4%
• Outgoing international wire transfer fee: 4%
• Paper statement fee: 4%
• Minimum opening deposit: 4%
• Maximum age: 4%
• Monthly transaction limit: 4%

Savings accounts for kids – Best Overall Award weighting

• Monthly fee: 50%
• APY: 25%
• Number of ways money can be accessed: 3%
• Number of deposit methods: 3%
• Nonsufficient funds fee: 3%
• Outgoing domestic wire transfer fee: 3%
• Outgoing international wire transfer fee: 3%
• Paper statement fee: 3%
• Minimum opening deposit: 3%
• Maximum age: 3%
• Monthly transaction limit: 3%