Who holds the account, the parent or the child?
In most programmes, the parent: they pass the identity checks and hold the family account, each child gets an account and a card under it, and the app records the parent's consent for every child. Some partners also open accounts in a teen's own name with a parent's consent. Which model you can offer, and from what age a child can have a card, depend on your licence or your partner's and on local law.
Which banks and card issuers does it run on?
The accounts come from a licensed partner bank or e-money institution: the accounts module connects to banking-as-a-service providers such as ClearBank, Banking Circle, Modulr, Solaris, Swan and Treezor. The cards run on issuer processors such as Marqeta, Thredd, Nium, Paymentology and Enfuce, on Visa or Mastercard. We help you choose partners that cover your markets and support accounts for minors.
How do parents control spending?
Per child, from their own app: daily and weekly limits, blocked categories such as gambling and alcohol, the countries where the card works, and a freeze button. Every card payment is checked against those rules as it happens, and the parent gets a notification for each one, declined payments included.
Can children invest as well as save?
Yes, if you offer it. Savings goals come with every child's account, and the portfolios module adds investing through a broker-as-a-service partner such as Alpaca, DriveWealth or Upvest, which executes and holds the assets under its licence. For a child, a parent opens the investment account and approves what is bought.
What about licensing and compliance?
Holding a family's money and issuing cards is regulated: in the EU it takes an e-money or banking licence, in the UAE (outside the financial free zones) a stored value facility licence from the Central Bank, and similar elsewhere; many companies launch under a licensed partner first. Accounts for minors add rules of their own, such as a parent's consent, who holds the account, the youngest age for a card and extra protection for children's data under the GDPR. The app ships with KYC/AML checks, sanctions screening, fraud controls and an audit trail, configured for your legal setup.
Do I really own 100% of the app?
Yes. On launch you receive the full source code of the parent and teen apps, the family accounts and the allowance, the integrations and the backoffice, with infrastructure configuration and documentation. There is no licensing fee, no revenue share and no lock-in.
