Questions about U16 accounts for kids

Hi, Myself and my Partner as thinking about opening a U16 monzo account for our child who is just about 13 years old…
We have a few questions…

  1. Are there any differences from opening at usual high street bank?

  2. What have peoples thoughts been on u16 accounts for thier kids

  3. What are the pros and cons ?

  4. Can kids use it to buy stuff like on their xbox/switch or steam?

  5. How does money being sent from family work?
    Do people have to create a monzo accoont to send money or is thier a way they can send it directly
    (How does it work from start to end)

  6. Does the account convert in to an adult one at the age of 16/18?

  7. Can they create saving pots?

  8. If they create an account today when can family start sending miney over during the xmas period… do they have to wait until thery get their card.

  9. What is the parent/kids app like to use?

Thanks in advance.

1 - Yes
4 - Yes
6 - No
7 - Yes but no interest
8 - Yes

Have you done any research about this account yourself?

3 Likes

Hi @RA_Echo & welcome :wave:

<2.> It’s 75% perfect. A few additions needed to make it 100%

<3.> Pros: It allows the kids flexibility to see what they have in their account and what they’ve spent it on. It also allows them to use Apple/Google Pay if they have a qualifying device. The ‘managing’ parent has full control, without intruding too much. Cons: Only one ‘managing’ parent can manage at this stage. ‘Co-parent’ management has been hinted at.

<5.> The account issues a payment link (URL) which can be shared, emailed, text’ed, Whatsapp’d to anyone. When the anyone clicks on the link, it takes them to a webpage where they can enter the amount to pay (see here for an example) and select the payment method (the anyone’s card/bank account details - which can be non-Monzo) to pay directly into the U16 account.

<9.> Simple. If you’re used to the Monzo app.

1 Like

First of all, Hi and thank you for your reply!
Yes, i did some research but thought the best research was to ask people who had kids using the U16 accounts and finding out the parents prospetive also i had noted there was things like no account number or sort code using it so wanted to get as much infomation as possible to comapre it to a high street bank, both myself and my partner are with monzo and both me and her think its brillaint and are just wanting to make its right for out child.

I Really appreciate you taking the time to reply to my thread, again thankyou

Hi! Thank you for being so welcoming!
Just continuing on about what you said regarding question 2-
What do you feel are missing features that would make it 100%?
And with what you feel is missing, do you feel with the amount of features that the monzo U16 account does infact offer currently allow you to think its worth going for compared to a high street bank for your child?

Thanks again for replying to this and being so welcoming!

Just to be aware you won’t both be able to see the child’s app. So if you set it up, it won’t appear in your partners Monzo account to view at all.

1 Like

I’ve experimented with almost every available kids account offering (except Starlings ‘Kite’ account) - GoHenry, HyperJar, Revolut Kids and there was always a cost or friction somewhere.

I’m a #fullmonzo user who doesn’t like friction and so settled on using a :monzo: Virtual Card linked to a :monzo: pot into which I put funds for JrW. Then I added the Virtual Card to their phone so they could spend. The downsides were: there was no way for JrW to see how much was on the ‘card’ and there was no physical card - only contactless on the phone. It worked, but it was a workaround.

Since it launched as a trial, I’ve used the :monzo: U16 account with our youngest (14yo) instead of the virtual-card-workaround-method and it works really well, with the only issue being that only I can manage the account. If ‘co-parenting’ is introduced, that’d make it a 100% rating.

(there are hints in the app code that co-parenting is being developed, but this is no guarantee that it’ll launch)

1 Like

Thank you so much for all your detailed answers you have really helped in us towards making a decision with your detailed answers and thabkyou for being so welcoming.

I hope you have a nice time of the festive period!
I will keep the thread open for another day to see if anyone has anything else to add then i will mark it solved!
Take care

2 Likes

All the festive best to you too!
:christmas_tree: :santa: :gift: :turkey: :clinking_glasses: :partying_face:

I think most of your practical questions have been answered, but from a bit of first-hand experience…

I previously opened a NatWest Rooster account for our eldest, but didn’t really get into using it properly - transferring money in would mean doing a faster payments transfer to the ‘parent’ account; then onwards into our daughter’s account. It was a bit much friction, and we ended up just continuing giving her pocket money as cash.

And then the Monzo accounts came along, and as my wife and I both use our (solo and joint) Monzo accounts as our main accounts, it made a lot more sense.

At the moment the biggest negative point is that only one parent can ‘manage’ it - the U16 account shows up like it’s a pot attached to your own account. You can transfer money into or set up a regular transfer from any of the accounts or pots on your account or joint account. Second parent access is coming soon, but there’s no date for that yet.

The child app is basically the regular adult app experience, with fewer features, but a little bit more fun. They can do things like freeze/unfreeze a card, create pots (with goals), move money between them, etc. There’s no opportunity to earn interest, which is a bit of a shame. Transactions generate a notification on both the child and parent version of the app, so you can see what they’re up to.

The card is a standard contactless MasterCard debit card, but with blocks on certain merchants, eg those classified as gambling.

My other gripe may be an edge case - or given that quite a few of my friends have gone with double-barrelled surnames for their children, perhaps not - is that the maximum length for the child’s name on their debit card is 22 characters. It took quite a bit of going round the houses (including several extra cards) to get full names displayed in the app but an appropriately abbreviated version on the card.

We moved over (to Monzo U16 accounts) from Natwest Rooster accounts too - my only two complaints are two-parent access and no interest-bearing savings pots. If those features get added then Monzo U16 accounts will be absolutely perfect in my book.

Thankyou for all the infomation, from what i have got from you and the others is really helped us make a choice regarding this, it sounds really good and like yourselves and others will look forward to the co op parent managment in the future but yes will all the other features sounds well worth it!
Again thank you for your help!

1 Like

Brillaint thabks so much for responding to this and letting us know your thoughts!
Genrally helped us towards making our decision!

1 Like