budget living

The Ultimate FamZoo Review

If you’re a parent, you’ve probably already given some thought to how you will teach your kids one of the most important lessons of their lives . . . money management. Opening a bank account for your child with their own debit card is one idea, but there’s something better; FamZoo.

FamZoo is an app that actually works better than a bank account because it teaches your kids how to be more aware of their money and how they spend it. It also gives you a little more flexibility in how you pay your kids an allowance and it allows you to monitor their spending a little easier.

FamZoo is perfect for kids from pre-school all the way through college and allows you to add additional features as your child gets older and learns more responsibility. It’s available on iOS, Android (currently through an optimized mobile site), and on your desktop or laptop. There is a cost, but it’s minimal. When you sign up, you’ll receive two months free then pay $5.99/month or $2.99/month if you opt for a 2-year subscription. The cost is per family and includes 4 prepaid cards.

Here’s how it works . . .

It allows you to become your child’s bank and turns them into banking customers. Kids can experience online banking at a young age, which, by the time they grow up, will be the only way to bank anymore. You can pay your child’s allowance right into their account and even withhold money for savings or giving. You can set up interest payments to reward good saving habits and even charge them fees for bad behavior or mismanaging their money. It even has an IOU account if you want to withhold money for another purpose for a period of time. And if you end up giving your child cash for something, you can easily debit it from their account.

You can even give your child earning incentives by posting chores that you’re willing to pay for. When they’ve completed the task, they can check it off and automatically get paid. And if they didn’t actually do the chore, you can uncheck it and take the money back.

FamZoo helps to teach your child about saving, investing, and earning interest by offering ways to set money aside into other accounts so it’s not readily available for spending. And, if your child is a teen who’s driving, you can ask them to run errands for you and easily reimburse them to their card.

FamZoo doesn’t allow them to overdraw their account so they won’t be hit with overdraft fees that can take them weeks to recover. If a charge is denied, the app will let them know exactly why it was denied and show them how to fix it.

The only big downfall is that it can take 2-3 days to load your parent pre-paid card if you want to avoid fees. You can always load it faster, but you’ll be charged loading fees. You’ll need to send money to your card a few days in advance of when you’ll need it to pay your child’s card. But you can easily pay with a transfer from your bank or even direct deposit.

FamZoo is much better than a traditional banking option because it gives you more control over monitoring your child’s spending so that you can teach them valuable saving, investing, and money management options.

Leave a Comment