Developing good financial habits at an early age can bring a whole host of benefits. Yet it’s not been easy to do so — traditional banking methods haven’t always been child-friendly. However, in the digital age, it’s easier than ever before to encourage your children to save money and learn some of the basics of managing their finances.
One such app, NatWest Rooster Money, aims to do exactly this. In our Rooster Money review, we take a look at everything you need to know about the app and service.
At a Glance — Pros and Cons
If you’re looking for a quick summary of what we liked and disliked about Rooster Money, we’ve listed out some of the pros and cons.
Pros
✔️ A simple and accessible way of educating children about money.
✔️ A variety of tiers and services for children from as young as 4 years old.
✔️ Provides a lot of control for parents, without limiting children too much.
✔️ Relatively cheap annual fee for using the service.
Cons
❌️ The best features all come with the paid version, including access to a card.
❌️ Limits on how many free top-ups you can use each month.
❌️ Fees for spending abroad.
❌️ As you can see, this is a fairly balanced set of plus and minus points, but we’ll explore them in more detail further down. However, overall, we’re impressed with what Rooster Money are offering.
What is Rooster Money?
Rooster Money is a pocket money app aimed at helping parents teach their children about money. The service launched back in 2016 and has since gone on to provide services in over 50 currencies around the world. The company was formed by a group of parents that wanted a better way of teaching their kids about the value of money.
Rooster Money is suitable for kids aged 4 to 18, featuring a variety of features for those of different ages. As well as an app that keeps track of things like earnings, savings, and money habits, there is also a prepaid visa card you can link to the service and a chore management system.
There are several tiers available for parents, allowing you to help teach your children about the importance of managing their money.
Who is Rooster Money for?
The Rooster Money app, service, and card are for both parents and children. No matter how old your children are, you can start laying the foundations for their financial understanding. Of course, you might not want to have to spend money to teach such a lesson, but that’s fine too. With Rooster Money’s free virtual tracker (suitable for ages 3+), you can start developing a pocket money routine.
With the higher tiers, you can get access to things like a prepaid debit card, and chore management system. These can help to teach things like accountability and financial responsibility from a young age. So, whether you’re just trying to teach good habits or provide a formal framework for money management, you can find it with Rooster Money.
How does Rooster Money work?
You can sign up for Rooster Money on their website using the code COMPAREBANKS to get 20% off your Rooster Card subscription. Once you sign up, there are two main ways in which Rooster Money works — the app and the card. Let’s take a look at each one in more detail:
The app
With the Rooster Money app, you can use it as either a pocket money tracker or as a reward system. For younger children, you can award Stars in the app to introduce them to the concept of earning and rewards.
As they grow and understand the main concepts more, you can then progress them to the pocket money tracker. Here, they can keep track of what they’re saving, set goals, and develop good financial habits. Of course, you will have oversight of what goes in and out, giving you ultimate control.
The card
For older children who want more financial responsibility, the Rooster Card gives them a safe way of spending their money. The prepaid Visa card comes with flexible parental controls, meaning you can determine how strict their spending limits and usage is.
You’ll be able to see where the money is going, and will ultimately be responsible for the account number and sort code of the account.
For older children who want more financial responsibility, the Rooster Card gives them a safe way of spending their money. The prepaid Visa card comes with flexible parental controls, meaning you can determine how strict their spending limits and usage is. You’ll be able to see where the money is going, and will ultimately be responsible for the account number and sort code of the account.
What features do you get with Rooster Money?
There are plenty of neat features built into the Rooster Money experience.
Many of these make it easier for you to help manage things, and for your children to understand their money better. We’ve highlighted some of the key ones below:
- Automation. You can automatically schedule an allowance to be paid at regular intervals and top it up manually at any time you choose.
- Pots and goals. With Rooster Money, you can set up saving, giving, and goals pots to help your child organise their finances.
- Education. Every tier of the service provides access to a variety of educational content and resources, helping you teach valuable lessons.
- A chore management system. With this system, you can reward your children for their work and make sure money is paid only when chores are complete.
- Set interest rates. As well as setting your own interest rates on their money, you can set up regular outgoings to teach valuable concepts.
- Access to a Rooster Card. Give your child some financial freedom while still maintaining a variety of limits.
What options do Rooster Money offer?
There are several ways that customers can use Rooster Money, and a variety of subscription tiers to reflect this choice. As well as a free basic version, there are also two paid services that give you increasing amounts of features. Below, we’ve highlighted the basics of what’s included with each tier:
Virtual Tracker
This is the free tier that’s offered by Rooster Money. It’s the ideal place to get started with the service, as it comes with some of the basic features on offer.
This includes:
- The star and reward chart.
- A virtual money tracker.
- The ability to pay a scheduled allowance.
- Tracking for spending, as well as pots for savings, giving, and goals.
- Access to educational resources.
- A login for your child or children.
As you can see, these are some nice free features. However, it doesn’t give you access to the more useful money management ones.
Rooster Plus
With this tier, you get a 1-month free trial. After that, it costs £14.99 per year. You get all of the features that come with the virtual tracker tier, as well as:
- The chore management system.
- The ability to set interest rates for your child’s savings.
- The ability to add unlimited guardian accounts.
- Regular outgoings that you can easily set up.
Again, these can all be really useful when it comes to setting up some of the basics of money management. However, you don’t get the ability to give your child access to ‘real’ money spending.
Rooster Card
This top tier also comes with a 1-month free trial. It then costs £19.99 per year for access to the rest of the features, or you can pay monthly for £1.99 per month. You get access to everything mentioned above, as well as:
- A prepaid debit card with parental controls, allowing your child to use real money.
- Flexible card controls that help you monitor and manage your kids’ spending.
- An account number and sort code that you manage.
With these features, you get a more complete service. It’s particularly useful for older children who want a bit more financial independence.
How safe is Rooster Money?
Of course, the concern when giving your child access to money is that they’re going to spend it at a relentless pace. Thankfully, the built-in features make that impossible. There are no overdraft options to accumulate debt, and you get to monitor their spending through the app.
Your children won’t be able to use their Rooster Card with merchants that sell products intended for those over the age of 18. You can also block certain types of transactions, including ATM withdrawals. Each time your child wants to purchase online, it generates a new CCV code, meaning you can still keep track of their online activities.
As for the funds you deposit, because it’s not a bank, your money isn’t covered by the FSCS scheme. However, they are licensed by the FCA, meaning that any money is held in a separate account that Rooster Money can’t touch.
What about customer service?
Generally, the customer service at Rooster Money is very good.
As well as an online contact form, you can also reach them at [email protected] or on 0203 984 8422. Overall, customers seem very happy with the service. They have a rating of 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 549 reviews.
What else makes Rooster Money stand out?
One of the things we really like about Rooster Money is how flexible the service is. No matter how old your children are, you can customise your service to match their knowledge and experience. What’s more, as they progress and grow, you can adjust your subscription accordingly.
It’s also one of the cheapest services of this type on the market. That being said, there are fees for using the card overseas. Anything above £50 per month will incur a 3% transactional charge. Similarly, if you load money on more than 10 times per month, it costs £0.50 per load. Even aside from these fees, it still feels like good value for money.
Rooster Money: The Verdict
Ultimately, there’s plenty to appreciate about Rooster Money. Although other services are entering the market, Rooster Money feels like a fairly comprehensive option. With various options available, as well as plenty of support in terms of education, it’s certainly an appealing prospect.
If you want to teach your kids about money in the digital age, Rooster Money seems like a good option. Although there are fees for the most impressive features, they’re relatively low, and you get a lot for what you pay for.
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