Methodology for kids’ bank card scores
You'll find scores on our kids' bank card reviews. Here's how we came up with them.
You may have noticed (you did, right?) that our kids’ debit card pages, tables and reviews come with scores. They’re there to help consumers figure out how good a company and its products are, at a single glance. But they wouldn’t be fair, and we wouldn’t be transparent, if we didn’t tell you how we came up with them.
We publish 2 types of score:
- Finder’s expert score. Our experts look at the features of a product (in this case, a kids’ debit card), how much it costs and what it offers to users, then rate it.
- User reviews. We ask you to tell us about your experience as a customer of the brands we cover. You can submit a comment directly through the relevant review, and each year we gather more user reviews through a customer survey. We show the results of this survey in an annual league table, and use it to determine our annual customer satisfaction awards, too.
Finder’s expert scores
You’ll find our expert scores on our kids’ bank card pages. We rate the cards using a system of 1 to 5 blue stars.
★★★★★ – Excellent
★★★★★ – Good
★★★★★ – Average
★★★★★ – Subpar
★★★★★ – Poor
How it works
We assess kids’ prepaid cards across a number of key areas:
- Fees. We consider whether there is a monthly fee for the account and also whether the account charges for things like ordering a card, loading funds to the card or ATM withdrawals. If there are charges for making purchases abroad or taking out money from a foreign ATM , that is also taken into account.
- Controls and safeguards. We consider whether there are controls and safeguards such as age-restricted sales, instant notifications, spending limits, PIN reminders and the ability to freeze and unfreeze the card.
- App features. We score this based which features the app has including savings goals, educational features, earning functionality for chores, giftlinks for relatives, a separate app or profile for the child and the ability to add a co-parent.
- App ratings. This is calculated by averaging the banking app’s score in the Google Play Store and the App Store.
We average all these scores to come up with an overall Finder score.
How we decide which features are most important
Using and comparing kids’ debit cards then sharing our findings is what we do.
Each factor in our scoring is weighted. We asked consumers what matters to them when choosing a card for their child, and took this into account when deciding how to weight our scores.
| Fees | Controls & safeguards | App features | App rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30% | 30% | 20% | 20% |
Your reviews and our customer survey
You can see review stars at the top of our review pages, if we’ve received more than 10. These are from consumers just like you who use our site and want to review the products and providers they use. We include responses we’ve received in our annual customer satisfaction surveys. We also show the results of each survey in a league table in guides and in our awards pages.
In December 2023, we ran a customer satisfaction survey on kids’ cards. 500 people answered and told us how happy they are with their current account provider. We’ve turned their answers into a star rating of between 1 and 5 and we show this in our annual league table of bank account providers.
★★★★★ – Excellent
★★★★★ – Good
★★★★★ – Average
★★★★★ – Subpar
★★★★★ – Poor
Customer satisfaction score methodology
The survey asked respondents how satisfied they are with their current account on a scale from 1 to 5, and also whether they would recommend it to a friend or not.
We turned the answers into an overall star rating that takes into account:
- How many people would recommend the account vs how many people wouldn’t. If you say you’d recommend your bank to a friend when sitting at the pub in front of a pint, it must mean it’s really good (the bank, not the pint). This forms 50% of our customer satisfaction rating.
- How many people rated a provider five out of five. Wow, five out of five? This counts for 25% of our customer satisfaction rating.
- The average score each current account provider got. This tells us if a bank offers quite a solid service even though it doesn’t have loads of top ratings… or if it’s just not that great. This parameter forms the last 25% of our overall customer satisfaction score.
More resources on Finder
More guides on Finder
-
4 money skills your child is secretly curious about
We teamed up with GoHenry to answer your child’s curiosity and turn these financial concepts into real-world money skills. (Paid content)
-
Bank accounts for grandchildren
Learn more about the pros and cons of prepaid debit cards for kids.
-
Set up for life: Why giving your teen control of their money now pays off later
We’ve partnered with NatWest Adapt to help teens master their digital money goals. (Paid content)
-
Hey kids! It’s time to earn your back-to-school upgrades
This summer, we’ve teamed up with GoHenry to help you challenge your kids to earn and save for their own back-to-school upgrades. (Paid content)
-
The summer “side hustle” challenge: 5 fun ways for kids to earn extra cash
In this guide we walkthrough 5 fun, safe and practical “side hustles” your kids can start this summer to supercharge their pocket money. (Paid content)
-
The pocket money puzzle: How much is enough?
We’ve partnered with GoHenry for your ultimate guide to typical pocket money by age. (Paid content)
-
NatWest Rooster Money referral, promo & discount codes for September 2026
New to NatWest Rooster Money? See if you can keep some more money in your pocket with our promo codes and special offers.
-
Halifax Expresscash account review
Learn more about the Halifax Expresscash account to see if it’s right for your child.
-
NatWest children and teenager account review
If you’re tired of using cash for your kids’ pocket money or want to put money aside for when they’ll go to uni, NatWest has dedicated account options for both cases.
-
Halifax child and teenager account review
This guide looks at how Halifax’s child accounts work, whether they make a good choice to teach kids about personal finance, and and how to open one.