Teaching kids about money requires a lot more than giving them an allowance.
Parents who want their children to grow up to be financially responsible adults know that kids who learn the basics of saving, spending, and interest are the ones who’ll be set up for a financially stable future.
It might shock you to learn that research shows that only 23% of kids say they talk to their parents about money, and kids who don’t receive financial education are more likely to end up in debt and to default on student loans.
No parent wants that for their children!
Greenlight is a financial literacy app for kids that makes it a snap for parents to pay their kids an allowance, tie the allowance to chores and savings goals, and more.
Kids also get a Greenlight-branded debit card. Parents who want to prioritize financial literacy may wonder whether Greenlight is the right app to use. Here’s our take.
What is Greenlight?
Greenlight is a family banking app whose mission is to teach kids how to manage their money.
Parents can set up a family account and take advantage of an array of features to teach their kids to be financially knowledgeable and responsible.
Greenlight is available for both Apple and Android mobile devices. It has a user-friendly interface (more on that below) and a ton of useful features that both educate and protect kids.
You can choose a prepaid card and if you do, your money will be deposited and held at Community Federal Savings Bank, an FDIC-insured financial institution.
Greenlight has some terrific resources on their website, including financial education games, a blog, and their podcast.
You can manage your kid’s account yourself or add another parent or adult to help out.
Pro Tip:
Greenlight is a family finance app that offers tools like chore management, bank accounts and cards, investing, and even safety features for teens. When you sign up for Greenlight and refer your friends, you can earn up to $600 a year in referral bonuses!
What Features Does Greenlight Offer?
Greenlight offers features for both parents and kids. Here’s an overview of the most important bells and whistles.
Chores & Allowance
One of the things that parents love about Greenlight is that it allows them to schedule kids’ chores and tie their allowance to chores and financial goals.
It’s easy to set up chores for multiple kids.
You can set the frequency of each chore, specifying whether it needs to be done daily, weekly, or monthly. There are preset chores for you to choose from.
Another cool thing about Greenlight is that if parents want to allow kids to earn money for doing extra jobs around the house, there’s an option to set that up and pay kids as you approve their work.
Cash Back & Saving
Kids with a Greenlight debit or credit card can earn bonuses on savings and cash back on spending.
Savings rewards depend on which tier you choose, as follows:
- 1% for the Greenlight Core Plan
- 2% for the Greenlight Max Plan
- 5% for the Greenlight Infinity Plan
Kids can also earn 1% cash back on purchases with the Max and Infinity Plans.
Investing
Greenlight offers investment options for parents and kids with the top two subscription tiers.
The parent investment option is also included in the Core plan, but with “Lite” features.
With Greenlight Max and Greenlight Infinity, parents can send their kids money to invest.
Greenlight has tons of financial education around investing, too, so parents can review basic investment concepts with their kids.
As you can see, you and your kids can check out detailed stock and ETF analysis and you can start your kids off with as little as $1.
Safety
Greenlight takes kids’ safety seriously and provides parents with multiple options to protect their children.
First, there’s the option to set spending limits for kids and prohibit certain transactions or require parental approval.
That’s something that can be extremely useful if you don’t want your child to rack up hundreds of dollars of spending on games like Roblox.
For older kids, the top tier of Greenlight offers more safety features including Crash Detection, SOS, and drive tracking.
Parents can have the peace of mind of knowing where their kids are when they’re on the road and that they can reach emergency services quickly if they need to.
For Kids & Teens
One of the best things about Greenlight is that with any plan, you and your kids will get access to a ton of financial education resources covering everything from saving to investing to charitable donations.
The earlier kids start learning about money management and core financial principles, the more likely they are to grow into financially stable adults who won’t end up living on your couch!
Pro Tip:
Greenlight is a family finance app that offers tools like chore management, bank accounts and cards, investing, and even safety features for teens. When you sign up for Greenlight and refer your friends, you can earn up to $600 a year in referral bonuses!
How Much Does Greenlight Cost?
Greenlight is a subscription service with three different tiers.
The lowest tier comes with basic features, and the two higher tiers offer increased functionality and banking features. Here’s how the cost breaks down.
Greenlight Core
Greenlight Core is the basic plan, which costs $4.99 per month. The basic plan comes with these features:
- Debit cards for up to 5 kids
- Core financial tools for kids
- Parental controls
- Financial education app
- Greenlight Savings Reward of 1%
- Greenlight Level Up (financial games)
- Investing for Parents (Lite version)
This plan is ideal if you want to do a trial run of Greenlight to see if it’s the right option for your family.
Greenlight Max
The middle tier of Greenlight is called Greenlight Max, and the cost of a subscription is $9.98 per month. It comes with all the features of the Core plan, plus:
- Investing for Parents (full version)
- Investing for Kids
- Greenlight Savings Reward of 2%
- 1% cash back on purchases
- Identity theft, phone, and purchase protection
- Priority customer support
If you want to be able to invest on behalf of your kids and teach your kids how investing works, this plan might be right for your family.
Greenlight Infinity
The top tier is called Greenlight Infinity, and the subscription cost is $14.99 per month. You’ll get everything that comes with Greenlight Max, plus:
- Greenlight Savings Reward of 5%
- Family location sharing
- Crash detection (the app will contact 911 if your teen gets in an accident)
- SOS alerts
- Driving reports
- Real-time trip alerts
Families with teenagers may want to opt for Greenlight Infinity because of its enhanced safety features to protect teen drivers.
How Does Greenlight Compare to Other Banking Apps for Kids?
In addition to Greenlight, there are many other financial apps for kids. Here are a couple of comparisons that may be helpful.
Greenlight vs BusyKid
BusyKid has many of the same features as Greenlight, including debit cards, savings incentives, and investment options, plus educational content.
One feature that BusyKid has that Greenlight doesn’t is a bonus option, which allows parents to reward their kids based on whatever criteria they choose.
The biggest difference between Greenlight and BusyKid is the cost.
Greenlight’s prices start at $4.99 and top out at $14.99 for the highest tier. BusyKid charges $4 per month or $48 per year for up to 5 children, making it significantly less expensive than Greenlight.
It’s worth noting that there are no tiers for BusyKid features, meaning all subscribers get access to all features.
Another key difference is that BusyKid makes it easy to cancel your subscription where some users have complained about the difficulty of canceling Greenlight.
Finally, grandparents and other relatives can contribute to kids’ accounts using a QR code.
Greenlight vs GoHenry
GoHenry is another popular financial app for kids. It has two pricing tiers at $4.99 and $9.98, both of which are good for families with up to four children.
Both apps include educational content to help kids learn about money. Both offer parental controls to give parents peace of mind around their kids’ spending.
Like BusyKid, GoHenry makes it possible for relatives and family friends to deposit money into kids’ accounts. Unlike the other apps we’ve reviewed, it also allows for money transfers from inside the app.
Pro Tip:
Greenlight is a family finance app that offers tools like chore management, bank accounts and cards, investing, and even safety features for teens. When you sign up for Greenlight and refer your friends, you can earn up to $600 a year in referral bonuses!
Pros and Cons of Greenlight
Before you choose Greenlight to teach your kids about finance, here are some pros and cons to consider.
Pros
- Kids get a debit card to help them learn how to spend responsibly
- Parents can set spending limits for kids and track their spending history
- Money transfers may be linked to chores and goals
- Kids earn cash back and savings rewards when they use their card
- Access to financial education and money tools
- Certain transactions may be blocked to protect kids
Cons
- Cash deposits are not an option
- The basic account has limited features
- Greenlight doesn’t work with P2P payment apps like PayPal and Venmo
- Kids’ accounts must be linked to a parent account, so it may be difficult for parents without a joint account to share monitoring responsibilities
- Greenlight isn’t free; monthly fees range from $4.99 to $14.98
What Do Reviewers Say About Greenlight?
Online reviewers have plenty of positive feedback and comments about Greenlight.
- Parents appreciate the parental control features, including spending limits and automatic spending notifications that allow them to monitor kids’ financial behavior.
- Parents love the location tracking and other safety features that provide peace of mind for teen drivers.
- Greenlight earns high marks for its financial resources, which parents and kids can review together to instill healthy financial habits.
- Greenlight’s 24/7 customer service earns a lot of praise from users.
There’s no such thing as a product without negative reviews. Here are a few not-so-complimentary things users have said about Greenlight.
- There’s no free version, so you’ll have to pay to try Greenlight out.
- Canceling Greenlight isn’t easy from inside the app; you’ll probably have to call the company if you want to terminate your subscription.
- For Greenlight to help kids, parents must be prepared to monitor the app.
On the whole, we think the positives far outweigh the negatives. Both parents and kids can benefit from using Greenlight.
Final Thoughts
Our takeaway is that Greenlight is a very good app for families where parents want their kids to learn about money from an early age.
Its educational content and practical features make it easy for kids to save money, spend responsibly, and learn how to invest.
The biggest potential downside is Greenlight’s cost, which is high compared to other apps—particularly for the top tier, which is the only option where you can get access to all of Greenlight’s features.
To learn about another platform with financial education tools, check out our Seeking Alpha review.
