Greenlight

Greenlight gives kids a debit card tied to an app their parents control, rather than handing over cash or a shared family card. Parents set which stores or categories a card can spend at, get a notification for every purchase, and approve allowance payments or chores from their own phone. Pricing is flat per family rather than per kid, starting at $5.99 a month for the Core plan and rising to around $9.98 a month for Max, with everything covering up to five children under one subscription.

Higher tiers add an investing account for kids, where they can buy fractional shares with parent approval, plus extra features like driving alerts and identity protection for the parents. The card and account sit on FDIC-insured rails through Greenlight’s banking partner, not Greenlight itself, which is the structure most fintech debit products use. It fits families who want a teaching tool more than a budgeting app, the goal is giving a ten-year-old hands-on practice with spending and saving before they’re managing real independence.