However, you choose to do pocket money for your children, it can get a little complicated!
Perhaps you fork out a set amount each week, dependent on age. Or you have expectations of completed age-appropriate household chores in exchange for a certain sum.
You might also like to use the opportunity to teach your child about money, including one of the most important lessons of all … how to save.
Whichever way you choose to dole out the dosh in your household, downloading a pocket money app onto both yours and child’s devices can be hugely helpful for both of you.
Like with most apps nowadays, there is lots of choice, so we’ve found the best available and listed them in this article with the main features and everything else you need to know.
BANKAROO
Bankaroo is a simple, kid-friendly money management app for families. Parents create their own account and add an account for each child. Kids have their own log in, avatar and currency (dollars, stars or points). They can choose real dollars or stars to exchange for money, like a reward system, and choose whether parents can transfer funds to their account.
Kids can learn to save by creating savings goals for items they want to buy. They enter the price and the amount of money they want to put toward the goal. This is then deducted automatically from their balance. After completing a goal, they get rewards and a cute kangaroo badge to display on their profile.
Money transfer is only available on the paid version, but the basic app is good enough for parents who want their kids to be in charge (for the most part) of managing their own allowance.
iALLOWANCE
iAllowance is one of the most popular pocket money and chore apps for Apple devices. It has everything you need to track allowances and help kids become financially responsible at an early age. The robust chore management feature keeps children motivated to work toward their goals.
Parents create chores and set the frequency, and kids track the chores from their own accounts. After completing a chore, they are rewarded with stars that they can cash in. They can also deduct cash purchases from their balance.
iAllowance has standard money transfer and tracking features for parents. View everyone’s spending activity, automate allowances and easily transfer money to your children’s accounts for rewards, gifts or emergencies. There’s even a time tracking feature to monitor your children’s screen time.
iAllowance is one of the cheapest fully-featured money management app for families. It’s certainly worth a try if you are already an Apple user.
ROOSTER MONEY
RoosterMoney is an allowance app with built-in rewards tracking. There’s a free basic version that lets you track money and allowances and a subscription version with premium features like family chore management, interest rates and support for unlimited users.
Parents can create a list of chores and schedule them for that day or week/month, while kids can view them from their own RoosterMoney accounts. Kids can mark the chores as complete and submit them to parents for approval.
RoosterMoney keeps track of all money that goes into each account, including chore money, allowances and money gifts. Parents can encourage children to save by setting goals and to donate to a charity of their choice.
RoosterMoney is perfect for families who want to track both allowances and money earned through chores. The app itself is fun, simple and easy to use for kids and parents.
SPRIGGY
Australia’s most popular pocket money app Spriggy helps parents teach their children financial literacy in a hands-on way. The pocket money app comes with heaps of features not found in a regular bank account. Parents can automate allowance payment to all their kids, send money to their child’s account in an emergency, and track money going in and going out.
Kids as young as 6 and as old as 17 can use Spriggy to manage their allowance and money gifts, create savings goals and pay for online and offline purchases … with mum and dad’s approval, of course. Spriggy has a Visa prepaid card that parents can top up anytime. Don’t worry about overspending though as kids can only use the balance on their card.
Because Spriggy is a money app and not a bank, any money in the account does not gain interest. Kids also can’t use the Visa card to withdraw cash at an ATM. Despite the drawbacks, the app remains a powerful money management tool for families who are willing to pay the very reasonable fee every year.
ZAAP
Designed for kids aged 8 to 17, the Zaap app is a cool digital wallet with fun extras like a personalised prepaid Mastercard card and an optional wearable band. Kids use the prepaid card or the band when shopping online or over the counter, while parents supervise money transfers and all transactions from the ZAAP app.
Like other pocket money apps, parents can automate allowances and recurring payments, transfer money for emergencies and help kids save up for big purchases. Parents are shielded from surprise bills because kids can only spend money that’s in their account. They also can’t spend it on games and adult items.
The Zaap app is free to use, but there’s a $2 per child monthly fee for when parents use their bank account to top up their kids’ prepaid cards. There’s also the fee for the generic card, the personalised card and the optional band.
OTLY!
The free Otly pocket money app has a version for parents and an optional one for kids called Otly Jr. Otly lets parents set a recurring weekly or monthly allowances and money for one-time events like birthdays, rewards and emergencies. Parents have a detailed view of each child’s balance and transaction history.
Otly Jr. is a separate download for your child’s device. The app features different savings jars to help kids save up for things they want to buy, a cool countdown visual that counts down to the next allowance and a Give feature for charitable donations.
If your app is connected to a bank account, kids can send you a request whenever they want to can purchase items online. Otherwise, parents can use their own money to pay for the items and deduct the amount from their child’s balance.
While features are limited compared to paid apps, Otly is still a good starting point for parents to teach young children about financial responsibility.
FAMZOO
Famzoo calls is a complete “virtual family bank” for kids from preschool to college. You can add an optional prepaid card for money transfers or set up an IOU account that tracks money (cash or gifts) given to kids outside the app.
For a small fee each month, you can add unlimited users and access all features, from allowance management to chores tracking to budgeting. Parents can start with reward charts and add more advanced features like budgets as kids grow. What makes Famzoo different from similar apps is that kids can use it to pay parents for things like data plans or interest on informal loans.
Famzoo makes it easy to create to-do lists with due dates, rewards and even penalties. Set an amount for each task, and Famzoo will automatically transfer funds to their account once the task is complete. Or you can have your child send money requests that you can approve or deny.
