Acorns Early (formerly GoHenry) Review: Kids’ Debit Card

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Acorns Early in the news

Acorns, a digital banking app focused on investments, recently acquired GoHenry and renamed it Acorns Early. Acorns used to offer a different product called Acorns Early, but discontinued it and gave the name to GoHenry, as of November 2024.

Since the acquisition, Acorns is now offering customers the ability to get a free Acorns Early account if they have the Gold Acorns Checking account membership, which costs $12 per month.

That means you would get two accounts for the price of one. The Gold Acorns Checking account offers all the best perks you can get with the fintech, including an investing account for kids, $10,000 in life insurance, an Emergency Fund account and investable round-ups.

Who is Acorns Early best for?

Acorns Early is best for children between the ages of 6 and 18. It’s also for parents who want their kids to learn money management skills. The app comes with interactive financial literacy games and quizzes tailored by age and developed by teachers and financial experts.

But if you have multiple kids, Greenlight might be a better option. Greenlight’s most basic plan Core costs $5.99 per month, and it allows for up to five kids and has no age requirements.

Acorns Early plans and cost

Acorns Early offers a one-month free trial before charging a monthly cost based on how many kids are on the account. Its pricing is set at:

What makes Acorns Early shine

Acorns Early accounts are FDIC insured up to $250,000 per depositor through Lincoln Savings Bank or nbkc bank, Members FDIC.

Acorns Early doesn’t charge for domestic or international ATMs withdrawals, foreign transaction fees or overdraft fees. Your kid’s card should be accepted anywhere that accepts Visa, but some countries are blocked from transactions. While Acorns Early doesn’t charge for using out-of-network ATMs, an ATM operator fee may apply.

Investing for kids’ futures now

With Acorns Gold, you’re offered a custodial account (UGMA/UTMA) with a 1% match on the first $7,000 you invest per year for their future.

Learn more about custodial accounts and how they work.

Gamified learning

Most kids’ debit cards offer financial lessons, but Acorns Early stands out with engaging videos, quizzes and articles designed for kids aged 6 to 14.

Kids complete missions to earn points and badges, making learning fun and interactive. These lessons follow K–12 Personal Finance Education National Standards, created by financial experts and teachers. Unlike many platforms that focus on text-heavy content, Acorns Early adds visuals and lessons for younger kids, setting it apart from competitors like Step.

Strong parental controls

Acorns Early dials in parental controls by giving the ability to set limits by the day, week and month. Parents can receive real-time spending notifications, set custom spending limits, lock or unlock savings, send money instantly, and like most kids’ cards, the card won’t work at stores that sell age-restricted items.

As the Acorns Early card is Visa, there’s also Zero Liability Protection, chip and PIN-protected transactions and bank-level encryption.

You’ll also get the automated allowance and chore tracking that you’d expect from a top-of-the-line kids’ banking app. Kids get paid for chores weekly, giving them time to complete their list and get rewarded for the chores they finish.

Plus, Acorns Early lets you add a second parent to get notifications and manage the chore lists. Every kids’ app is different in this area. Some don’t allow you to add another parent, while others, like Mazoola, let you customize different controls for each parent.

Custom cards

This is one of the only kids’ cards that offers customizable designs. Kids can choose from over 35 card designs, letting kids customize their name and favorite picture or pattern. The only other kids’ banking app that allows this, that we know of, is Greenlight.

In addition to its cards, the app doesn’t hold back on using bold colors, avatars, icons and progress bars for an eye-catching look. It keeps tools simplistic with bite-sized financial lessons and suggested goals for savings, helping kids use the app with ease.

Can make gifting money easier

With Acorns Early “Giftlinks,” friends and family can send money straight to the Acorns Early account. You can share the Giftlinks to anyone who wants to send money for gifts. There’s no fee for the gifter or kid to use this feature, either.

There are also “Relative accounts” options, letting parents add an Acorns Early Relative so they can send cash to the kid’s account whenever they’d like.

What could be better

Acorns Early’s pricing structure is its biggest downfall, and the cost has increased over the years.

Acorns Early used to start at $5 per month, and now there’s an Acorns Early Lite plan that starts at $8 per month. However, if you’re already an Acorns Gold subscriber, then you can access Acorns Early for free.

Compare Acorns Early with other debit cards for kids

Narrow down debit cards for kids by monthly fee and features.

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Finder Score	Fee	Age requirements	Features
Promoted 9.2 Excellent Greenlight Finder Award	9.2 Excellent	$5.99 per month	Any age	Spend, save & invest Chores & allowance tools Spending controls & limits Instantly send money to your child Up to 6% savings rewards	Teach your child to spend, save and invest all in one app. Get 5+ financial literacy tools, including chores and allowances. All with powerful parental controls to decide where your child can spend and how much. Includes up to 6% savings rewards.	Go to siteView details Compare product selection Compare	loading
Promoted 9.4 Excellent Cash App Families	9.4 Excellent	$0 per month	13 to 17 years old *	Start with as little as $1 Your teen can earn 3.75% interest on their savings Send and request money, deposit cash and access ATMs Free saving and investing** features with parental approval	Sponsor your teen's Cash App account with robust parental oversight and safety features, such as payment notifications and card locking. Help them invest, choose between colorful cards and decide which features they can access.	Go to siteView details Compare product selection Compare	loading
8.6 Great Acorns Early (formerly GoHenry)	8.6 Great	$8 per month	6 to 18 years old	Automate allowance & instantly send money to your child Optional parent-paid savings interest Spending controls & limits $8/month after Finder exclusive free trial	Get 2 months free and $10 allowance when you sign up to Acorns Early with Finder's exclusive code: AFFUSFDR10. T&Cs apply.	Get interactive money and investing tools for your kids, including expert-developed games and quizzes. Offers strong parental controls that allow you to set where and how much your child can spend.	Go to siteView details Compare product selection Compare	loading
8.6 Great Chase First Banking℠	8.6 Great	$0 per month	6 to 17 years old	$0 monthly fee Financial learning tools for kids Flexible parental controls Supports chores and allowances For kids ages 6 to 17 FDIC insured	A debit card for kids and teens with parental controls and digital tools to help them learn good money habits in the Chase Mobile app. Requires parent to have or open a Chase checking account. FDIC insured.	Go to siteView details Compare product selection Compare	loading
8.4 Great Revolut Kids & Teens account	8.4 Great	$0 per month	13 to 17 years old	Chore and allowance tracking Budgeting tools Set custom spending limits Set money goals Must have parent account for kids under 18	The Revolut Kids & Teens account card comes with chore and allowance tracking, parental controls, and budgeting tools for your kid. You must have a Revolut personal account to be eligible. Revolut is not a bank. Banking services are provided by Lead Bank, Member FDIC. Fees may apply. See revolut.com/en-US/ for details.	Go to siteView details Compare product selection Compare	loading

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What is the Finder Score?

The Finder Score applies to 45+ kids' debit card options. It takes into account the card's fees, features, age requirements, ATM access and more — this gives you a simple score out of 10.

To provide a Score, we compare like-for-like debit cards. So if you're comparing the best kids' cards with no monthly fees, you can see how card stacks up against each other by features, opening deposits and other benefits.

Read the full breakdown

Acorns Early’s customer experience

Most customers have a five-star experience with Acorns Early based on app and user reviews. Happy customers like the app’s wealth of features and are thrilled to see their kids successfully learning about finances.

Yet multiple people have said they deal with glitches, like the app not paying allowance, especially with the Android app, which may contribute to the lower customer rating there. A few customers mention that you’re required to set up an automatic weekly allowance. However, we verified with customer support that parents can set the allowance to $0 if they don’t want to use the automated allowance.