Revolut launches Junior accounts: How do these compare to Spriggy?
We look at how the new Revolut Junior accounts for Australians aged 7-17 compare to the popular money app and kids debit card offered by Spriggy.
Personal finance app Revolut, which officially launched to its waitlist in Australia in August, has launched Revolut Junior accounts for Australians aged 7-17. The new Junior account needs to be added to an existing Revolut Australia account – you can't open a Junior account on its own.
This new account feature will allow Australian parents with a Revolut account to add a Junior account linked to their own for their child under 17. By linking a Junior account, parents can transfer money to their child using the Revolut app, and the child can spend it via their own Revolut prepaid card. As the account holder of the main Revolut account, parents would have complete visibility over their child's spending and transactions.
How does Revolut Junior compare to Spriggy?
If you're looking for a prepaid kids account that you can manage alongside your child, the main competitor to Revolut Junior is Spriggy (or ZAAP is another similar option). Spriggy also offers a prepaid spending card for kids and a money-management app that's linked to a primary or parent account.
The fees
The Revolut Junior account attracts the same monthly fee (or lack of fee) as the parent account. Revolut offers three account tiers: Standard ($0 monthly fee), Premium ($10.99 monthly fee) or Metal ($29.99 monthly fee). If you've got a Standard Revolut account you can add one Junior account at no extra cost, and pay no monthly fees. The Revolut Premium account allows you to add up to two Junior accounts, and the Metal account allows you to add up to five Junior accounts.
Spriggy charges an annual fee of $30 per child account that you have linked to your own parent account. This works out to be a monthly cost of $2.50 per child account.
So looking at monthly fees alone, if you only have one child then opening a Revolut Standard account and adding a Junior account is the cheaper option as there's no monthly fee. However, if you have more than one child, Spriggy works out to be cheaper. If you have two kids you'd pay $5 a month with Spriggy and $10.99 a month with the Revolut Premium account. And if you have three kids, it'd be $7.50 a month with Spriggy and $29.99 a month with a Revolut Metal account.
You do get a range of added features with your Revolut Premium or Metal account that could justify this additional cost. For example, you can spend overseas with no exchange rate markups, instantly exchange your AUD for 27 different currencies and access cryptocurrencies via the app.
The features
Both Revolut Junior and Spriggy allow parents to set up regular payments to their child accounts like digital pocket money. Both accounts also allow parents to assign chores via the app, and for kids to set up and track their savings goals. However, for Revolut, these features are only available with a Revolut Premium or Metal account, which does come with a higher monthly fee.
Something that Spriggy offers that Revolut doesn't is the ability to create family "groups". This allows you to invite other family members, like grandparents or aunties and uncles, to contribute pocket money to your child or assign them chores and savings goals in the app.
Both Revolut and Spriggy allow you to instantly lock your child's card within your app, which is a good security feature if they were to lose the card.
The prepaid card
Kids can use their Revolut Junior prepaid card to make withdrawals from ATMs, which could be handy if you want your kids to have access to physical cash if they need it. If you've got a Revolut Standard account, they can withdraw up to $70 each month with no ATM withdrawal fees. Spriggy doesn't allow you to make ATM withdrawals with its prepaid card for kids.
The Revolut Junior prepaid Visa card comes in three different coloured designs. Spriggy offers more choice with a range of Disney, Pixar, Star Wars and superhero card designs available.
