In this review, we will look at Acorns Early, a money app for kids that offers a debit card. We will go over what it is, how much it costs, and the pros and cons.
Read on to find out if Acorns Early would be a good fit for your family.
Overall Rating
Summary
Acorns Early is a money management account for kids that comes with a debit card, savings pods, and parental control features. Overall, the concept is great and it has a variety of features that make it a great product.
-
Ease of use
4
-
Cost
3.6
-
Features
4
-
Fun factor
4.5
Pros
- Teaches kids to work for money
- Helps kids learn how to budget
- Has a charitable giving feature
- Great parent control features
Cons
- Limited ways to fund child accounts
- Some limits on point-of-sale usage
- More expensive than some competitors
Table of Contents
What is Acorns Early?
Acorns Early is a fintech company founded in 2012 that now has over 1.5 million members and helps kids everywhere learn about money. Acorns Early offers a debit card for kids that can be used in various ways. The Acorns Early app is available for Android, iPhone, iPod, and iPad.
On the Acorns Early website, the company reports that 92% of surveyed parents said Acorns Early has helped their kids become more confident with money.
Who is Acorns Early For?
Acorns Early is for anyone with children ages 6 to 18 who wants to teach them how to earn and manage money. There are a number of features with Acorns Early that can help your kids understand that money doesn’t grow on trees.
And Acorns Early’s system is set up to help parents use a number of ways to teach kids the ins and outs of money management.
How Does Acorns Early Work?
Acorns Early is fairly easy to set up and manage. And once you get it set up, you can use the features in any combination that works for you.
Here’s how the app works.
1. Open an Account
You’ll start by opening an Acorns Early account in your name. This parental account is the main hub for all other accounts.
From there, you’ll open up Acorns Early accounts for each of your children. Note that there is a limit of four child accounts that can be tied to a parent account.
If you want more than four children to use the system, a second parent or guardian will need to open an adult account to serve as the hub for the other child account(s).
2. Set a Weekly Allowance
Acorns Early lets you set a weekly allowance for each child. The allowance can be tied to completed tasks or simply given without requiring them to be completed.
This allowance amount will get transferred from your Acorns Early account to your child’s Acorns Early account on the day of the week you specify. There are other options for funding your child’s account as well. We’ll talk more about those later on.
Related Article: 10 Best Allowance and Chore Apps for Kids
3. Set Spending Limits
Acorns Early is set up so that you, as the parent, can set spending limits for each of your child’s accounts.
These limits can be defined in a number of ways:
- Daily limits
- Per transaction limits
- Where they can use the card (ATM, in-store, online)
- Weekly limits
And more. In addition, if a child tries to spend more money than what is in their Acorns Early account, the transaction will be declined.
That means they can’t go into debt, and they can’t overdraw their account.
4. Help Your Kids Manage Their Money
The wide variety of features Acorns Early has is designed to help your child(ren) learn to manage money well. Acorns Early can help your kids understand the “work equals money” concept through paid task lists.
Also, Acorns Early has a savings feature that can help your child save money. Finally, the app includes a feature that lets your children donate a portion of their money to charity.
All of these features work with you to help your children learn to manage money as they enter adulthood.
Next, let’s talk in depth about Acorns Early’s features.
Acorns Early Features
Your Acorns Early account offers several customizable features to help you teach your child to manage money in a way that works best for you.
Parent Account
As mentioned earlier, you will need to open an Acorns Early parent account to serve as the central hub for all child accounts. Note that you’ll need to link a debit card from your bank to your Acorns Early account.
Funds transferred from your debit card to your parent account are transferred immediately. And there’s no fee to transfer money from your debit card to your parent account.
If you need a bank account, check out our article on the top bank accounts for kids.
Parental Controls
There are a host of parental controls included with your Acorns Early membership. First, you can choose how your child receives money into their account.
Add Money
As mentioned earlier, you can set up a weekly allowance for your child to fund their Acorns Early account.
Another option is to require them to earn money for their account via completed tasks. When they complete their tasks, money is transferred into their Acorns Early account.
Acorns Early also has a Quick Transfer button you can use to transfer money to a child’s account at any given time.
Note that you cannot add money to your child’s account from a PayPal account.
Also, your child cannot set up a Direct Deposit to an Acorns Early account. So if your teen makes money online or has another type of job, you’ll need to put the money into your bank account or their own, then transfer it to the Acorns Early account.
Spend Notifications
Acorns Early’s Spend Notifications feature enables you to get an instant text notification when your child uses their debit card.
The card also has an instant block/unblock feature you can use to help stop card use if needed.
This feature can be helpful if your child’s card is lost or stolen, or if they attempt to make an unapproved purchase.
Child Account
Acorns Early’s child account gives your child the freedom to earn and manage their money while still under the helpful eye of a parent or guardian.
Earn
Although it’s not required, you can set up tasks so your child earns the money they’ll be managing. Parents create task lists through their Acorns Early parent account. Children can mark the tasks as done when they are completed.
Parents can also set a control to mark tasks as completed. When tasks are completed, the earned cash is transferred to the child’s account weekly, along with any allowance amount you’ve set.
In other words, your child will only get paid for work they have completed, and the money is transferred automatically at the end of each week, making it ultra-easy for parents.
Save
Acorns Early has a “save” feature that lets kids set up unlimited savings goals. When they use this feature, they’ll get a savings “pod” for each goal. When your child views their Acorns Early account, they’ll be able to see how much money they have saved for each goal.
Spend
Your child will get a free debit card with their Acorns Early account. They can use their debit card at an ATM, for online purchases, or in-store. However, as the parent, you can control where your child uses their debit card. The debit card will only work within the parameters you set for your child.
And they can only spend up to the available balance in the account. Note that your child can transfer money from one of their savings pods to their spend account.
Give
Acorns Early partners with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America to help your child learn to give. Your child can give small amounts of money to this charity whenever they wish.
Using the Give feature can help them understand the importance of giving to those less fortunate.
Money Missions
Money Missions is the newest Acorns Early feature.
Using the app, your child can complete Money Missions lessons that are designed to build confidence, literacy, and curiosity in your kids.
Money Missions lessons help your kids to learn more about earning money, saving, investing, responsible spending, credit management, and more.
When your child watches the animated videos or plays a game, they earn XP (points) and badges while learning about responsible money management.
The videos and lessons are tailored to your child’s age, so there is something for every kid, whether they’re 6, 18, or somewhere in between.
How Much Does Acorns Early Cost?
Acorns Early’s Family plans are $9.98 per family (up to 4 children), and individual children are $4.99. Families with 3 or 4 children can pay one low rate for everyone.
Your monthly membership fees are taken directly from your Acorns Early account. If there aren’t enough funds in that account to cover your membership fees, Acorns Early will take the money from the debit card that’s tied to the account.
Note that Acorns Early also charges a fee for ATM use: $1.50 for domestic and $2.00 for international. This fee is in addition to any fees the ATM owner might charge when your child uses an ATM to get access to their money.
Other fees for Acorns Early include a $4.99 optional custom debit card fee for your child. The standard debit cards that come with the child account are free.
Referral Program
Acorns Early does have a referral program. If you refer a friend who signs up through your referral link, you and the friend will each receive $10 in your parent account.
Referring friends to sign up could be a good way to offset some of the monthly cost of Acorns Early. Next, let’s go over some frequently asked questions regarding Acorns Early.
FAQs
When it comes to debit cards for kids, many questions come to mind. Here are a few common questions asked.
Acorns Early uses 256-bit encryption just like the banks do. In addition, your Acorns Early funds are FDIC insured through Community Federal Savings Bank.
The only customer service option on the Acorns Early website is an email contact form.
However, I found a customer service number on Trustpilot: 1-877-372-6466.
Note that the website states the company will respond quickly to inquiries via the contact form.
Acorns Early has a feature that lets you order a replacement card right in the app. Go to ‘Cards’ and select the name of the child that needs a new card.
From there, you can click on ‘New’ and on ‘Replace a lost card’. You’ll get the replacement card within business days.
Note that replacement cards for custom cards may take longer to arrive and will incur an additional $4.99 fee.
You can cancel your Acorns Early account at any time since there are no contracts involved.
Note that when you cancel your account, you’ll get a 3-day “cooling off” period in case you change your mind.
After that three-day period ends, your account will be permanently closed and cannot be reactivated.
All funds in any Acorns Early accounts will be transferred to your linked bank account within 7-10 days of closing.
Acorns Early Reviews
Acorns Early’s Trustpilot rating is 4.2 out of 5 stars, with over 2.2K ratings. Acorns Early has a B- rating from the Better Business Bureau.
Overall, most reviews regarding Acorns Early were positive. The chief complaints on both the BBB and on Trustpilot revolved around three issues:
- Not receiving the debit cards in a timely manner
- The limits as to which banks you can transfer money from
- General usage of the debit cards
Some users were frustrated that the child debit card doesn’t always work at places where alcohol is sold. For instance, the card might not work at a restaurant that serves alcoholic beverages.
Also, the debit card can be used to buy gas for a car; however, it can’t be used at the pump. Instead, your child will have to use the ‘Pay inside’ feature at the gas station.
Many complaints revolved around not receiving debit cards in a timely manner or not receiving them at all.
Note that on Trustpilot, Acorns Early responded to 99% of negative complaints. To me, this shows a commitment to resolving customer issues.
Related: Acorns Early Vs Greenlight: Which Is Better?
Summary
Acorns Early can be a useful tool for teaching your kids how to earn and manage money. You might find the monthly fee a bit steep — especially if you have multiple kids. There are other apps that charge a single monthly fee, no matter how many kids you have. Overall, the concept is great, and Acorns Early offers a variety of features that make it a strong product.
