Too many payment methods for schoolkids to keep track of their finances

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School-going teenagers can choose between so many different payment methods that they struggle to keep track of their finances. This finding was revealed by a study entitled ‘Payment habits among schoolkids’ (Betaalgedrag scholieren), conducted by Dutch family finance awareness institute Nibud in partnership with ABN AMRO among nearly 1600 secondary school students. The details of their financial situation are often distorted by unpaid payment requests, purchases waiting to be returned to the seller and Buy Now Pay Later arrangements. “Schoolkids can lose control of their finances, thinking that they have less or more money than is actually the case,” explains Nibud director Arjan Vliegenthart. “It’s important for young people to learn how to organise their finances before they turn 18. Money will become an even greater part of life when they are adults, when it will be their own responsibility to stay out of financial trouble.”

Keeping track

Schoolkids nowadays check their bank balance more often than they did five years ago, with 66 percent checking every week against only half the surveyed teenagers in 2020. They are also more likely to use their banking app to keep track of their incoming and outgoing payments. However, the amounts that are debited and credited do not always show the entire picture. For example, only 43 percent of the respondents could say how much cash they had. They might have sent or received payment requests that are still waiting to be paid, they might have an outstanding bill for an online purchase, or they might instead be refunded for a purchase that they plan to return to the seller. If they have any actual cash, this is often also not included in the overview.

Babet Boswinkel, who works for ABN AMRO as an expert on youth and finance, comments, “Our interviews with kids also showed that many of them are unaware of how much they spend on drinks and snacks while they’re out and about. They felt that having that information would help them to be more responsible with money.”

“Yes, sometimes I see how much I spend at the supermarket, and it’s like, if you see it, you think: wow, I should start keeping an eye on that.”

BNPL

School-going teenagers use virtually every single commonly used payment method. For example, 13 percent make free use of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) arrangements. Although officially the minimum age is 18, no age verification checks are in place. BNPL can lead to payment problems: nearly a quarter of users have missed at least one payment deadline. More than half of them are unaware of the minimum age for BNPL.

“Oh, I just created an account. I had no idea that you had to be 18 or older.”

“To me, [Klarna] isn’t really borrowing. You get the product. You haven’t paid for it yet, so to me that isn’t really borrowing.”

Payment requests

Tikkie and other payment request systems are also popular. Three quarters of teenagers use them, sending an average of around twenty requests each month. A third of them mentioned that not all requests are paid, and another third have difficulty staying on top of the requests. Here, too, banks can help them keep track. “Kids are growing up in a world where digital payments are the default,” Babet Boswinkel continues. “Even so, their financial education often begins with coins and bank notes. Showing them their finances in a digital environment at an early age, and offering smart tools to support this, helps them to grow up with the financial skills and self-assurance they need.”

“I’ll sometimes get a Tikkie out of the blue, and I don’t keep track of how much I spent, because I’ve forgotten by then.”

Making money last

More than half the surveyed teenagers sometimes run out of money. This has not changed since 2020. What has changed is that nowadays schoolkids are more likely to ask their parents for more money, or to ask friends to lend them some. It is as important as ever to teach children to handle a budget that is not unlimited. Arjan Vliegenthart explains, “It really is vital for kids to learn ‘when it’s gone, it’s gone’ as part of their financial education. It forces you to make choices and teaches you how to make your money last.” However, Nibud finds that slightly fewer schoolkids are paid pocket money, and that the numbers with a clothing allowance have gone down sharply. Nibud urges parents to give their school-going teenagers a budget of their own. Both forms of allowance are perfect tools to learn how to manage money. When it comes to handling money, the finding from earlier studies is still very much true: habits learned at a young age stay with a person for life.

Background to the study

The study was conducted in two parts: a preliminary exploratory phase, using two focus groups, and a survey among school-going teenagers aged 12 to 18. In total, 1546 schoolkids were asked to fill out an online survey about their payment practices. They were contacted by Dynata between 15 November and 15 December 2024. The respondents were aged 12 to 18, and enrolled at VMBO, HAVO and VWO secondary schools. The random sample was representative in terms of age, gender and province of the Netherlands.