How Old Do You Have to Be to Get a Debit Card?

As your children get older and begin engaging in activities and events outside the home, you might find that it’s simpler to provide them with a debit card that you load with money instead of giving them cash. And that leads to searching for answers to the question: How old do you have to be to get a debit card? While individuals must be 18 to apply for a debit card solely in their name, children as young as 6 can get a debit card on a parent’s account or a joint account. Learn more specifics on how debit card age limits work.

What Age Can You Get a Debit Card?

Banks put age limits on when someone can have a debit card because these cards link directly to bank accounts. Those bank accounts are limited to people 18 and older because it forms a legally binding agreement between the account holder and the financial institution. Minors cannot enter these contracts alone, which is where joint accounts come in.

Minors Aged 13-17

Once a minor reaches age 13, they can get a debit card with their parent’s help. Opening a joint or teen checking account makes it possible to get a linked debit card that the teen and parent essentially share access to.

Minors Aged 6-13

Some banks allow parents to open a bank account in their child’s name as young as age 6 so long as the parent is an established account holder. It’s a special perk to existing customers. In that case, the parent still owns the account, but the child can get a debit card with their name on it.

Any Age Limit

No matter a child’s age, you can get a prepaid bank or credit union card for your child. In this case, the parent is in full control of the account and can add money to the debit card from a linked account. There are no age restrictions on this type of debit card. It keeps parents in full control as they can set restrictions on how and where the child spends the money.

When Should a Minor Get a Debit Card?

Minors who begin going out on their own benefit from having a debit card and learning more about digital spending and management. Here are some scenarios that make parents decide it’s time for a bank account or debit card for their child.

• The child starts working, such as mowing lawns, babysitting or working at a local grocery store. Having a way to deposit and manage those funds can teach responsibility and lead to fewer trips to the bank to cash their checks. The money can go conveniently into their account where they can use their debit card to spend it.
• Children younger than age 18 can start incurring bills, such as those for preferred streaming services, car insurance or a cell phone. In that case, it’s helpful to have an account that those bills are tied to.
• Learning money management skills is essential and best taught while the child is still in the home. Parents find that an account with a debit card can simulate reality for children and can teach them good skills.
• Parents also find that providing a child with a debit card can teach a sense of responsibility. Explaining the importance of keeping track of a debit card and knowing how much is in the child’s account before spending money can help them better prepare for life and understand how digital money works.

Benefits of a Debit Card for Kids and Teens

Once children reach a reasonable age, setting up a teen checking account in their name and providing them with a debit card can provide many great benefits. Here’s a look at the benefits of child and teen accounts.

Financial Responsibility 

Providing a child with an account and card they can use for spending and monitoring their balance helps teach them financial responsibility. They’ll learn crucial skills, including:

• Budgeting
• Expense tracking
• Informed purchase decisions
• Saving

While you might still be providing your child an allowance that funds the account until the child is old enough for a real job, starting to build their money management skills is still a wise move.

Learn from Overdraft and Account Fees

An overdraft fee can teach a child a valuable lesson about money management and budgeting. While it’s a painful lesson and might mean parents must add funds to the account to cover a service fee for overspending, it’s a valuable lesson for the child.

In this instance, the child sees real consequences for failing to stay within spending limits. Perhaps they lose their allowance for a few weeks to learn the consequences. Mindful spending habits take time to develop, and giving a child real-world consequences for poor money management can make the lesson come to life far better than lecturing them about the importance.

Security and Tracking 

A child bank account puts the parent in charge, though the child has a greater sense of freedom to manage their money. Accounts for minors feature great tools like spending limits, transaction blocking and purchase tracking. This provides peace of mind for the parent, while the child gets a sense of responsibility, freedom and trust.

Convenience

Providing a child with cash for every expense they need or want can become cumbersome. You might find yourself heading to the bank a few times a week just to keep enough cash on hand to cover their activities. And managing how much a child is spending with cash is difficult and requires a paper ledger.

Debit cards make transactions convenient, easy to track and reduce the likelihood that the child will lose the cash. Plus, it won’t make them a target for theft.

Online Shopping and Digital Transactions 

Today, many transactions take place online where buyers can’t use cash. It means a child must ask their parent to borrow their credit card. And once the child has a job and their own money, it can mean making transfers between accounts for the child to make online purchases. Providing a child with a way to complete digital transactions on their own is a great option. Plus, allowing a child to complete online transactions can teach them about:

• Online security
• Fraud prevention
• The importance of protecting their personal and financial information

Emergency Funds

Giving a child a card with money on it can also help protect them in emergency situations. For example, if a teenager runs out of gas or gets stranded, they’ll have funds to help get them out of the situation. Or if a child is in a scenario where they incur unexpected expenses, they’ll have the funds to cover the situation.

How to Choose the Right Debit Card for Your Child

Aside from the bank’s reputation, these are the features to consider when choosing the right debit card for a minor.

Parental Controls

Each debit card has different controls and features parents can manage on the backend. Some controls parents might want to look for include overdraft services, ease of getting a replacement card for careless children, online banking tools, debit card transaction notices and alerts, prohibited spending categories or amounts and easy transfers from the parent’s account to the child’s.

Accessibility

When considering accessibility, parents should evaluate it both for themselves and for the child. Parents want their child involved in money management and financial responsibility, which means the child needs to be able to see their account. Also, consider whether the account has good access to ATMs or a local branch where you can get cash if you need it for certain entertainment venues or travel.

Ease of Use 

Some debit cards are more widely accepted than others. You want your child to be able to use their card with ease to reduce the burden it places on you to share your cards or provide cash when they go out. Look for a card that is easy to use at many merchants and where you can set controls to allow certain transactions to go through seamlessly while needing to approve others.

Fees

While you want to give your child real-life experiences with their bank account and debit card, you also don’t want them to lose all their money to fees. Review what fees a teen could incur with the financial institution and how that might impact their spending habits. Look for a healthy balance of fees that encourage responsibility with forgiveness for youthful carelessness.

Reload Options

Managing a minor’s debit card should be seamless and simple. Reloading the card with additional funds should be like clicking a button once you’ve set up connected accounts. That’s where setting up an account at the same financial institution you use for your banking can be helpful.

Security 

A secure card will notify the cardholder of potentially fraudulent transactions and make it simple to report the card as lost or stolen to avoid financial losses. Look for a card with the same protections as your personal accounts to ensure you and your child don’t incur enormous fees and expenses resulting from loss or theft.

Educational Tools

Some teen bank accounts come with tools to teach a child budgeting. A tool you might find helpful is expense categorization to show a child where their money is going. Another is a tool that alerts a child when they are nearing a budget for a spending category. Alerts letting your minor know when they are above their average spending limit in a month could also help them understand budgeting and work to control their spending from a young age. This will prepare them for opening an adult account in the coming years.

Customer Service

You never know when you might need to get in touch with your financial institution. As such, having easy access to customer service is important. A mobile app with chat features that put you in direct contact with a support representative can help you resolve issues quickly, especially when your child is away and needs your support quickly.

Teach Children Financial Responsibility While Maintaining Parental Controls

Today’s mobile banking tools and robust security measures make it simpler than ever for a parent to monitor and control a child’s debit card and bank account. Once your teen meets the age requirement for a checking or savings account, they can learn a great deal about budgeting and finance management from getting a debit card.

Frequently Asked Questions