Reviewing PKTMNY: A child’s viewpoint

 

BritMums is working with PKTMNY to try out its new site, which lets parents control children’s pocket money. We tried it out with one of its target audience: kids.

Giving pocket money and allowance at our house has always been a haphazard affair. We have great intentions and a plan that lasts a couple of weeks of paying the children every Sunday morning after they’ve completed Saturday’s chores.

But then we’ll be out of town, or something will come up and we’ll forget. We’ll vow to do it the following Sunday, but somehow that eludes us too.

I discovered when trying out PKTMNY, the new site that lets parents control children’s pocket money online and gives the kids a real cash card to use, that my daughter was more motivated by having her own “grown-up” online account and personal card. I liked that I control the card: I can put in a regular amount via direct debit, set how much she can spend in one go or in one day, and determine whether she can use it online, at the shops or at a cash machine.

So last Saturday we set out to pick out a gift for Dad at the local kitchen shop. Beforehand I transferred into her account £20 to cover the 4 Christmas gifts she had to buy. I set the limits online so she could spend up to £20 in one go and so that she could shop online and in shops but not take money out at cash points.

It was our first time using the card, so I logged into the parent side of PKTMNY and made her card active, then we logged into her account and got her PIN. She didn’t think she would be able to remember it, so we came up with one she could and set off for the cash point to change it.

“Mummy and daddy need to know your PIN, but not anybody else,” I told her. “You can’t tell your friends.”

She was agog. “Not even my friends? They won’t tell anyone,” she said.

“They may not, but you don’t tell anybody your PIN ever,” I said.

“Can’t I tell my brother?” she asked.

“No, don’t even tell him.”

“Wow,” she said. I think she was starting to grasp the road ahead as the caretaker of a cache of money.

On the way to the shops, she mentally tallied how much she could spend on each person and after picking out an item at the shop, proudly handed over her card.

“I’ve never seen one of these,” the clerk said with a laugh. “Let’s give it a try.”

And lo and behold, it worked.

My daughter had taken her card to a shop, picked out a present and paid for it by punching in her own PIN on the little machine. She was practically luminescent with pride afterward.

“Where can I buy something next?”

Later at home, she checked her balance and planned what she would buy with her remaining budget.

The moment I knew it wasn’t just a fad was when she insisted on bringing her PKTMNY card on shopping trips and remembered it herself.

This was always a stumbling block with her pocket money paid in coins. It would go into one of several piggy banks and getting it out, counting it, finding a coin purse, etc became such a rigamarole that we hardly ever got organized enough to do it before an outing.

She told me later, “What I like best is putting in my own PIN.”

I look forward to updates as the PKTMNY site evolves, so we can put in multiple savings goals (right now she has a big goal of saving for university), including a way to set regular charitable giving goals.

For now, I’m enjoying Christmas shopping where, instead of me reaching for my card, my daughter reaches for hers.

Find out more about teaching children about money:

• Video: A clinical psychologist shares tips for teaching children about spending
• Kids & debit cards: What they need to know
• 36 important lessons about pocket money
• How do parents deal with pocket money?

 Visit the PKTMNY site for yourself to see how you can use it to control your child’s saving and spending.