I Tried the Step App with My Teen - Here's What You NEED TO KNOW - YouTube

I had seen some ads for the Step app and I've  heard it's been advertised all over TikTok. It  

seemed a little too good to be true and I was  wondering - What is the catch? So my daughter  

and I tried out the Step app and we're going to  tell you what we really thought of it. The Step  

app is kind of a lot of things combined. It's  an app that's a lot like Venmo that allows you  

to send money back and forth between people and it  comes with a Visa card that actually builds credit  

and the Step app is intended for teenagers. They can use it as young as age 13. If they're  

under 18, they do need a sponsor which can be any  responsible adult connected to their account. I'm  

a mom of a teenager and I want to teach my kids  about money so I was really excited to try this  

out and my daughter was really excited to have her  very own Visa card. By the way, if you want to try  

this Step app yourself, be sure to use my referral  link down below because you'll get five dollars  

free if you use my link. So setting up the Step  account was super easy and I set it up myself and  

then invited my daughter to add it to her phone.  Teens can also start the process themselves and  

then they can invite an adult to be their sponsor  after they've already signed up. To set up the  

Step app, you just have to have a phone number  that you verify, your legal first and last name,  

birth date - and make sure you're using the  correct birth date, and you also need your  

email address and your mailing address. If you're  over 18, you're also going to need the last four  

of your social security number but don't worry.  They do not run a credit check. After that,  

you get to pick the color of your card, which is  really fun. I picked pink my daughter picked blue  

and then you get to sign it in the app and then  they print that signature right on the back of  

the card. If you use the referral program,  you'll get the five dollars right away,  

after you finish this step. After I got set up,  the first thing I did was add a bank account.  

It links using the plaid app, which is totally  secure so it's a really good way to do it, but if  

you transfer money with a bank account it's really  slow. It takes a few days. So after I realized how  

slow it was, I also linked a debit card from that  same bank account and when you use a debit card,  

it pulls the money immediately and it's straight  into your Step account. I also used the app to set  

up a monthly allowance for her and it'll pull from  my debit card and put it right into her account  

every month. My daughter and I tried sending  money back and forth to each other and it was  

super easy. She thought it was a lot of fun and  if you sync up your contacts, it's really easy to  

send and receive money from anybody. If they don't  have the app, they'll just be prompted to get it  

when you send them a message. There's also options  in there to link other apps like Venmo and Paypal  

or you can also set up direct deposits of  paychecks and you can also set it up to work  

with Google pay and Apple pay. Unfortunately,  there is not a way to deposit checks or add cash  

directly into it but that is a feature they're  saying is coming soon. When you sign up you also  

get a virtual card which is a separate credit  card number from your physical card and you  

can use that with Google or Apple pay or to shop  online and the advantage of the virtual card is if  

anything ever happens to it, you can lock it, you  can immediately request a new number, and they'll  

just replace your number, so it's a lot easier than  waiting for a new physical card. After we signed  

up they said they were gonna send our cards within  three weeks but it took exactly a week and they  

showed up in the mail. When we got our cards, we  were super excited to try it out and try spending  

some money. I tried mine first at the grocery  store. It was really easy. It worked just like any  

other credit card. Now if you're asked when you  check out. If you're asked credit or debit, you're  

supposed to choose credit. It didn't ask me when  I used it at the grocery store though and as I  

was walking out of the store, I got a notification  right away on my phone that said I had spent money  

from my Step account. My daughter tried hers next  at Target and she also had a really easy time,  

even though she'd not really used a card of her  own before. She got a notification right away  

that said she had spent money at Target. I was  waiting for a notification to come through on  

my phone but I didn't get one. I wasn't sure if I  was supposed to get a notification. We decided to  

try hers at the grocery store and once again she  got a notification on her phone and I did not.  

So if I logged in, I could see what she spent  at what stores but it was not giving me a pop-up  

notification for that and I did not see anywhere  I could turn that on. Now if I log in, I could see  

what where she had shopped, so I could see she had  a transaction at Target and she had a transaction  

at the grocery store but I can't see exactly  what she bought. I can just see where she was  

shopping. So next up, we wanted to try ATMs. With  Step, you can currently use ATMs for withdrawing  

cash only. You can't make deposits but that's  something they said is possibly coming soon.  

I knew there was an ATM finder in the app, but I  was having trouble figuring out where it was. I'll  

give you the steps to find it. You have to click  on manage card, then select your physical card,  

then click ATM info. and then click find a no fee  ATM. It'll automatically bring up a list of no fee  

ATMs based on your location. For me, it was mostly  Target stores and there was a medical center and a  

college listed there, but I figured out a trick to  find more ATMs. If you uncheck the box that says  

"Plus Alliance ATMs only", it'll give you a list  of way more ATMs including lots of major banks. So  

first up I wanted to try one of those no fee ATMs  and I tried the Target one. Worked great. I got  

$20 out. No problems. Then I wanted to try one of  the regular bank ones so I tried out a US bank ATM  

and when I went into the ATM, it gave me a message  that I was going to get a $3.50 fee. I had seen in  

the Step app that they said they would reimburse  ATM fees but I wasn't really sure about that,  

but I decided to give it a try for you guys.  Oh I also forgot that in the app it said that  

I should choose credit card when I'm using an  ATM. I chose checking and it still worked fine.  

Because it had that ATM fee, I was withdrawing  twenty dollars but it charged my account $23.50,  

but in the Step app I could see that it was saying  I will be reimbursed for the fee within 24 hours  

and it was exactly 24 hours later that I got a  deposit of $3.50 from Step, so it totally worked.  

I also wanted to try out the referral program,  so I referred my husband by sending him a text  

message. He was able to sign up and be ready to go  in about two minutes and we each got five dollars  

totally instantly. It was really pretty cool.  Even though I'm my daughter's official sponsor,  

my husband is also able to send and receive money  with her and he can send and receive money with me  

too. So here are some of the pros that I see with  the Step app. I like that it's actually a real  

FDIC-insured bank so you know your money is safe  in there. It's actually from Evolve Bank and Trust  

is the name and they've been around for decades.  I also like that the Step app builds credit for  

your teenager. The way this works is the Visa card  is actually a secured credit card and that means  

it's a credit card but you cannot spend more than  is in your account so there's no way that you can  

overspend or have interest and I want to check on  how this actually works for my daughter. Being 13,  

she doesn't have a credit report but I'm going to  try pulling her credit report in a month or two  

to see if it actually is building credit for her  but I suspect it really will. I really like that  

the Step app has no fees of any kind. There are no  overdraft fees. There's no interest. Really and truly  

nothing. And I really like that you can get money  at ATMs and that they even reimburse fees on those  

ATMs that have fees. I think it's pretty cool you  can do direct deposit too. I'm thinking when my  

daughter gets a job in a few years that might be  kind of a fun way for her to be able to manage  

her paycheck. I also like being able to send  money to her and I can also monitor her spending  

in there. The biggest thing I like though is it  allows her to use a card instead of always cash  

in person and she's able to shop online and be  a lot more independent. The biggest disadvantage  

I see as a Step app right now is that there is  no way to deposit checks or cash, but as I said  

that's something they're saying they're going to  do soon. The only way you could get checks or cash  

into it is to deposit them into a regular bank  account and then transfer them into the Step app.  

Another disadvantage to the Step app is there  aren't really parental controls. I don't even  

get notified when she spends money. I can see  where she has spent money but that's about it.  

I feel like my daughter is pretty responsible  though so I don't really have a problem with  

this but I think some parents might be bothered  by the lack of controls. So how about my original  

question of like what's the catch? I was kind of  wondering, how do they make money? Well they make  

money anytime you use the Visa card at a store  and that store is going to pay a percentage fee  

when you use the card, just like any other Visa  card and that's how they make money, but that  

doesn't cost you anything as the consumer, and  Step says they're very committed to never having  

any fees of any kind on their accounts. I asked  my teenage daughter if she would recommend the  

Step account and she said absolutely and I agree  with her. I think it's pretty great and I would  

definitely recommend it to our friends. Now if  you want to try it yourself, make sure you use  

that referral link down below and you'll get  five dollars free. Next up, check out my video  

about alternatives to Venmo for teenagers.  I'm gonna put the link right here for you.