Best Venmo Alternatives for Teens - What Are the Options Under 18? - YouTube

Last week, my 15-year-old neighbor watched my dog  while I was out of town. When I asked him how I  

could pay him, I was surprised when he said that I  only had the options of cash or I could Venmo his  

mom. I figured there had to be some better options  for a teen to manage their money. He really wanted  

a way where people could pay him for pet sitting  that he could also use to buy Chipotle or ice  

cream when he went out with his friends. Venmo  is very clear that you need to be 18 or you're  

gonna get kicked off if you lie about your age.  My neighbor even had a story about a friend who  

did lie about his age to get a Venmo account,  someone tried to send him a hundred dollars,  

and when he tried to get verified he couldn't  and he ended up losing the hundred dollars.  

Don't mess around with lying about your age on  Venmo. It's not worth it. I checked out all the  

other money and payment apps and unfortunately  they all have exactly the same rules.  

So all of them say you have to be 18 or over and  this includes Cash app, Apple Cash, Google Pay,  

Snap Cash, Facebook Payments and Paypal. There  is no way for anyone under 18 to use any of those  

apps. Thankfully I did find one exception that is  intended for teenagers. The Step app works like  

Venmo but it also has a Visa card that you can  use to spend your money. When a teenager signs  

up for the Step app, if they're under 18 they  have to have a sponsor and that's an adult who's  

responsible for their account. I actually signed  up my daughter and I for the Step app we're going  

to check it out and I'll make a full review of  the Step app soon and I'll include the link here  

when it's done. If you want to check out the Step  app for yourself, I'm going to include my referral  

link down below. If you use it, we both get five  dollars in our accounts. So what are some of the  

pros of the Step app? It's really easy to use,  you can send and receive money from other people,  

and you also get that Visa card that you  can use to spend the money in your account  

and the Visa card that comes with it is actually a  secured credit card, not a debit card. So the way  

that works is you can't spend more money than is  in your account, so there's no interest there's no  

debt involved in it, but whenever you use it,  you're actually building up a credit history,  

which can be a really good thing for a teenager.  There are definitely some negatives to the Step  

app though. It does require other people to  have that app to be able to send you money.  

Probably the people that he's pet sitting for  are not gonna have the Step app already and  

they might not be too excited about signing up  for a new app. As a teenager you're also limited  

on the ways you can get money into the app. You  can link a debit card, a bank account, or other  

apps like Venmo and Paypal with it, but someone  under 18 probably doesn't have those things.  

Unfortunately you can't deposit checks or cash  into the Step account. There is one other app that  

might be a good option for my teenage neighbor and  that's Zelle. Now if you download the Zelle app  

directly, it says you have to be over 18 but most  people use Zelle through their mobile banking app  

and that is dictated by the rules of the  bank itself. Now in the US, the rules vary  

a little bit state to state, but in general you  do have to be 18 years old to have a bank account  

but there are a few banks that allow teenagers to  have accounts that are joint with an adult. Sometimes the  

adult on the account has to be the legal parent  or guardian of the child but sometimes it can  

be any responsible adult. I'm working on another  video about best bank accounts for teenagers but  

I did find three good ones that had bank accounts  for ages 13 and up that also allowed the use of  

Zelle for ages 13 and up and that is Capital One  Money account, the Chase Bank High School Checking  

Account and the Wells Fargo Clear Access Account.  I'll go a lot more into detail about the pros and  

cons of these different accounts in my other video  but these could be some really good options for a  

teenager who's looking for a way to transfer  money back and forth with Zelle. All right,  

so let's talk about some advantages of using  Zelle. Well, many people already have it because  

it's in their mobile banking app even if they  don't realize it's already there for them. Another  

advantage to using Zelle is that to get it, you'd  have to get a regular bank account which comes  

with lots of other advantages too. You're probably  going to get a debit card, mobile banking,  

access to ATMs and all those other good banking  services. Some disadvantages to using Zelle. Well  

it's not as commonly used as Venmo but you can't  use Venmo if you're under 18. If you're signing  

up for a bank account, there could also be some  fees associated with maintaining that bank account  

and if you use the Step app there are zero fees  whatsoever with it. So for my teen with his pet  

sitting business, I think either of these options  could work although I don't think either one is  

completely perfect. A bank account with Zelle  would allow most people to be able to pay him  

because they probably already have access to it  but a Step account could also be really useful.  

He could use it to build credit and it could be an  easy way for him to send money back and forth with  

other teenagers. Another nice advantage of the  Step app is that his mom could link her Venmo with  

it so if one of his pet sitting clients pays her  Venmo she can make a quick transfer from her Venmo  

into his Step account and he could use his card  to spend that money at Chipotle. When my complete  

review of the Step app is up, I'm gonna include the  link right here so definitely check that out next.