Online money management
Support children and young people as they spend money online through online games and social media platforms with this money management guide.
Quick tips
How to develop good money habits online
Working with online safety expert, Karl Hopwood, we’ve created this hub to help parents support young people build good online money management habits.
Here are some quick tips to help them develop good money management habits.
If an app, platform or game has spending elements, remember to review and set controls. This might include blocking purchases, setting purchase limits or removing payment cards entirely.
Creating a bank account for your child can help them develop good money management habits. Some popular debit cards and bank accounts for children include:
In addition to regular conversations about money management online, remember to ask them questions about their spending. Why do they want that video game skin? What are they saving up for?
These conversations can also open up opportunities to talk about spending safely and recognising the value of their purchases.
In this guide
- What are the impacts of online money management?
- How to develop children’s skills
- Supporting resources
What are the impacts of online money management?
Money is now little more than just numbers on a screen with online banking and cashless payment systems more popular than cash. As such, many children struggle to understand its true value.
However, research shows that some young people do see virtual money as tangible. In fact, they see physical cash as outdated!
As with anything online though, there are both benefits and challenges to consider.
Benefits of money online
People are going cashless more than ever before, and that includes children. With a large part of children’s lives also being spent online, it makes sense that contactless payments and online banking has increased in popularity.
The following are potential benefits and opportunities for children who manage money online.
With virtual payments, there are many more ways that children can earn money (dependent on their age, of course). From content creation (both via platforms like YouTube and Roblox) to investing to selling used goods, the digital spaces offers a lot more opportunities for earning money. Learn more about how children make money online here.
For families which can’t afford regular allowances can still benefit from online finances. Opening a free bank account or debit card like GoHenry can help build online money management skills even if children don’t spend regularly. This includes saving money and taking part in the in-app challenges to build skills.
This also links to those earning opportunities explained above. If a family struggles with money, having the opportunity to earn their own money online can help young people feel like they’re saving for future expenses such as post-secondary education.
It’s likely that finance in the future will be primarily virtual (more so than it is now). So, introducing online money management to children early can help them develop the skills they need. This includes saving money, setting goals, navigating potential scams and understanding the true value of their purchases.
Again, a lot of the apps geared towards children and young people can help improve financial literacy and money management.
Risks of spending online
Alongside benefits and opportunities with spending online, there are risks and challenges to consider. While risk can lead to harm, it won’t always lead to harm. So, developing children’s money management skills, as outlined below, can help prevent harm.
These are some of the potential risks of children having access to money online.
With payment cards easily saved and money in bank accounts little more than numbers, there are few barriers to spending money online. As such, there’s risk of children making purchases without stopping to first think about the value. This can then lead to overspending and potentially nasty surprises when the credit card bill comes around.
To counter this risk, remember to set spending limits and talk regularly about making online purchases.
Children and young people might struggle to tell which offers online are genuine and which are scams. This could lead to them entering payment details on untrustworthy sites or other forms. They might accidentally become victims of phishing scams or even online predators who target children’s trust.
Remember to review online scams with them and encourage checking new sites and apps with you.
Research shows an increase in children and teens taking part in gambling behaviours and other risks. Along with the promotion of ‘hustle culture’ and popular influencers promoting risky investments, young people might often see others taking huge risks. As a result, they might start to see these risks as normal.
This can lead to young people misjudging the impacts of these risks. Without guidance here, they might take more financial risks which can lead to greater harm.
It’s important to talk with children about the risks they take and the consequences. Doing this before they start exploring for themselves can counter harm before it can happen.
How to develop children’s money management skills
Because children’s current and future finances will largely be ‘virtual’, it’s important to teach them money management skills. Unfortunately, current financial literacy lessons doesn’t always take the new age of finance into consideration.
Still, there are things you can do as a parent to help children make good money management choices online.
Set in-platform controls
All platforms with spending mechanics have controls to limit spending. In some cases, you can use parental controls while others will require you to remove spending cards.
Most video games consoles (or games themselves) have spending controls you can use. Explore step-by-step guides to different games and consoles to set these controls.
For younger children, you might want to make decisions on the limits you set for them along with rules around spending. However, it’s important to include older children such as teens in the decision to minimise arguments.
Ask them about the cost of in-game items to understand what a reasonable budget might look like. Many games are now free-to-play but include dozens or even hundreds of add-ons, so you might also need to set expectations for your child and what your family can afford.
Learn more about in-game spending here.
Use child accounts and cards
Many financial institutions now have bank accounts and debit cards for children. Using these is a great way to give ‘pocket’ money and monitor spending.
Even if you aren’t able to give your child a regular allowance, they can use their account to save any money they get throughout the year (such as for doing odd jobs or receiving gifts from relatives).
Mum of two, Steph, shares her experience of using these accounts to help her children manage their money and spending.
Types of child bank accounts
Unlike other accounts, GoHenry only provides accounts for children and teens. Children can download the app on their phone to track their spending, savings and balance. They can also complete ‘Money Missions’ to learn more about financial literacy and money management while earning points and badges.
Parents and carers get real-time spending notifications and can block or unblock the card as needed. There’s also a way to track chores so children can earn money, or to set up regular allowances if you can afford it.
Rooster Money is an app and card from NatWest that offers rewards for developing good habits. It also lets children and parents track their spending in the app. While it’s not free, it only costs about £2 per month or £20 per year.
Like GoHenry, Rooster Money also has a chore tracker to earn money. It also includes a money tracker which children can organise into different saving goals. Parents and carers can quickly transfer money as needed for their child to spend as well.
Kite is a free debit card from Starling Bank for 6-15-year-olds. Parents and carers with a Starling account can set Kite up from their personal account easily, and children can download a version of the app for themselves.
Parents and carers can set spending limits, receive spending notifications and more. As the parent, you are also considered the account holder, so their balance benefits from the same protections as your personal account.
Mum of two shares her experience of helping her children manage money online
Hi, I’m Steph, and I’m mum of two girls who are 15 and 13, and we live in Hertfordshire. I’ve been writing a blog about our family life ever since our youngest daughter was diagnosed with autism when she was just two and a half, and I share lots of our experiences online under my blog name “Steph’s Two Girls.”
My girls have both used technology a lot from a fairly young age. When they started, I said they could only choose free apps to download, and I wanted to approve them so I knew what they were playing with. And we mostly said no to any in-app purchases. For online PC or console games, the girls always had to check with us first before clicking to buy anything. And if I was happy with what they were wanting to buy, I would either hand over my credit card or input the details myself. And then as they got older, they began to be allowed to buy any games or add-ons they wanted using our credit card, but they then have to give us the cash back for anything they buy.
When they reach the age of 13, we set up bank accounts for them for their pocket money at a standard high street bank, but one where they have the option to use online banking. And that means they’re able to check in online whenever they want to to see how much money they’ve got, and then they can judge whether they can afford what it is they want to buy. I think that has helped them understand the value of things. For example, our 15-year-old recently asked if I could buy her a new TV series on Amazon. It was £20, so I told her she was more than welcome to pay for it out of her own money. And funnily enough, she wasn’t so keen to have it then. Our eldest does buy lots of items online for herself, like clothes and books and stationery, but I know I can trust her to not go crazy because she’s using her own money.
It’s not been so easy to help our autistic girl be aware of the money because she doesn’t like checking online how much she has, and she prefers me to still be in control, which works for us for now. I do know there can be issues around online purchases for some autistic children though, because it can be too easy to keep clicking to buy more. But we’ve been lucky with our girl that it hasn’t gone that way.
I guess my advice would be to set ground rules in advance and keep on talking about money. Things like saying how much there is available to spend on games or toys or food, whether that’s per week or per month, just so that children understand why you are saying no to online spending. And I would always make sure that any child’s account is linked to the adult’s account in some way. So, for example, on Apple devices, we have a family account, and originally, I would have to physically approve any purchase on any device. But as they’ve got older, I relax that setting, but I do still get notification of any spending, so we can talk about it if one of the girls has spent too much on something which I’m not sure about. Another suggestion is to make sure there is an extra step to confirm any spending. So, for example, if there are any in-app purchases, you or the children have to re-enter your password in order to be able to buy, and that just makes it less easy to do by mistake. I think the way we’ve done it has helped our girls to understand the value of money and to make the right choices. We started those kind of conversations at a very young age, so we’ve not had any big overspends along the way, which I’m very grateful for.
Talk about money management
Research regularly shows that conversations play a key role in helping children develop their digital resilience. Good digital resilience means that children can recognise risk and take action to keep themselves safe.
When it comes to conversations around money management, consider the following.
- Start early: Talk about spending and money before your child starts playing games which have microtransactions. Early conversations can make safety easier later on.
- Use realistic examples: When thinking about the impact of virtual purchases, putting it in offline terms can help. For example, 1000 V-Bucks in Fortnite is around £8. Purchasing two dance actions can cost 1000 V-Bucks. What else could they buy for that amount? What could they buy if they saved for a while?
- Decide on processes: Together, decide on boundaries around spending. Do they need to use their own allowance and debit card? Do they need to ask you first? Do you have a password or PIN for purchases?
- Review safety: Discuss the risks of buying online (such as scams). Highlight the importance of strong and unique passwords. You might also want to discourage them from saving their payment details anywhere online.
- Ask them for their input: What do they think you could do differently? Is there anything they would want your help with? Is there something they think you don’t understand? Ask them to show you around the places they spend money to clear up any misconceptions.
More about money management
Supporting resources
See the latest articles to support children online and find resources to help them make smarter and safer choices online.

Our recommendations for media literacy in the school curriculum
As the Government reviews the school Curriculum, we highlight the importance of improving media literacy education.

How do I start a conversation about cyberbullying with my child?
Gender equality online can be challenging. Learn how to discuss it with your child and support their understanding.

Parents and children say: Ban nudifying apps
Our policy manager shares our perspectives from parents and children on banning nudifying tools as nude deepfakes rise.

How to best use location tracking apps within your family
Location tracking apps via smartphones are a common way to keep track of your child outside of the home.

Protecting children from harms online: Response to Ofcom consultation
Our Policy and Research team shares our submission to Ofcom’s consultation to protect children from online harms.