Today’s children rarely withdraw cash from ATMs

While numbers of children withdrawing cash are falling, their use of bank cards to pay for purchases is increasing. Almost all children (94%) made at least one purchase with their bank card in Q2 of 2023. As they become older, they also start using the banking app more often. For example, four out of ten children in the 8-12 age bracket use it, logging in twice a week on average. For older kids (13-17 bracket), the figures are much higher: four in five kids use the banking app, with an average of around five logins a week.

Being responsible with money

More and more, money is becoming a digital concept, even for children. According to a further survey that ABN AMRO commissioned PanelWizard to conduct among over a thousand parents and carers of children in the 8-12 age bracket, more than two thirds of children have a current account of their own before they turn 13. More than half the parents/carers transfer their children’s pocket money to that account on a more or less regular basis. They want their children to learn to be responsible with money, which is why almost all of them (97%) actively instruct them on money matters. In three quarters of the cases, opening a current account for the child was an initiative of the parents/carers. More than half of the children with a savings account or current account of their own ask specific financial questions at home that go beyond inquiring about their balance, for example about how saving or borrowing works. However, behaviour is not uniform in all respects: half the people raising children set a payment limit on the current account, while the other half do not.

Financial independence

With cash being less and less relevant for the younger generation, children are also less aware of the value of money. With digital payments, it is not as visible what they are spending, and how much they have left, as it is with coins and notes. That is why ABN AMRO believes it is important to involve children in digital banking from a younger age, to teach them little by little how to become financially independent. Dutch family finance institute Nibud also highlights that children who learn financial responsibility as part of their upbringing are less likely to run into financial difficulties in later life.

Business Consultant Babet Boswinkel, an ABN AMRO expert on children and money, explains “We’re hearing from parents that they struggle to make their children understand the value of money. It’s great to see that most of the parents who responded to the survey are actively instructing their children on financial matters. It’s important for this to include being responsible with digital money too. The fact that it’s less clear with digital transactions how much is coming in and going out means it’s particularly important for parents to address this. Healthy foundations for your financial future are laid in childhood.”

To help children mature, step by step, towards financial independence, ABN AMRO offers children and parents tips and advice as well as concrete tools. For example, the bank has a partnership with money app Gimi, where children can save towards goals and learn how to handle money through games. “From talking to parents, we’ve learned that children who use Gimi start asking different questions about money matters as soon as they understand what their balance is,” Boswinkel comments. “They stop asking how much money they have in their account, and instead ask things like how to save for a new LEGO set or what chores they can do to bring their savings goal closer. It’s interesting to see how they become more thoughtful when talking about money matters once they start practising with real money.”

* For this analysis, ABN AMRO used fully anonymised and aggregated data from the second quarters of 2021, 2022 and 2023. Numbers are based on active users of current accounts who made a payment, logged into their digital banking environment or withdrew cash from an ATM at least once during Q2 of 2022 and 2023.