Greenlight vs BusyKid: Which Kids' Debit Card Is Better?

BusyKid costs $48 a year for the family, about $4 a month, and that price includes investing. Greenlight's Core plan costs $5.99 a month, or about $72 a year, and investing needs the Max plan at $10.98 a month, about $132 a year. If you want kids to buy real stocks, BusyKid costs roughly a third of Greenlight.

The trade-off is how you pay. BusyKid bills once a year with no refunds on the annual subscription, so you are committed for twelve months. Greenlight bills monthly, and new members can close their account before the first monthly billing date for a refund. If you close a Greenlight account, it sells any investments at market value and refunds the rest, minus a closing fee of up to $1, usually within 5-7 business days. If you cancel BusyKid, it asks you to sell any investments first and keep a bank or card connected so your kids' balances can be returned. Selling can lock in a loss, so check prices first.

Card fees also differ. Greenlight lists no ATM fee of its own, though the ATM's owner may charge one. BusyKid charges $1.50 per ATM withdrawal, $1 per ATM balance check, $2.50 per foreign purchase, $5 to replace a card and $0.50 per declined purchase after the fourth in a month. Show your child how to check the balance in the app instead.

Greenlight is built around controls. You can set spending limits, choose which stores the card works at, get an alert for every purchase and lock the card in seconds. That suits younger kids, or any child getting their first card.

BusyKid relies on approval rather than blocking. A parent approves card loads, stock purchases and any other money leaving the app, and a Money Lock setting stops kids moving money between Save, Share and Spend. It has few store or category blocks, and money on the card can't be moved back, so load it in small amounts.

On both apps kids buy real shares, and a parent approves each purchase. BusyKid includes it on every account with a $10 minimum per purchase. Greenlight starts it on the Max plan. Either way, investments are not FDIC insured and can lose value, so treat it as a lesson in how markets work, and agree rules first, such as only investing money your child won't need soon. Investing makes most sense from about 10, when kids can follow a price going up and down over months; for younger kids, stick to saving and giving. Buying one company's shares puts all the money on one bet, so talk about spreading it across several companies, and start with an amount you both agree could be lost.

Greenlight has short lessons and games on budgeting, saving and investing in the app, and every plan pays a savings reward (2% a year on Core, on up to $5,000 per family, at a rate that can change). BusyKid teaches by doing: kids see the link between chores and pay, split every payday between saving, sharing and spending, and can give to a list of about 50 charities, but most of its teaching material sits on its website. With either app, your conversations do much of the teaching.

Both cards hold money at FDIC member banks: Community Federal Savings Bank for Greenlight and Pathward for BusyKid. FDIC insurance is the US government guarantee that protects bank deposits, up to $250,000 per person per bank, if the bank fails; it does not cover the app company itself failing. Both apps collect your family's financial data. Greenlight's App Store label lists location and contacts among the data linked to you, and BusyKid's says identifiers may be used to track you across other companies' apps and sites. Google Play says Greenlight shares some location and financial data with third parties, and that BusyKid shares some data with third parties. Read each privacy policy before you sign up.

For a 13- to 15-year-old, Greenlight's stated limit on targeted ads reaches further: it says it doesn't knowingly aim interest-based ads (ads picked from what someone does online) at anyone under 16, while BusyKid's under-13 protections end at 13. Both require a parent to sign up and consent for a child under 13; BusyKid's policy names COPPA, the US children's privacy law, and Greenlight's describes a similar parent-consent step without naming it. Greenlight also says it doesn't knowingly use under-13s' personal information for targeted ads. BusyKid says it doesn't sell under-13s' data and won't knowingly send them marketing, but sponsored chores from brands can appear, and from 13 its general policy allows sharing users' details, such as email addresses, with brand partners for their marketing. On ad tracking, Greenlight says it shares what people do on its website and app with ad networks, and you can opt out in the app's Settings tab. BusyKid's policy says outside companies' cookies on its site and app may be used to show interest-based ads; it lists ad-industry opt-out tools for those, but gives no way to opt out of sharing with brand partners. From 16, neither policy sets a limit on ads aimed at teens.