Methodology for kids’ prepaid card ratings

You may have noticed (you did, right?) that our kids’ prepaid 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:

What is the Finder score?

Our expert team evaluates various products in our database, assigning each one a score out of 10. A higher score means the product is more competitive and may offer better value.

If you want peace of mind, this rating will give it to you. These products offer the best value and outcomes considering various product features, terms, conditions and price.

Well-balanced products that provide what you need, offering a healthy mix of competitive features at a good price. However, they’re not quite the best in class.

Bottom line: You can find better, but these products still offer reasonable value and have the basics sorted.

These products may not offer much value in the long run, and there are better options available.

What factors do we take into account?

We assess products across a number of key areas:

• Fees. We consider whether these is a monthly fee for the card and whether it charges you for things like top-ups or ATM withdrawals. If there are charges for making purchases abroad or taking money out from a foreign ATM, that is also taken into account.
• Controls and safeguards. We score this based on what controls or safeguards the card as in place, like ability to freeze and unfreeze the card, age-restricted sales and ATM withdrawal limits.
• App features. We look at what educational features the app has, whether or not you can set savings goals and what type of earning functionality is in place.
• App rating. 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.

Your reviews and our customer survey

In January 2025, we ran a customer satisfaction survey on kids’ prepaid cards. The survey asked 500 respondents how satisfied they are with their provider on a scale from 1 to 5, and also whether they would recommend it to a friend or not.

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 ratings out of 5 and responses we’ve received in our annual customer satisfaction surveys.

★★★★★ – Excellent

★★★★★ – Good

★★★★★ – Average

★★★★★ – Subpar

★★★★★ – Poor

We also show the percentage who would recommend each provider in a league table in guides and on our awards pages.

Written by

Kate Steere

Editor

Kate Steere is an editor and money expert at Finder, specialising in banking, savings and fintech. She has previously written for The Motley Fool UK and Fitch Solutions, where she covered a wide range of personal finance topics and kept a close eye on market trends. Kate has a Bachelor of Arts in Modern History from the University of East Anglia. When not working, she can usually be found curled up with a good book or heading out for a run. See full bio

Kate's expertise

Kate has written 171 Finder guides across topics including:

• Banking
• Savings
• Fintech
• Credit
• Payments