Current looks to digitize allowances with its app-controlled Visa card for kids

[midian182]

Handing over cash allowances to your kids, and rewarding them for completing chores, could become another facet of everyday life to turn digital: A New York startup called Current wants parents to dole out money to their children using an app-controlled Visa credit card.

Using the app, parents can set up recurring allowance payments to their kids, as well as being able to transfer one-off amounts, directly from mom’s or dad’s bank account. The money goes straight into the child’s main account – the “spending wallet” – which is used to fund everyday purchases on the Visa card.

Parents can set up and manage chores on the app, transferring money across once they’re complete. And all the outgoings can be monitored, showing how and where the cash is being spent. It’s also possible to block the card from being used at businesses that aren’t appropriate for children, such as bars and casinos. Parents can also block select merchants, but only after an initial transaction.

“I worked on Wall Street for seventeen years as a trader and manager,” Current founder Stuart Sopp told TechCrunch. “Now as a father, I wanted to build something with financial discipline that would help [my daughter.]”

While the app gives kids a sense of financial freedom, parents are still able to set spending limits and decide how much cash can be taken out of an ATM in one day. The default levels are $2000 for daily spending and $500 from an ATM, so you’ll probably want to alter them.

Current isn’t just about letting children spend money on a visa card. It includes saving features such as automatically rounding up purchases to the nearest dollar to save the change, and lets users move money from the spending wallet into a savings account. Kids can even give to the two million charities listed on the app, once their parents approve the donation.

One element of Current that may put potential users off is the fact it isn’t free. The service costs $5 per month, though this falls to $3 or $2 per month if you opt for a one or two-year subscription. Right now it’s only available in the US, but there are plans to expand to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and the U.K.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/69259-current-looks-digitize-allowances-app-controlled-visa-card.html

 

[Raoul Duke]

Another manifestation of a sick society

 

[veLa]

Let me guess, they take a percentage of transactions and such? No thanks.

 

[Sebastien A.]

Make your child pay for the monthly fees

 

[Camikazi]

My sister has a bank account that links her card with her son's card and through that account she can see what he is spending money onk, she can transfer and since he is underage it has limit control. None of this is new, my nephew has his own card with his name but my sister can see what he spends it on and move money to it when needed and no extra charges or random company is needed.

 

[JamesSWD]

Remember the good ol’ days when mom & dad just gave us a few dollars a week for allowances? Now it’s a credit card, while convenient, but gets the kids on an early start to credit enslavement instead of the respect for cold hard cash.

 

[p51d007]

Great, another way to separate people from CASH. Moving everything to a CASHLESS world, takes away your privacy, and, puts CONTROL of your money in some bank/governments hands. If the world goes cashless you cannot purchase something, without someone else pulling the strings. In the USA, the government would LOVE to have complete control of others money. Try to buy something the government doesn't want you to have, say, a greasy double cheese burger, and, your last health checkup, which of course the government knows about, shows your blood pressure is high, your obese....bzzzzz nope, have an apple instead.
Want to buy a new car? Government looks up your driving record, sees you speed too much. Instead of the sports car, you are only approved for a 2 cylinder 2 door econo-box.
By hookin' kids into using a card instead of cash, they separate the ability of someone to manage their own money, not to mention getting them use to the "card" so they will rack up credit card debt.
Just give the kids a few greenbacks, let them figure it out with your assistance.

 

[Camikazi]

Great, another way to separate people from CASH. Moving everything to a CASHLESS world, takes away your privacy, and, puts CONTROL of your money in some bank/governments hands. If the world goes cashless you cannot purchase something, without someone else pulling the strings. In the USA, the government would LOVE to have complete control of others money. Try to buy something the government doesn't want you to have, say, a greasy double cheese burger, and, your last health checkup, which of course the government knows about, shows your blood pressure is high, your obese....bzzzzz nope, have an apple instead.
Want to buy a new car? Government looks up your driving record, sees you speed too much. Instead of the sports car, you are only approved for a 2 cylinder 2 door econo-box.
By hookin' kids into using a card instead of cash, they separate the ability of someone to manage their own money, not to mention getting them use to the "card" so they will rack up credit card debt.
Just give the kids a few greenbacks, let them figure it out with your assistance.

It's like you think they can't track you when you use cash or something. Not like they can't just change the actual cash to be trackable on it's own and making it a requirement that name or ID is used when buying things. If the government wants to track you, honestly, you really can't stop them. Slow them down maybe but not stop them. As for the car thing I doubt that would happen since sports cars cost considerably more than an econobox and the government and their corporation handlers like that, not to mention the money they make from the speeding tickets and money you have to pay to fix your license once you get too many.

 

[complexxL9]

I bet you can achieve everything this card does with already popular (at least in europe) Revolut. Which recently was completely free, now it costs 6 eur to order physical card, no fees for services thou, and forex exchange rates.