From a nine-year-old buying Kindle e-books to a 15-year-old investing in a cryptocurrency — a host of fintech start-ups are helping Indian teenagers make independent transactions.
Companies like Junio, FamPay, and YPAY have launched prepaid cards for teenagers (below 18 years), which allow them to do online transactions without setting up their own bank accounts or asking their parents for bank OTPs.
Digital buy
“For all the work that I do in a week, my mom rewards me with a monetary incentive on the app.
“These could be tasks like helping her with household chores, doing well in a school test, etc,” says Rahul Dadlani, a 14-year-old from Mumbai, who has been using Junio for four months now.
Co-founded by former Paytm senior vice-president Shankar Nath and Ankit Gera, Junio is a kids-focussed smart card that lets them make digital and physical purchases.
The task-based rewards system started in the Dadlani family only after they got introduced to the Junio app. Rahul’s father Rajiv told BusinessLine: “On top of the task-based incentives, we also give bonus to our kids if they don’t splurge and are able to save a certain amount.” Till now, Rahul has managed to save about ₹4,000 and hopes to have enough to buy a new phone soon.
In addition to teaching financial literacy to children, such fintech products have also made life easier for working parents. Delhi NCR-based Surbhi Gupta, who works for a venture capital firm, says how her older son has been using a prepaid card for teen products called YPAY.
“At the beginning of the month, when I am doing all the bill payments, I simply recharge YPAY like any other digital payment. Then, for at least two weeks, I am assured that he will not nag me for online purchases.”
Pre-paid cards
Founded by Navneet Gupta, YPAY also offers prepaid cards available on its app, making it convenient for teenagers to make both online and offline payments.
Nita Chawla, a Mumbai-based entrepreneur whose son Rushil uses FamPay, is happy that she does not have to trust her teenage son with her credit-cards. “It makes my life easier because I can monitor his money transactions better. The moment you give cash to kids you don’t know what they will do with it. But, here, all the transactions are accounted for.”
FamPay was founded by two IIT-Roorkee graduates, Kush Taneja and Sambhav Jain, while they were still in campus. Like similar products, FamPay’s numberless prepaid card allows minors to make online and offline payments.