Bank account for kids? Worth it, credit union?

[Thriftybugger]

I'm looking to open up a bank account for my two kids who are under the age of 13. Our local credit union has a savings account for kids. One can check the balance online but you can only deposit at the bank and no card. I know with technology like digital wallets, Venmo and the bitcoins a bank account is a bit of an anachronism but most people still need a bank account, how else are we gonna fill our Binance.us accounts with USD to buy them doge ! :)

Wondering if  there is some super duper online bank account that's better than the credit union one? 

Just looking to teach the little buggers about money as both of them have a little wallets that are stuffed with about $100 each that are  just looking to get lost.  (eg With our organic lemonade stand that uses expensive organic lemon juice and sugar from Costco we need to subtract the cost of these items first before they can fill those little wallets with lolly!)

Thoughts?

[jeninco]

Hmm, our kids had accounts at the credit union that had debit/atm cards that they could use all over town. Along with helpful coaching (I'm not even being sarcastic) from the CU managers. They also were eligible to get their own (secured, with their bank accounts) credit cards upon turning 18, so they could start building their own credit, without interference from us.

Maybe try another place?

[Cranky]

My kids had checking accounts at 16yo, but my name also had to be on the account.

[soulpatchmike]

Our credit union allows child savings account with an ATM only card, but no checking/debit until 14 years old.  My oldest three got debit card accounts at 14 years old.  Now at 15,18 and 19 all three have venmo and none of them have any desire to have cash.  They all prefer to use their debit card or venmo on everything. 

I got a credit card for the oldest when she was 16 and taught her to use it only for gasoline paying at the pump.  She has it set to autopay the balance at the end of the month from her checking account and she earns some rewards from it.  It has taught her to manage "bills" to her account balance and also gain a credit score which is still required to get a mortgage, hopefully, someday.

My son wanted me to get him an M1 account when he was 17 so he could invest, but I told him to wait.  Now at 18 he is apparently too lazy to setup the account and transfer some money into it...I think he just wanted me to do it for him...nope.

[Michael in ABQ]

I established savings accounts for all our kids soon after they were born. Mostly a place to deposit the $25 their grandparents would give them on their birthdays. I recently established some new savings accounts with our CU (primary bank) so they can get payroll deposits when they work in our business. They can't get a debit card or checks until 16 - even with me as a co-signer on the account.

[Chris Pascale]

When they were getting checks as little kids, those checks were going into their accounts. As they are getting older, they have a few grand to set forward with, but they also get to use the money.

When my youngest wanted to ride a pony for her birthday, she paid for part of the party - not because I have ideas about kids paying for their birthdays, but I was just really short on cash and let her know I was $XXX short for the party, and if she could pay for the difference we could arrange it.

[CDNSaver]

We used an app called rooster which was just a fake bank account.  I think they just stopped supporting it.  It just added money for allowance every week and we could deduct when they spent it.  We did this until kids were 12 and got bank cards and real accounts.

[Paul der Krake]

Why limit yourself to a commercial option when you can create your own bank in a spreadsheet with all the features that you could want?

Double allowance on their birthday month, bonuses for good grades, 50% APR on savings, etc. The sky s the limit.

[Michael in ABQ]

Why limit yourself to a commercial option when you can create your own bank in a spreadsheet with all the features that you could want?

Double allowance on their birthday month, bonuses for good grades, 50% APR on savings, etc. The sky s the limit.

My kids get 5% interest compounded weekly on their savings. It kind of sucks for me paying it out when they save up $100-200, but it's also a great incentive for them to save. They don't get any sort of weekly allowance other than I will pay them a minimum of a quarter if they have less than $5 saved up (typical for my 6-year-old).

The only problem is that depositing payroll into a spreadsheet to fund a Roth IRA for a kid doesn't really work.

[PDXTabs]

My local credit union has a savings account that you can open at any age (with parent*) and you get an ATM card. The account can be converted at 13 years old to offer a debit card and online banking. All of my kids had/have one. It was useful for teaching them how to deposit a check, earn interest, etc. I have their allowance setup as an auto-deposit every month from my account. My youngest in particular loves his paper account statements that come every month (the others are online at this point).

When my daughter turned 18 I walked into the branch and removed myself from her account.

* - don't get me started, but the federal requirement for an adult on all bank accounts actually came from 9/11 money laundering legislation AFAIK.