Payment card for travel and children

Jolita’s family from “Traveling with children” has been using the myTU mobile banking and myTU payment cards for almost a year now. Jolita shares her experiences and insights with those of her children, Greta and Oskar, a payment card for a child and a card for travel turned out to be the most suitable.

myTU payment card – fast and secure mobile banking without monthly or annual service fees. This is a really noteworthy payment card for travel and children!

Payment card for travel and for children – myTU cards in our family

We ordered myTU cards almost a year ago, in September. And we were encouraged to order them by the fact that we talked with my husband all last summer. We talked about children needing their own accounts and payment cards.

Our Oskar is eight and Greta is nine. We will tell you one of the main reasons why we became interested payment cards for children. We wanted them to be able to save, spend and receive monetary gifts from their relatives. We also really wanted the children to have the opportunity to experience the “empty” card, “no money” and “I spent everything” situations for themselves. It’s really hard for children to understand how much money their parents have in the bank and why they can’t spend as much as they want.

We chose myTU for several reasons:

• Both adult and child accounts are free to open, with no annual or monthly account fees.
• Basic payment services with myTU mobile banking are free.
• Payment cards and their sending are also free of charge.
• There are no hidden fees. Read more about it on the myTU page.
• myTU application turned out to be very child-friendly.
• myTU payment cards using it for payments in other countries is particularly convenient and offers many advantages over other payment and bank cards we know.

Ordering a myTU payment card for travel and children

You will only take out cards for children if you have one of the adult family members myTU account. The reviews of myTU were good and seeing the benefits offered, we ordered the cards as a family of four.

Children have already participated in the ordering process, we highly recommend it, and it is necessary anyway. Prepare for it in advance. We talked about why we order cards, let us choose the color of the card, and together we filled out the card order form.

The child must be present – it will be necessary to take a photo of the child when filling out the form. We faced a long process, I hope this problem has already been solved, because taking pictures and face identification was a bit tiring for the children – it had to be repeated many times. At this time, as far as we know, this action has been abandoned.

It is convenient that both you and your child’s accounts are opened “on-line” from your mobile phone, you don’t need to go anywhere. The ordered card arrives directly at the address specified by you. It didn’t even come to Lithuania for us. Only one in four got lost while traveling, however the myTU Help Center resolved it quickly and free of charge by sending a second card.

You should also know that when ordering a card for children a mobile phone and a separate number are required, so if your child does not have a mobile phone, you will have to turn your head like we did – we used our work mobile numbers, because our children did not have mobile phones when ordering the cards.

Payment card for a child and its functions

After opening a myTU payment account for your child, you will be able to monitor their financial activities, top up your account instantly and manage basic settings.

myTU card features:

• Child card locking/unlocking.Kid forgot where he left his wallet? LOCK or UNLOCK your child’s card in your app in seconds.
• Real-time notifications about actions in the child’s payment account.Receive instant notifications of every activity on your child’s payment account and always have peace of mind.
• Managing child’s payment account features.Manage the features of your child’s payment account according to their age and knowledge: enable/disable ATM cash withdrawals, card payments or online payments.
• Limits for the child’s payment account.Set limits for your child’s account. If you want to make a more expensive purchase, you will have to consult with your parents and get permission.
• Payment account blocking.Have you noticed suspicious activity on your child’s payment account? Instantly block your child’s payment account.
• Automatic payment of per diems– determine the daily allowance adapted to the personal needs of each child. Just select the desired frequency and amount, confirm, and our system will take care of everything else.

Children will receive their first payment card and many convenient everyday functions of the app, which will safely teach financial literacy. In our opinion, the child’s age is suggested by myTU– from the age of 7 it is suitable to start learning about money, virtual money, and for children to have their own cards.

myTU payment cards and what our children liked

• App suitable for children. Children created their own avatars – photos in the application. It was a whole separate fun process.
• Easy to use and safe application. Although the parents control the basic settings and monitor the child’s financial activities from their phone, the child feels quite independent when he can see all the information in his application.
• Parental control. Yes yes, our children are already checking whether they have received daily allowances and other promised monetary gifts. By the way, for our convenience, parents can set the daily allowance to be paid without additional clicks – automatically.
• Money for a dream purchase – you can create a separate fund, set aside money for the realization of your dream. And if you have more dreams, you can create as many as you need and save separately for each goal.
• And of course a gift from myTU – first money to their cards!

myTU Payment Card for Traveling

We use myTU when traveling. Advantages and discoveries:

• We can withdraw up to 200 EUR for free, and withdrawing money in local currency at an ATM is cheaper than exchanging euros at the airport.
• When paying abroad, we always choose “pay in local currency”. When we are asked whether we want to pay in euros or local currency when withdrawing cash or paying with a payment card – we always choose to pay in local currency to avoid additional currency conversion fees!

myTU Security Features

There are security features, too:

• There are no additional fees when paying with a myTU card for not paying in euros (as other traditional banks usually do). Standard exchange rates apply to non-euro card payments.
• We can always lock the card if we can’t find it – because if the card is lost or stolen, after locking itin the myTU mobile appwe guarantee that it will not be used. You can do this by going to the card settings window and tapping on “Lock Card”. Locking the card takes just a few seconds.
• If we go to a market or other large gathering of people and any other public place where there is a possibility of theft, we temporarily disable card payments or cash withdrawals in the app. If there is an occasional theft, the money will be safe. And when we return home or to the hotel, we turn on payments again with one click and can continue to use all the advantages of the card.
• We can control the card limit with one click of a button. If we pay for a hotel reservation or plane tickets, we increase the limit. If we go to the city for dinner or we know that we will not have big expenses, we reduce the limit. This allows you to feel safe and calm that if you lose your card, you won’t lose a large amount of money.
• When traveling by public transport, visiting large gatherings of people (events, festivals) myTU in mobile banking we lock the card or turn off contactless payments with one touch of a finger in the app.

Why myTU?

The ideal card for travel – one thing we miss is travel insurance with the card. This would be a very high added value, even if it was a special service that we would normally be able to purchase with myTU under special conditions and prices at the myTU OUTLET. For now at myTU OUTLET we did not buy anything, but we are very happy and promise to take advantage of the special offers of our friends ADVENTICA and GRADIALI IN PALANGA and GRADIALI IN ANYKŠČIAI offers.

Safety is paramount

myTU – an electronic money institution (EMI) licensed by the Bank of Lithuania, operating in all EU/EEA countries. All customer funds are kept in the Central Bank of Lithuania. Account access is secured using industry-leading multi-factor authentication.

Read more about travel safety in the article Safety when traveling with children.

myTU reviews – did they work?

We are really happy with our choice myTU card both for yourself and for my children.

We are “Traveling with children” and we travel a lot and even only within the borders of Europe, we recently returned from Moroccan, where not only is it not an EU country, but also the currency is different. We myTU cards we use for ATM withdrawals and payments worldwide.

Children are happy with their cards, gifts from grandparents and other relatives to their accounts, and the opportunity to be independent. In the store, children are already interested in prices, compare them, calculate what they could buy for one or another amount and increasingly refuse unnecessary or emotional purchases – because paying with their card is more responsible than asking their parents to buy something.

myTU payment card for travel and children – combine it: use it when planning trips, holidays or outings for financial literacy classes.

This article is author’s work and was prepared by “Traveling with Children ®”. Copying and using without permission is strictly prohibited.

myTU is a partner of “Travels with children ®”.

Simplify your everyday gift shopping with the whole family by using the myTU Lithuania mobile banking. Parents can conveniently use free financial services, and from the age of 7, open a mobile phone account for their children as well.