FinTech OnePay Launches Teen-Focused Banking Program

Walmart-backed consumer FinTech OnePay is now offering banking for families and teenagers.

The company’s new banking program for children ages 13 to 17 features savings, checking, investing and credit builder services, according to a Monday (Sept. 21) news release. It’s part of OnePay’s vision for children to reach adulthood with a 700 credit score, $1,000 in savings and five years of investing experience.

“A lot of people turn 18 with no credit history, next to no savings, and no idea how to invest or what to invest in,” OnePay general manager Harsh Gupta said in the release. “Which means their first apartment application, car loan, phone plan, or anything else they might need in their late teens and 20s just gets all the more difficult and expensive.”

The program lets parents do things like add their teenager to OnePay Invest, letting them make investments with parental oversight, per the release.

There’s also the Builder Card, designed to establish a teenager’s credit history early, and One to One, a tool that allows money to “move inside the family, instantly and for free.”

Research by PYMNTS Intelligence shows that younger consumers increasingly see credit as a ladder, with 21.7% of Generation Z consumers viewing credit products as a way to establish a credit profile — 17.6 percentage points higher than baby boomers.

According to “Consumer Credit Economy: Strategy vs. Spontaneity, Navigating the Great Credit Divide,” 26.2% of consumers who don’t have an active credit card but want one say that building or improving their credit score is their main reason for applying. That’s ahead of the 19.1% of consumers who said they wanted a card to provide emergency funds, and the 9.5% who said they would use it for everyday expenses.

Additional research, from the report “The Credit Economy: Top-of-Wallet Credit Cards,” shows 40% of millennials and 48% of Gen Z consumers say they would use their cards more often if they could choose a repayment plan at the point of sale instead of depending on a fixed structure established at account opening.

“For issuers, the opportunity is to turn investments in AI credit into options cardholders can understand, control and use,” PYMNTS wrote recently.