Leave a Review BusyKid
Love, love, love this app!
THIS IS NOT A PIAD REVIEW!
We were looking for a way to help our grandson. Wanted to teach him the value of money, how it’s earned, how to save and invest for his future.
This program does it all. In my opinion, at 13, his job is to do well in school and we’ve made that his primary focus. In addition, we wanted him to learn other things besides gaming. He earns for reading a book, photography, cooking/helping to prep meals, along with keeping his room clean and a few other chores. He loves the charity portion and has his 2 favs. He owns several stocks or at least a percentage of shares. He has his spend card and can use it for anything he wants without having to ask so long as he keeps a set balance in his spend account. It has been a great tool. He’ll send me a screenshot of his stock prices from time to time with a, “Yeah Tesla is up today!” His grades are up and his cooking skills are fantastic! This has been one of the best things we have done for him.
It takes a minute to get it set up but there are some great “how to” video’s online. We had no problem with set up and/or continued use!Show lessSharonH99
Developer Response
Thank you so much for the wonderful review. We have no need to pay for reviews because there is something we learn from both good and bad. Hearing how your grandson is doing with our app is why we created the app in the first place. We have several new features coming soon which he'll really love, including enhancements to our investing area. If you have more comments on things, please send to help@busykid.com.Does the job, needs some improvement
The app chore setup is pretty simple as well as setting each child’s profile. Two things need fixed... firstly, there needs to be a way to mark the chore incomplete. Why..? I am teaching my kids it’s THEIR responsibility to complete the chore and then mark it completed. Just like real life you don’t get paid for incomplete work. Secondly, I found the child can go back and check off incomplete chores AFTER the selected payday as well as BEFORE the selected payday. The child should only be able to tick the box on the day of the chores!! Obviously, parents should still be able to override from their dashboard so one could go back and check/un-check a box during that current pay period. Just like real life, I want them to feel the REWARDS of a job well done as well as the STING of incomplete or “forgetting “ to check the box. Once fixed you get 5 STARS ! Thank you, K.M.Show less2 McWhorter's
It’s a Great Start with room for improvement
I love the concept and system in place to help kids manage their finances. It’s easy to set up and get going except that you have to wait for the card to transfer money into the account. To save time, an account should be assigned immediately so that it can be used right away instead of having to wait for the card.
The other feature I would add is the ability to choose my child’s charities they support instead of being locked into the ones listed. Aside from that, I love being able to select and create chores along with pay on the days of the week desired. This is great which allows our child to value work and create a healthy relationship of work and money. The savings match is also very useful to incentivize savings. I am looking forward to using this app and to future updates and improvements.Show lessEOG
Update has flaws
Was great until it updated. A flaw isn’t allowing me to transfer money between accounts. When I try, it closes the transfer window before it’s complete. Also, there’s a lot of loopholes the kids have found to exploit. My ten year old figured out my pin and was logging in to my account to pay himself. The individual accounts shouldn’t be available for everyone to see or access. Another thing he figured out was that he could go months at a time and check off chores. On my end it looked like a glitch and he was getting paid for chores he never did. This is the second app I’ve tried and I’m considering moving to a third. The safeguards are lacking on this app. And of course now, I can’t even transfer their money to their cards.Show lessWashington Reviewer
Great idea but clunky and limited
I have this set up for each of my kids but I do find it cumbersome to use. I really wanted something simple where each kid could look and see each day what they had time for and choose according to that. The chores have to be added one by one for each kid and you have to decide which days and how much. Since I have three kids this took me FOREVER. There should just be a “bank” of chores the kids can choose from each day and I shouldn’t have to assign a chore to each kid.
Also, my daughter wanted to deposit her accumulated cash onto her debit card so we went to the bank and then the app limited me to putting only $50 on the card at a time with a $150 limit. There should be a way around this from the parent’s account. I understand having a limit for the kids but that was frustrating so now I have to deposit her cash amounts over three different days waiting 24 hours in between each
Update. After 10 months we are moving on. Cards have been compromised several times and the app is just too complicated to use. No changes were made as promised.Show lessCharmedinmylife
Developer Response
Sorry about the experience but we want to be better so your comments will help. You can select a chore for multiple kids by pressing the image of each child and then selecting the chore. We are making improvements to this area, so perhaps the update will help. As for the limit our support team should be able to help this, but you're right, the system is designed to protect kids and deter fraud. Please contact the team and explain the situation. We hope that with these changes and time, you'll be able to update this review more positively.5 STARS!!
STARS!!!
5 STARS!!!! By far the best customer service by Mike and Scott! Due to user error, YUP WE MADE THE MISTAKE, we received our card which had our names spelled incorrectly. I called the card service phone number thinking I was calling BusyKid. I didn't get the best customer service from the card services, so I went on here and ranted and wrote a bad review about Busykid. Mike and Scott responded, and through numerous emails they did everything to make sure I got my card reordered with our names spelled correctly. Scott even stayed on the phone with me the entire time and walked me through every step. I can't say enough of about this company. Be patient if something doesn't go smoothly. Just email them directly and they will help you through any issue. We are excited for Maddisyn to learn how to save, invest and spend wisely. Maddisyn has two accounts due to two house holds, and Scott even made some wise suggestions to navigate the two accounts for all of us. Thank you, Mike and Scott!Show lessDena & Maddy
Developer Response
Thank you so much and we were more than happy to work through this misunderstanding. We will always go the extra mile for our families and we're just happy you're happy! Now that you have quick access to us, please us it anytime!Busy Kid does what they claim!!!
We got Busy Kid about 18 months ago, I think. We got it because our 14 y.o. son was not motivated to do his chores. When he could see the chores and the money accumulating when he checked them off (after doing them), he was hooked! And then when we got him the debit card he felt grown up. Our son is 16 now and he loves being able to use his allowance on the card to purchase stuff on his XBox. We love it because we can control how much he can spend; and also b/c a certain percentage of his allowance automatically goes to savings and to charity that we pre-set. If our son wants hard cash to go out with friends (before COVID), then we can digitally refund ourselves that amount from his debit card and hand him cash out of our wallet. It’s user-friendly and we all have the app and I can adjust chores, give bonuses, and change the amount the chores are worth at the drop of a hat. And,...it’s super affordable!!! Well done Mike P.!!!!Show lessFaithBerry78
Developer Response
WOW!! What a wonderful review! Thank you so much for using the app and loving what we've built. So much more coming your way soon, including some things designed for teens. Should be out by the end of the year!Fantastic App
This has been a great tool for my 11-year old. She’s doing many more chores since we’re home so much & this has been an extra motivator. Also just a nice way to track all. She loves having a debit card & loading the card. The stock buying is a great addition. I did have to way adjust down all of the amounts assigned to the various chores but it’s good you can do that. One recommendation would be to allow you to put the goal weekly allowance (we shoot to get to $11/week based on her age) and then divvy up the chores to get to that amount if they are accomplished. But, not a necessary change to make this a highly recommended app- it already is!Show lesslizinleesburg
Excellent motivator!
We have been using this app for two weeks now and the excitement of getting a card with HER name on it that she can use, ticking chores off as she completes them, payday, and choosing how to spend what she earns has not yet worn off and I don’t think it will any time soon. It’s nice that I can add as many different chores as we want on whatever days we want them done and edit/add them at any time from my phone. We can also determine the amount each chore is worth and how many times a week to do them.
My daughter is 11, and since we started using the app we have had many discussions about earning/spending/saving her money. I feel this is an invaluable tool to help me to teach her about financial responsibility. I highly recommend this app for any age kid. We have really enjoyed learning all the different ways it can be used.Show lessElfling811
Could be so much better...
Have only been using the app for about two weeks and like the overall concept. However, a few simple changes could make it so much better. I tried to reach out, but the response didn’t even address my feedback. First, there are other chore/allowance apps that have incorporated overall behavior and growth mindset goals alongside chores. The ability to reward for positive behavior and remove funds for negative behavior would make this app a holistic solution. Second, the option to give cash should come BEFORE funds are taken from my bank account and transferred to the BusyKid card. It doesn’t make any sense to transfer money from my account to the card, only to turn around and transfer it back with a 2-5 day delay and a $5 fee!! This is crazy. It’s actually less expensive to double pay my child by giving him/her the cash on top of what was transferred. At least my money stays in the family vs. throwing away $5.Show lessKWT700
