Pocket money for teenagers, a business exploited by certain applications

In this new school year, you may be in the middle of negotiating the new amounts of pocket money for your children. You may even be wondering whether or not it’s time to take a bank card from them. Since the coronavirus pandemic, more and more parents are dematerializing pocket money and using neobanks such as the startups Money Walkie, Kard or Pixpay to supervise the process, and this for children from 10 years old.

This is the solution chosen by Hortense, mother of Amélie and Héloïse. The pre-teens are 11 and 13 respectively, but that’s it, they have a bank card. “I have 20 euros left in my account”entrusts one while the other continues: “I am more spendthrift, I only have 14 euros left .” No more coins and bills, from now on, their mother pays their pocket money on the application of a neobank every month. “We see the children’s expenses, we can program pocket money. There is a reserve that we can manage, features that are quite reassuring”she explains.

“As parents, telling themselves that if the card is lost, we can block it immediately, that is reassuring.”

Hortense, mother

at franceinfo

Parents imagined a more secure and practical tool than traditional bank cards. But Benjamin did not have only good surprises. “There are pros and cons. The children are in enormous demand. I got a little upset when I discovered that my daughter had donated 20 euros to save the corals… Even if we are rather very proud of our daughter and her commitment to save the planet and the corals.Heloise explains: “Without doing it on purpose, I forgot to put the ‘zero comma’ and suddenly, I gave 20 euros instead of 0.20 euro.” And that’s what makes Benjamin tick: “We had given her 20 euros so that she could buy lunch and we did not know that she would have this possibility. I find that it is a little limited as a way of proceeding. When he found out, it was already too late. Couldn’t undo the transaction, even though it was just a mistake on her daughter’s part.

On the application, which is aimed at young people aged 10 to 18, a page is also dedicated to brands that offer discounts. Brands that are not always ethical but useful for teenagers, according to Caroline Menager, the founder of Pixpay. “We try to push brands that respond more to ecological aspirations for teenagers, she assures. Afterwards, you will see: there is Burger King in the cashback program. If we only have eco-responsible brands, we will have baskets that are untouchable for teenagers. These are not products they consume.”

These consumption incentives are also present in other applications such as Kard. A process that does not surprise sociologist Hélène Ducourant. “That companies or marketers seek to capture the attention of children is often denounced, she recalls. It now takes the form of an incentive directly on the application. Yesterday, it took the form of incentivized targeted advertising or in supermarkets. It’s nothing new, actually.”

This new market is already flourishing in the United States, where applications of this type have already exceeded one million users.