Best Kids and Teen Bank Accounts

Kids and teen accounts at a glance

Best bank accounts for kids under 13

Under 13, the choice is really about the parent. Chase First Banking starts at age 6 with true per-category spending limits, free, but requires the parent to hold a qualifying Chase checking account. Capital One MONEY opens at age 8, needs no relationship with Capital One at all, and can be funded from any bank, which makes it the default free pick for everyone else. Greenlight has no age minimum and adds chores, allowance automation, and savings rewards the free accounts skip, if the $5.99 a month earns its keep in your house. Acorns Early opens at 6 and is the only pick that bundles a custodial investment account. Step, Axos, and Fidelity are off the table until 13.

Best bank accounts for a 13-year-old

Thirteen is the age everything unlocks. Step becomes available and starts building real credit history, reporting to all three bureaus, so an account opened at 13 can carry up to five years of history by 18 and then keep compounding. Axos First Checking and the Fidelity Youth Account both open at 13, and Capital One MONEY adds parent-controlled Zelle. The strongest free setup for a new teen is a MONEY or Axos account for everyday money plus a Step card for the credit file, and a Fidelity Youth Account the moment they ask how stocks work.

Best bank accounts for 16- and 17-year-olds

At 16 or 17 the account has one more job: handle a real paycheck. Every account here supports direct deposit, and Step sweetens it, with $300 or more a month in direct deposits (or $500 in card spend) waiving the Step Black fee, which adds the 3% savings reward and boosted cashback. Axos First Checking fits paycheck teens with up to $12 a month in ATM fee reimbursements and hard daily limits. Think about age 18 now, too: Capital One MONEY and Step both continue seamlessly into adulthood, while Axos First Checking is a 13-17 product and Chase expects graduation into its high school and college accounts. A 17-year-old opening a first account today should pick one that will not need replacing in a year.

Savings accounts for kids: where the yield actually is

None of the free kids' checking accounts pay meaningful interest; Capital One MONEY and Axos both pay 0.10%. The real yield lives in two places. Greenlight's savings reward pays 2% to 6% depending on plan, but only on the first $5,000 per family, so it is a teaching tool rather than a place to park a college fund. Step Black's 3% reward works the same way. For a larger balance, open a custodial or joint high-yield savings account at a bank from our best high-yield savings list, where a 4% rate applies to the whole balance, and use the kids' account only for spending money.

Who should skip each pick

Skip Greenlight if you will not use the chores, controls, and investing features; a free MONEY account plus a Step card covers a teenager's actual needs for $0. Skip Capital One MONEY if your child is under 8 or you want spending controls by store category, which it lacks. Skip Step if the teen has no income and no interest in credit yet, since the free tier's main advantage is the credit file. Skip Chase First Banking unless a parent already banks at Chase, and skip Axos if the teen will turn 18 within a year, because the account does not continue. Skip the Fidelity Youth Account if you are not comfortable with a teen placing trades without your approval.

Common Questions

Head-to-Head Comparisons

Torn between two picks? We break these matchups down dimension by dimension.