Banking apps make your life easier, and they are safe to use. We love the fintech app Current.com for anyone looking to bank smart, and for parents who want to let their kids inch toward financial independence, it can’t be beat.
- Anyone who wants to pay fast and manage money well
- Practical learners of all ages looking to control budgets while boosting financial literacy
- Teenagers and any parent who wants to guide their teen’s money management
- Teenager account with unobtrusive parental monitoring
- No overdrafts or hidden fees
- Insightful budget categories
- Early two-day access to paycheck direct deposit (with Premium)
- Individual accounts only
- No option for paper checks
Current.com Ratings at a Glance
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Banking apps are where it’s at today, and Current.com is one of the best. You can create and use a Current.com Visa debit card for yourself, but the real gem of this app is the linked individual accounts for your kids. Each child has his or her own account that you can fund and control. Your child’s work paycheck can be direct-deposited as well, and Current.com’s tutorials and features let kids buy, pay, send money, set savings and charity goals, and learn budget basics.
Current.com lives up to its tagline, Banking for Modern Life. Sign up for a card in minutes, find it in your mailbox a week later, and start spending. Benefits include no minimum balance requirement, ways to get to points from purchases and get cash back, fee-free ATMs everywhere, immediate gas-hold removals at the pump and instant, no-fee money transfers with Current Pay. Plus, Current.com supports Google Pay.
You can block transactions when you need to and count on the security of an EMV chip on each debit card. Prime subscribers can customize the look of their debit cards. Their newsletter provides updates on what’s going on at Current and in the financial world.
Fun fact: Current.com was the first fintech in the country to receive and immediately credit account holders with the second round of government stimulus payment money. Current’s founder Stuart Sopp underscored the importance of getting that money out to desperate Americans because “nearly two thirds of the stimulus funds were spent within five days in April.”
Current.com delivers reliable service as a debit card for you and for your teens that you can monitor and control. It works well for co-parenting families because more than one adult can monitor a juvenile user. In addition to no fees or overdrafts, Current.com lets users budget via standard spending categories, set up specific savings pods, and designate funds for any charity they wish to support.
The basic parental Current.com account offers:
- No annual fees
- No minimum balance fees
- No in-network ATM fees
- No bank transfer fees
Student accounts are also available that allow parents to teach their children about money, savings and more.
Current.com works diligently to resolve customer experience issues. However, as with many app-based customer service departments, it can sometimes be difficult to reach an actual person. Additionally, some of the documentation required to set up and verify an account can be overwhelming to teens and parents working to set up the card or verify potential card fraud.
More than anything, Current.com is designed to be used in action. Its app is readily accessible and its purchasing power lets users pay seamlessly for needs and wants. No more frantic calls from your high-schooler stranded at the gas station, late for a soccer game and unable to cover gas costs for an empty tank, necessitating your hurried departure from work to fix the problem. The mobile app works well with Iphone and Android.
Ease of use with zero technology glitches marks the high point of a customer’s experience with pay apps, and Current.com delivers on all counts. Reliable purchasing power for you - and for your teen but controlled by you - makes everyone’s life easier every day. And anything that works right every time gets a collective family high five.
No worries about overdrafts or surprise fees makes Current.com a preferred go-to for money management. We love the ability for parents to create chore payment pods or teens to arrange specific saving or gifting goals. In-the-background parental monitoring means that teens build money-savvy with fewer annoying parent lectures and side-eyes.
If your teen would like to donate to a charity, they can set a goal and once that goal is achieved, their donation will be sent to the charity of their choice. So many young people care deeply about important issues, and with a Current.com card, they can make a tangible difference.
A Current.com review wouldn’t be complete without verifiable reassurance that this banking app takes cyber security as its highest priority. Its levels of encryption protect your data in-transit and at-rest.
You and your kids can’t go wrong with the Current.com banking app. An effective tool like this lets family financial efficiency notch itself higher. The end result of more control of your money is … more money.
Current.com vs Competitors
Other banking apps crowd the market, but few offer the benefit of parental linking of teenager’s accounts. When you choose a banking app, you want to be able to see balances, make payments, and receive money on the go. You are looking for user-friendly, seamless access with no tech glitches and tight cyber security protections. If you have a problem that can’t be revolved online or via a chat system, you want to be able to talk to a real person.
Most of Current.com’s competitors offer the same overdraft protection, transparency of their fee structure, many free ATMs, and early paycheck programs. Current.com lets you give your kids the hands-on training that will mean financial freedom earlier in their young lives.
Current.com Tutorial
Current.com is intuitively user-friendly, but you can learn more about account creation and management on YouTube or on the Current.com site.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Current a good bank?
Current.com is not technically a bank, although it provides services similar to a bank. Current.com is a part of a growing financial sector in the financial technology or fintech category. The line between banks and fintech firms is blurring as fintech gains traction. You want to make sure that the fintech company you choose will protect your money in the case of fraud or the bankruptcy of the organization.
Customer money in a normal bank is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), “an independent agency created by the Congress to maintain stability and public confidence in the nation’s financial system; it insures deposits and examines and supervises financial institutions for safety, soundness, and consumer protection.”
Current.com provides FDIC insurance to their customers by partnering with the Choice Financial Group bank to insure your deposits with Current are entitled to up to $250,000 of pass-through deposit insurance coverage from the FDIC through their issuing bank. Other competitors may not offer the same kind of security.
Just because the website says “FDIC-insured,” you still want to verify that claim. Ask the company that is the custodian of your money how and when your funds are deposited into an FDIC-insured bank and what the name of the specific FDIC-insured bank is.
Is Current a good debit card?
Current.com is a reliable debit card for users of all ages, but its accounts for young people give it high value for busy families. Today’s teenagers aren’t messing around when it comes to making money. Many high-schoolers have wage-paying jobs; others have side hustles or entrepreneurial gigs that bring in the dollars. If you or your teen are making money, you are also interested in managing what you make so that you can do more with it. Current.com’s debit card lets you do that with ease and no hassle.
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About Kathryn Hauer, CFP®
Kathy is an expert in finance (personal, corporate), financial planning, financial literacy, tax preparation and laws, saving and investing, retirement, insurance, careers, college education planning and financing, cannabis, gig economy, forming and running a business, credit and debt issues, blue-collar workers, and military issues. She has a strong interest in crypto, DeFi, FinTech, InsureTech, AgTech.