Want to know which is better: Greenlight or Acorns Early (formerly goHenry)? You’ve come to the right place.
As a parent, you want to give your child the skills they need to successfully navigate adult life. One of the most important things they will need to know is how to manage their money effectively.
Luckily, these debit cards can help your children learn the ins and outs of financial literacy. These cards can teach your kids financially healthy habits that will serve them for the rest of their lives.
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Quick Comparison: Greenlight Vs Acorns Early
Greenlight and Acorns Early are two of the most popular money management tools for children. Here’s a closer look at each of these options to help you decide which one is best for your family.
| Greenlight | Acorns Early | |
| Monthly fee (starting) | $5.99 per family | $8 per family |
| Payment network | Mastercard | Visa |
| Minimum Age | None | 6 years old |
| Features | App for iPhone and Android Automatic payments Ability to turn cards on and off FDIC-insured Investing component with Max and above Round-up feature that saves spare change Set spending controls SIPC-insured investments Up to five kids | App for iPhone and Android Automatic payments Ability to turn cards on and off Custom card option FDIC-insured Set savings goals Set spending limits Up to four kids |
What is Greenlight?
Greenlight offers a debit card for kids that is designed to teach them about money management. As the parent, you’ll control how your child can use this card. Children of any age can use this account without a minimum balance requirement.
The debit card provided by Greenlight can be used anywhere Mastercard is accepted. Within the platform, you’ll find several tools to help you teach your kids about spending and saving money.
These tools range from alerts to spending controls and more.
What is Acorns Early?
Acorns Early was launched by parents to help their kids become effective money managers. It offers services to parents of children ages 6 to 18.
In the app, you can use the controls to set up money-management learning opportunities for your children. With the Acorns Early debit card, your kids can make purchases anywhere Visa is accepted.
Greenlight vs. Acorns Early Similarities
At their core, Greenlight and Acorns Early have very similar objectives. Each app aims to provide a platform that helps parents teach their kids about effective money management.
The platforms will allow your kids to learn about finances and make sound money choices for their lives. Beyond their core missions, they share similarities in features and functionality.
Alerts
When you set your child up with a debit card, you’ll receive real-time alerts about any spending activity. With these alerts, you can monitor your child’s spending to see what is happening within their account.
Allowances
Both Greenlight and Acorns Early can set up a regular allowance distributed from your account.
You can also choose to set up a pay-per-chore system. In the pay-per-task option, you can select how much your child can earn for each chore.
Spending Controls
Greenlight and Acorns Early both provide some spending controls. With Greenlight, you can set customized spending limits for each child. Additionally, you can set store-level spending controls that allow you to completely disable spending at specific stores.
Additionally, Greenlight gives you the power to turn off your child’s debit card at any time from the app.
Acorns Early also allows you to set spending limits for each of your children, including daily, transaction, weekly, and store-level limits. If you need to stop any spending, you can block and unblock the card at any time through the app.
Donations
Giving is an important part of money management. Neither Greenlight nor Acorns Early overlooks this critical component to successful money management.
Acorns Early partners with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. Through the app, your child can give small amounts of money whenever they want to.
Greenlight offers more charities for children to donate to. Your child will have the option to donate to specific charities that matter to them.
Free Trial
Greenlight provides a free 30-day trial to help you decide if the tool is right for your family. If you don’t think that the platform is a good fit, you can cancel at any time.
Acorns Early also offers a free 1-month trial. You’ll have the chance to cancel if you don’t like the features offered through the app.
Greenlight vs. Acorns Early Differences
Of course, not everything about these platforms is identical. In fact, there are several notable differences to keep in mind as you explore the options.
Making Learning Fun With Money Missions
Both Greenlight and Acorns Early make learning about finances more accessible to children and teens. What sets Acorns Early apart is that it integrates fun into the core of its financial learning platform through Money Missions.
Money Missions are in-app lessons designed by teachers and financial experts to help kids build their financial literacy. All of the basics about money are built right into these missions. Kids who use the platform will learn about earning, saving, investing, smart spending, credit, security, and more.
With Acorns Early, children can watch animated videos, take quizzes, and earn points as they learn to manage real money. As they build their money skills, they can unlock new levels and add to their badge collection.
They will also receive a certificate of achievement for each Money Mission level they complete. If your child enjoys games, Money Missions can be the right tool for making learning about money fun.
Price
The first big difference between these two platforms is the pricing.
Greenlight Price
Greenlight costs $5.99 per month per family for up to 5 child debit cards. If you want a custom card, you’ll pay $9.99. Expedited shipping on this is $24.99.
If you want to upgrade to Greenlight’s Max or Infinity options, the cost is $10.98 per month for Max or $15.98 per month for Infinity, and Family Shield is $19.98 per month. Additionally, the first replacement card each calendar year is free, and subsequent replacement cards cost $5.99 per card.
Acorns Early Price
Acorns Early costs $8 per month for Early Lite or $12 per month for Acorns Gold, and each plan covers up to 4 kids ages 6 to 18. The first 30 days are free. If you want a custom debit card for your child, it costs $4.99 per card.
Cash Back and Savings Rewards
Cash back rewards can be a smart money move for your finances. Greenlight highlights this option for your children.
If you upgrade to the Greenlight Max level, your child will earn 1% cash back on purchases made with their prepaid debit card.
Additionally, Greenlight rewards your child for choosing to save. When your child saves money, they will earn 2% on Core, 3% on Max, 5% on Infinity, and 6% on Family Shield, based on their average daily savings balance up to $5,000 per family.
Since saving is a foundational tool for money management, these rewards can set up smart savings priorities for years to come.
Unfortunately, Acorns Early doesn’t offer a rewards structure for your child’s saving or spending habits.
Savings
Using an interest rate to encourage savings is a good way to build savings. You’ll find that both Greenlight and Acorns Early offer a way to promote savings.
With Greenlight, you can set up a customizable interest rate for your child’s account. As the parent, you will pay the interest rate. The goal is to teach your children about the power of compound interest.
Greenlight offers a round-up feature to help your child build savings. The platform will round up any purchases to the nearest dollar and put the difference in their Save account so that they can watch their savings grow over time.
GoHenry also promotes savings through parent rewards. You’ll be able to set up this reward through a task. For example, you could create a “save $10 a month” task for your child. If they hit that savings goal, the reward for your task will be deposited into their savings account.
Investing
Acorns Early focuses on helping your child master money management with banking products. With that, kids can spend, save, or give money. Acorns Gold also includes investing through Early Invest, a UGMA/UTMA custodial investing account for kids, with a 1% match on the first $7,000 invested per year.
Greenlight takes the opportunities for money management lessons to the next level with investing options. Using Greenlight Invest, your child can learn about investing for their future as part of their financial education.
Kids can buy investments through an SIPC-insured account. As the parent, you’ll have the ability to approve each investment transaction before the trade goes through.
If you want to help your kids learn about investing in a controlled environment, Greenlight is a great option. Kids investing is included in Greenlight Max ($10.98 per month) and higher plans at no extra cost.
Identity Theft
Acorns Early does not offer any identity theft protection.
However, Greenlight provides identity theft protection services for your children. Although this feature requires an upgrade to Greenlight Max, it could be worth it.
Additionally, Greenlight offers cell phone protection against theft and damage if you use a Greenlight debit card to buy the phone.
Number of Account Users
Greenlight allows more children to be added to the account. You can add up to five children. The flat fee for the entire family makes this a more affordable option for large families.
Acorns Early charges one monthly fee per family, not per child, and you can add up to four children to your Acorns Early account. For example, adding four children costs the same $8 per month for Early Lite or $12 per month for Acorns Gold as adding one child.
Families with fewer children won’t see too much of a cost difference between the two platforms. But large families will find a large spread that could be the deciding factor.
Who is Each Debit Card Best For?
Depending on your specific needs, one card may be superior to the other for your family.
If you are a parent seeking simple features to help your child master the basics of money management, then Acorns Early is a great option.
With solid financial literacy tools, your child will build a solid foundation of money management skills. Otherwise, if you are a parent who wants your child to take their investing and smart spending to the next level, Greenlight is likely a better fit. Both cards now offer kids investing: Greenlight includes it from its Max plan, and Acorns includes it with Acorns Gold through Early Invest.
The foundational financial literacy tools are built into Greenlight. But your child can take things a step further with investing opportunities. Acorns Gold also includes investing for kids through Early Invest.
Additionally, the size of your family may come into play. Greenlight covers up to five kids for one family price, while Acorns Early covers up to four kids for one family price. Greenlight Core starts at $5.99 per family, compared with $8 per family for Acorns Early Lite, so Greenlight offers the lower starting price for both small and large families.
Summary
A prepaid debit card can be a useful tool to help your child establish smart money management strategies that carry into their adult life. Although there are plenty of options, the right fit for every family is different.
Before proceeding with Greenlight, Acorns Early, or one of the many other alternatives, take some time to consider which features are most important to you and your children.
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