What is RoosterMoney and how does it work?
RoosterMoney is a virtual allowance tracker. It offers separate accounts for parents and kids. From a parent account, you can set up automatic allowance payments and split payments into different pots for spending, saving, and giving. Children can check their balances in the app and decide how they want to use their money. If you pay for a Rooster PLUS account, you'll unlock more features, including the option to add chores, pay your child interest, and make regular deductions for expenses.
Since this is an allowance tracker, you're not actually sending money to your kids through the app. You'll need to do that on your own. The app helps you stay on top of how much allowance you'll give, which you can do in a currency of your choice. RoosterMoney does offer a Rooster Card plan for an additional fee, but it's only available to families in the United Kingdom. The plan includes a prepaid Visa debit card with parental controls for children ages six and up.
The app also includes quite a bit of educational content. In the resources section, you'll find articles, activities, worksheets, and challenges to help your kids improve their financial literacy.
Top perks
Manage your kids' allowances
If you've been looking for a way to track allowances, RoosterMoney makes it easy. From their allowance settings, you can set an amount and how often kids should receive it. Payment frequency options are weekly, monthly, and fortnightly (the company behind the app is based in London).
That's available with the free version of RoosterMoney. Upgrading to Rooster PLUS allows you to set up chores and assign specific amounts to each chore, such as $1 when your child cleans their bedroom. You don't need to use this strictly for chores, either. Want to encourage your children to do their homework or share their toys? Add it as a chore to give them a financial incentive. You can also send your kids extra money as a reward at any time.
Accounts for parents and kids
RoosterMoney lets parents and kids have their own separate accounts. Kids don't need their own smartphones. You can set up their account either on their device or on your own.
You'll have full control over your kids' allowances and money on your side. In each child's account, they'll be able to see their balance and move money between their spend, save, and give pots.
Helps teach kids responsible financial habits
The great thing about RoosterMoney's features is how they help you educate your children about personal finance. That's especially true if you upgrade to Rooster PLUS, but the free version of the app can also work well if you'd prefer not to pay a subscription fee.
With the free version, you can divide allowances and other payments between your kid's three money pots: Spend, save, and give. You can also set up savings goals for them. If they keep telling you that they want a new video game console, you can add that as a savings goal, along with a picture of the console and a target amount.
Rooster PLUS has even more ways to teach smart money habits. Adding chores with monetary rewards can demonstrate the value of working hard. You can also add regular deductions for expenses, giving children their first taste of paying bills. Maybe you decide your kids should pay $0.50 per month towards Disney Plus or $1 per month towards their phone bills. This feature is perfect for showing your kids how to budget and explaining budgeting methods.
Easy to use
Even though RoosterMoney offers a lot of features, the app is well designed and doesn't have much of a learning curve. The process of creating accounts and setting everything up is straightforward. Once you download the app, you could have an automated allowance ready within 5 to 10 minutes.
Free version available
Some allowance apps only offer a paid version. That isn't the case with RoosterMoney. Its virtual tracker is available free of charge, which is a big plus for parents on tight budgets.
Educational content
One of the challenges of choosing a financial literacy app is finding the app that has everything you need. Many offer either allowance tracking or educational content, but not both. With RoosterMoney, you don't need to choose. In addition to allowance tracking, it has several educational resources available. Here are a few examples:
- Educational primers on various subjects, including payment methods, earning money, and compound interest.
- Printable worksheets.
- Money challenges, such as budgeting for a family dinner party and selling belongings to declutter.
- Tips on using RoosterMoney.
Supports multiple currencies
While RoosterMoney is made by a company in the United Kingdom, parents from all around the world can use it. You can choose from any currency in the world for your kids' allowances. If you don't want to use monetary allowances yet, you can give them stars instead.
What could be improved
Subscription fee to access all features
The free version of RoosterMoney doesn't have nearly as many features as Rooster PLUS. To get the most out of this app, you need to pay a subscription fee. Keep in mind that the fee is very reasonable at $2.99 per month or $18.99 per year (for U.S. users). And to RoosterMoney's credit, you can use the free version to avoid any sort of charge.
Prepaid cards are only available to U.K. users
A prepaid debit card is a convenient feature for an allowance app to have. Since you can load it with money, it allows you to fully manage your kids' money through the app. RoosterMoney only offers this perk for families in the United Kingdom, and it costs extra. If you're in the United States and you want prepaid cards for your children, then you need to find an alternative.
