Nutty

Rooster Money

review

Is it any good?

Christopher Dowling
Christopher Dowling
Editor-in-Chief
Updated
June 13, 2024

In a nutshell

Say goodbye to old school pocket money, the future is here and it’s through an app. Your children get an income (pocket money), which they can spend or save. You can create chores for them to complete before they ‘get paid’ and from 6 years they can get a prepaid debit card. It teaches them life lessons, like money management, discipline and patience.

Nuts About Money rating

Rooster Money rated 5 stars
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Rooster Money

cracked open

Owned by Natwest, Rooster Money is a game changer if your darling babies are growing up and developing the ability to pester you to buy things when you’re out and about or think Amazon is a free toy store!

Rooster Money’s mission is to educate children about money management and the number one rule that “Money doesn’t grow on trees!”. 

How do they do that? Their app allows you to give pocket money, as a recurring amount or a one-off. Once it’s gone, it’s gone! It’s a hard lesson, but an important one to learn.

Rooster Money review

As if that wasn’t enough, you can set chores for your children to complete before they get rewarded. So it goes beyond money management and teaches them about hard work and discipline. Plus you get your house cleaned for less than minimum wage, what's not to love?! 

When we were young, all we got from Natwest was a money box that looked like a pig! Remember those? Maybe we’re just showing our age! 

Natwest pigs

But they’ve come a long way since then, with a nice app for money management. We’re sure our spending habits would have been a lot better if we had access to things like this.

For the children, it’s loads of fun, gives them the responsibility they crave, teaches them good saving and spending habits and so much more. The older kids can have their own debit card too (with spending limits of course). 

And for the parents, you have complete control over your kids spending (even reward them in stars). It’s easy to use, and you never have to worry about having enough cash for pocket money ever again. 

The app is excellent, rated 4.7 on the App Store (it even won “App of the day”) and 4.4 on Google Play. 

Rooster Money app ratings

If you’ve heard enough, and want to sign up, visit Rooster Money¹ today. If not, let's dive a little deeper. 

Download Rooster Money for free

Teach your children life lessons, like money management, discipline and patience with this great app.

Visit Rooster Money¹Visit Rooster Money¹

What age range is Rooster Money for?

The Rooster app is for children aged 3 to 17. Although they will need to be at least 6 before they can get their little hands on a prepaid debit card. 

From 3 they can get rewarded in ‘Stars’ and you can even give them chores, poor things! You’ll also get access to the “Virtual Money Tracker” (more on this later). And from 6 they can get a debit card (if you decide they’re ready for one). They grow up so fast! 

With the lack of financial education out there it’s great to see Natwest educating children. Bravo Natwest!

How Rooster Money works

Simply sign up on their website or download the app on Apple or Google. Complete a sign up form with your personal details, you know the drill, Name, Email Password... And choose a currency. This could be Pounds, Euros, Dollars or even Stars. 

Once you’ve logged in, the app is super easy to use. Add your child (or children), you’ll need their name, date of birth and gender. And play about with the settings, things like adding pocket money, how often they receive it and spending limits.  

Rooster Money app

Select your child's account and you’ll see several big circles called pots. 

  • Spend pot – How much your child has to spend (similar to your bank account balance). 
  • Save pot – How much your child has saved (similar to your savings account). 
  • Give pot  – How much your child has given to charity. 
  • Goal pots – Create pots for big ticket items, things like saving for a remote control car. 
Rooster Money pots

And just like a real bank account they can see how much they have and they can even transfer money between the different pots. This can be done on your phone or theirs (if they have one and you give them access). 

Then, if you want the extra features upgrade to a paid plan (more on these below). 

Rooster Money features

Rooster Money is full of features to help your kids learn about money management and discipline. Here’s a list of some of the best features:

Virtual Money Tracker

Keep track of pocket money and spending. Add weekly allowances, give them extra (called Boosts) for things like good behaviour or completed chores. 

Rooster Money boosts

Apple and Google apps

It’s all managed on an easy to use app. If your child has their own phone you can give them access so that they can view their pocket money and chores without needing to look at your phone. Obviously they wont have admin access and can’t give themselves pocket money!

The Rooster Debit Card

On the paid plan and for ages 6 years+. Allow your child to have their very own debit card to spend online, in-store and even get cash out of ATMs. You can set restrictions too. 

Rooster Money debit card

Parental control

Set spending limits on how much they can spend and where they can spend it (online, in-store or cash from an ATM). Get real-time notifications when they spend. 

Chore Manager

Set recurring chores to be completed before they receive their pocket money. Add extra one-off chores that rewards them with extra pocket money. It’s a win-win.

Rooster Money chores

Money management

Children will intuitively learn money management in a fun and engaging way. They can learn all the basics of how to manage their finances from a very young age.  

Educational resources 

There’s loads of educational resources like a great ‘Money Matters Course’, and even financial education for adults. 

Rooster Money resources

Additional features

  • Multiple children on one account 
  • Set an interest rate on their savings
  • Set regular outgoings (teach them about bills)
  • Freeze card
  • No overdraft, they can’t spend what they don’t have! (not an additional feature but very important!)

How much is Rooster Money?

There’s 3 plans to choose from, and we think they’re worth their weight in gold. 

Virtual tracker - Free

  • Ages 3+. 
  • Track pocket money virtually – you don’t actually add real money to the app, it’s just  virtual, meaning you’ll have to give your kids their pocket money outside of the app. 
  • Automate their allowance (for instance add £5, or 5 stars every week).
  • Spend, Save, Give and create Goal pots.

Rooster Plus - £0.99 / month

  • All of the above.
  • Manage chores (a game changer feature).
  • Set interest rates for savings like in the real world, be generous! 
  • Add unlimited guardians (like mum and dad).
Rooster Money Plus

Rooster Card – £19.99 / year or £1.99 / month

  • Ages 6+. 
  • All of the above.
  • Plus use 'real money'
  • Prepaid debit card
  • Flexible debit card controls for the parents
  • Account number and sort code

For a full range of features visit the Rooster Money website¹.

Customer support

Their customer service is pretty great. 

There’s a great Help and Support section on the app, it has answers to pretty much every question you might have. If not, you can chat to them online via their website or app, they normally reply within a few hours. 

Rooster Money customer support

If you want to email them that’s possible too but the replies will tend to be slower. 

Is Rooster Money safe?

Yep! They are authorised and regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which means they have been approved and are trusted to look after and protect your money.

Rooster Money - Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)

Rooster Money customer reviews

Parents and children love it!

It’s rated 4.7 out of 5 on the popular review site Trustpilot. They have over 900 reviews and it seems to be gaining popularity, and we can see why. 

Rooster Money Trustpilot rating

Most parents seem to love the independence it gives their children, and helping them to learn about money. They also mention how easy the app is to use and love the idea of the app. 

Our thoughts

We’re here to help educate people about finance. And Rooster Money is doing the same, but for children, as young as 3! So of course we think it’s great. 

Not only is the app super simple to use, children love it. Who would have thought an app could make your children do their chores and teach them money management.

For the parents, it’s a real game changer. You have complete control of your kids' spending while allowing them to feel independent, something they all crave. Having grown up children that have an understanding of money will be a big relief. 

It’s a massive 5 stars and we hope it keeps gaining popularity. Children deserve to be educated about finance, not just about the normal subjects like English, Maths and Science. 

It’s really important to learn money management and Rooster Money provides this in a fun and engaging way. 

If you’re ready to sign up visit the Rooster Money website¹. 

Download Rooster Money for free

Teach your children life lessons, like money management, discipline and patience with this great app.

Visit Rooster Money¹Visit Rooster Money¹

Download Rooster Money for free

Teach your children life lessons, like money management, discipline and patience with this great app.

Visit Rooster Money¹Visit Rooster Money¹

Download Rooster Money for free

Teach your children life lessons, like money management, discipline and patience with this great app.

Visit Rooster Money¹Visit Rooster Money¹

Written by

Christopher Dowling
Editor-in-Chief

Christopher Dowling combines a communications degree with over 10 years experience in the financial services industry in London – with focus on educating people on a wide range of money topics in an easy to understand way. He writes about savings, investing, pensions, mortgages, insurance, banking, loans, business finance and other money topics.

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Download Rooster Money for free

Teach your children life lessons, like money management, discipline and patience with this great app.

Visit Rooster Money¹Visit Rooster Money¹

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