The Walmart-backed FinTech OnePay has announced new offerings tailor-made for teens.
About OnePay for Teens:
This week, OnePay announced the launch of new family banking features. Now, teens ages 13 to 17 can have a OnePay account managed by their parents, which can transition to them once they turn 18.
With these teen accounts, parents can set automatic allowance transfers. Additionally, friends and family can send money or even stocks directly to these accounts. Meanwhile, parents can also set spending limits, manage ATM access, block certain merchants and recipients, and more.
Teens can also receive a OnePay Builder Card, which can help them establish credit. While the account won’t report to credit bureaus while they’re minors, once they reach 18, payment history (starting from when they were 16) will be reported. This will allow users to enter adulthood with credit history, giving them a head start. To qualify for this option, teens must be an authorized user on a parent’s account, complete a Social Security number verification, and leave the credit reporting option on.
To get started, a parent or legal guardian must have a OnePay account and get a Builder Card. Parents can add one or more teens as authorized users to their account and card. As mentioned, once teens turn 18, they’ll be eligible for their own deposit account and Builder Card.
Speaking of Builder cards, teens can also choose from special card designs. Options include black, denim, leopard, sticker, or the standard OnePay blue.
In celebration of these new teen banking features, OnePay is also launching a Gold Card sweepstakes. When adults add their teen to OnePay, they’ll automatically be entered to win an exclusive Gold Card as well as $1,000. This sweepstakes runs through November 30th, 2026. Official rules can be found on the OnePay site.
What They’re Saying:
Discussing these new accounts, OnePay GM Harsh Gupta stated, “Most teen banking products are dead ends. You spend years learning to manage money in an app that you then have to leave the day you turn 18. Here, a 13-year-old’s account can be the same one they’ll have at 30, with years of credit history attached to it, so when they go to rent their first apartment or finance their first car, they’re not starting from zero.”
My Thoughts:
As a fan of OnePay overall, I think this could be a great feature for parents and teens. In particular, the ability to potentially have two years of payment history could go far in establishing credit. If I had a teen, I’d definitely look into this as an option.
