My 16 year old got her first job and I'm wanting to set her up with some sort of checking/debit account so she can get her paycheck direct deposited as well as be able to have a debit card for spending.

Would prefer no fees for her but don't exactly know what the best option would be. We do our banking with bank of America, but wanted to see if there were other options.

FDXAg said:

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My 16 year old got her first job and I'm wanting to set her up with some sort of checking/debit account so she can get her paycheck direct deposited as well as be able to have a debit card for spending.

Would prefer no fees for her but don't exactly know what the best option would be. We do our banking with bank of America, but wanted to see if there were other options.

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Growing up my parents banked with a local bank. We had savings accounts with them when we were little and opened checking accounts when we were 15. I also had a credit card with them while still in high school that helped me build credit history for when I went to college. I use BoA as well but would highly suggest looking at local credit unions and banks to see what they had to offer for savings, checking, and credit card. I might also be wary of giving a debit or credit card immediately until they are used to balancing the checkbook.

My children are all listed as sub-accounts under mine at CapitalOne 360. For my oldest, she has a debit card through her checking account. All have a savings account except my oldest who has a checking and a savings account.

I use a regional banking chain, and my kids both have checking accounts linked to my main account. It's one-way, so I can see their accounts and transfer money from their accounts. But they can't see or transfer from the main account. They have debit cards, and they don't have the ability to overdraft.

My bank had teen savings and spending accounts. Opened those as joint with me. This allowed me to transfer gifts from relatives and provide advice as to spending habits and to teach the value of having most of your money in savings and moving it to spending as needed.

It worked pretty well as they learned to deposit their checks using their phone apps and move money around the same way. They had debit cards on their accounts to pay for non family events.

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This allowed me to transfer gifts from relatives and provide advice as to spending habits and to teach the value of having most of your money in savings and moving it to spending as needed.

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My bank's savings account rate is abysmal. Something like 0.1%. I use a high yield saving acct, but even that right now is less than 1%. I mainly use it now to make my personal accounting easier. So I haven't really encouraged the savings account for my kids. Even CD rates and bonds are awful. As far as I'm concerned, at this point in time the only place to really store money for long term is the market, and that's way too complicated for my kids right now and their small bank accounts.

Agreed on the terrible rates.

I wanted to teach the method of not having most of your funds in the primary spending account. I have most of my savings in a "high yield" savings with AMEX bank but didn't need them to have that complexity.

The concept of depositing the check in their accounts and ensuring that most went into savings was the important part of having two accounts for us.

Fair enough. Always a smart move from a fraud/identity theft perspective. You don't want all your assets at the fingertips of a random merchant with your debit card info.

Open a joint account with both of you on there. You can then transfer to your child immediately if needed.

When they turn 18, you can go into the bank and remove yourself from the joint account, making it individual, if you so desire. I recommend doing it jointly for now just because your kid may overdraft and you can quickly replenish without any fees.

I would recommend a Schwab checking account/debit card. Unlimited ATM fee reimbursement, no account minimums, no fees to open/run the account.

Also, the nice thing about schwab is that its easy for them to open an investment account. Savings accounts are crap right now, but having the kid learn about investing and 'set it and forget it' money is powerful at a young age. Even if you want to do super low risk like T-Bills.

I would also recommend getting them a super low limit credit card to just put gas money on. Get their credit score started early and teach them to pay it off every month before they go off to college.

YNAB (you need a budget) is also a great app for teaching anyone how to make/keep a budget.

If your kid can leave your house at 18 with the knowledge about money most people don't learn until they are 30 you are supercharging their future success.

Warning: this usually leads to entrepreneurship. Save up some cash to be their first seed investor.

I have a savings account with capital one 360 and my daughter has a savings account with them under mine. I tried to sign up for their "Teen money" checking/debit account online and it kept giving me an error. Spent an hour over phone with their customer support and they weren't able to help. Did you have any issues when you signed them up? It seemed to be related to verifying my daughter's identity via cell phone number or something.

All great ideas so far in this thread. Keep them coming guys and thanks!

Also, i was under the impression she couldn't get a credit card under her name at 16. I want her to start building a credit history ASAP so I was considering adding her as an authorized user to one of my credit card accounts (I've had a Bank of America CC for over 20 years). Obviously i would never give her the card but would that start her credit history going?

Both of my were added as authorized users to our cards at 16. Amex requires 18, FYI. They do begin to build credit that way.

I even gave them a card to use responsibly as our family pays for their fuel expenses. When they wanted to buy video games or dining out with friends, that comes from their accounts using those cards or, if they coordinate with me, they can use our cards and I will transfer funds from their accounts into mine.

The one in college has a single card solely in his name now. There is a minor subscription that is billed to that account and auto paid monthly.

Trying to build behavior over time with multiple small steps was the goal. So far, so good. Fingers crossed.

My wife and I have personal checking with BOA and added our 16 and 14 year old with checking accounts for minor under ours. Zero fees, debit card, and its easy to move money over for allowance and stuff - they all pull up on my BOA app as they sit under our as sub/linked accounts.

FDX, honestly, I set up those accounts for my three daughters several years ago. It was probably 5+ years ago and I do not remember them asking me for that much information for them.

Both my kids had USAA Checking accounts. Poor interest rates, but no fees + $0.10 reward on debit purchases.

https://www.usaa.com/inet/wc/youth-banking

This is not the time to teach kids about interest but you can still focus on fees. In middle school, I started putting $100 a month for them into an investment account to show the importance of compounding and starting to save early. Our agreement was that I'd continue the investment until they withdrew from the account for the first time. (I showed them the math that showed that $100 a month could be... a car when they graduated from college...a nice down payment on a house at ~25 years old...or possibly even $1M if they waited for a 60 year old retirement.)

The investment accounts were also USAA accounts (UTMA), but USAA has since excised their investment branch to Schwab.

AgCPA95 said:

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My wife and I have personal checking with BOA and added our 16 and 14 year old with checking accounts for minor under ours. Zero fees, debit card, and its easy to move money over for allowance and stuff - they all pull up on my BOA app as they sit under our as sub/linked accounts.

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This is exactly what we did with our two. My 17 year old has had an account for years and we opened my 14 year old daughters account earlier this month.

FDXAg said:

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My 16 year old got her first job and I'm wanting to set her up with some sort of checking/debit account so she can get her paycheck direct deposited as well as be able to have a debit card for spending.

Would prefer no fees for her but don't exactly know what the best option would be. We do our banking with bank of America, but wanted to see if there were other options.

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Literally every word of this is my scenario. Age, bank, job, gender of child. Glad you asked and got helpful replies.

FDXAg said:

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Also, i was under the impression she couldn't get a credit card under her name at 16. I want her to start building a credit history ASAP so I was considering adding her as an authorized user to one of my credit card accounts (I've had a Bank of America CC for over 20 years). Obviously i would never give her the card but would that start her credit history going?

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Just my .02, but maybe consider just teach them to save up money and pay cash for everything and never borrow for anything except for a home.

ukbb2003 said:

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FDXAg said:

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Also, i was under the impression she couldn't get a credit card under her name at 16. I want her to start building a credit history ASAP so I was considering adding her as an authorized user to one of my credit card accounts (I've had a Bank of America CC for over 20 years). Obviously i would never give her the card but would that start her credit history going?

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Just my .02, but maybe consider just teach them to save up money and pay cash for everything and never borrow for anything except for a home.

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I don't challenge your goal of teaching them not be a slave to debt, especially for depreciating assets like vehicles and then especially regular spending on credit cards, but why punish yourself on rate for 15 or 30 years with no credit history when you go to finance that home?

AgCPA95 said:

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ukbb2003 said:

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FDXAg said:

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Also, i was under the impression she couldn't get a credit card under her name at 16. I want her to start building a credit history ASAP so I was considering adding her as an authorized user to one of my credit card accounts (I've had a Bank of America CC for over 20 years). Obviously i would never give her the card but would that start her credit history going?

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Just my .02, but maybe consider just teach them to save up money and pay cash for everything and never borrow for anything except for a home.

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I don't challenge your goal of teaching them not be a slave to debt, especially for depreciating assets like vehicles and then especially regular spending on credit cards, but why punish yourself on rate for 15 or 30 years with no credit history when you go to finance that home?

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There are companies that use manual underwriting for home loans for people without credit scores. It does require more documentation, but a credit score is not absolutely necessary to purchase a home.

Just saw this. We have the Capital One teen Money account for my son. I had an issue with his birth date when we signed up but resolved it over the phone. It's been good for us. I also got him the online Foundations in Personal Finance class from Dave Ramsey. We have had a lot of good discussions as he works through each module.

Chase just announced their chase first and high school accounts. No fees and can be managed my parents