It seems as though everyone is going cashless these days, doesn’t it? Credit cards have been a thing for long, but we’ve always had cash in our wallets. This money, however, is slowly being replaced by debit cards from household to household.

Picture this – your kid has to wake up early for a school trip, and they ask you for some pocket money the night before. You turn your bedroom upside down, but there isn’t a single note in there. What do you do?

A Trip to the ATM

Well, the options include a trip to the ATM in the dead of night, or having your kid’s friends lend him some money. Which one would you go for? Some parents would rather die than have their kids borrow money, so a trip to the ATM would do.

A trip to the ATM would do

Tim Sheehan, co-founder of Greenlight Financial Technology, found himself in a similar situation quite a few times, and it’s even the reason why he founded this company.

Having made the decision to go cashless while being parents to four kids, Sheenan and his partner always found themselves backed into a corner whenever one of the four spontaneously asked for money.

To combat this, Sheenan co-founded Greenlight, a company that makes debit cards available to children, in addition to their parents.

Greenlight makes debit cards available to children

And with $54 million in capital from a recent seed round, why would you doubt that the company is gaining traction?

It just so happens that Greenlight isn’t the only company looking to have minors own debit cards, with their competition being the likes of American Express and GoHenry. While they may have one eye on the future already, the big question still remains whether giving kids this vital a supply to cash is the right way to go.

That being a story for another day, how about we dive into how these Greenlight cards work? The company allows parents to open a family account, with a cap on families with five kids. To keep the account active, they have to pay a monthly fee of $4.99.

Subject to Account Balance

With an active account, family members get debit cards which they can use to pay for various expenses. Needless to say, the family’s spending power is subject to their account balance, and the account can also be used as a savings account.

However, of importance is to note that Greenlight doesn’t offer any interest on the savings. All the same, the company has this saving incentive where if in agreement, a parent will top up 18% of their kids’ savings at the end of each year.

Greenlight’s target market includes those aged from 8 to 22, and the company reports that as at now, the average age for those already using their cards is 13. Luckily for these users, a Greenlight card has no effects on their credit score, so they can rest easy.

13 is the average age for Greenlight card users

Where they may feel shortchanged is the fact that their parents reserve the right to how much they spend and where they spend it. And if by any chance the card gets lost, Greenlight offers a one-time free replacement, with subsequent replacements going for $3.50 each.