A regular allowance (Photo by Prostock-Studio on Shutterstock)
Survey Shows Parents Admit They Rarely Monitor Kids’ Purchases, And They’re Paying A Hefty Price
In A Nutshell
- 1 in 3 parents say their child has made an unauthorized online purchase, costing $170 on average, and sometimes much more.
- Kids are buying more than games, with reports of spending on smartwatches, phones, and even cryptocurrency.
- The survey shows that the average child gets $119 each month in allowance
- 61% of parents wish financial experts could step in, as overspending continues despite allowances and family rules.
NEW YORK — It’s 10 p.m., do you know what your child bought today? Maybe it was a smartphone, a video game, or even cryptocurrency. According to a new survey, 31% of parents with children 18 and under have experienced this exact scenario, with each incident costing an average of $170. Perhaps even more stunning: the average child is earning well over $100 in allowance each month!
The digital spending problem has become common enough that it’s changing how families approach money management and financial education. With payment information stored on devices and one-click purchasing becoming standard, children can make expensive purchases before parents know what happened.
How Much Kids Spend Without Permission
The Talker Research survey of 2,000 American parents shows the cost range for these unauthorized purchases. About 1 in 5 parents reported their child’s spending exceeded $300, well above the $170 average.
Children aren’t just buying video games and clothes. Some have purchased computers, smartphones, smartwatches, and cameras. A few parents even reported their children bought stocks and cryptocurrency.
With payment information saved on devices and one-click purchasing options, children can complete transactions quickly. Parents often don’t discover the purchases until they check their accounts or receive notifications.
Why Parents Aren’t Monitoring Digital Spending
Despite the financial risks, many parents aren’t closely monitoring their children’s digital spending. The survey found that 23% of parents rarely or never check their children’s debit and credit card activity. Additionally, 11% rarely or never require their kids to get permission before making digital purchases.
The monitoring gap may reflect parents’ busy schedules and the challenge of keeping up with rapidly changing technology. But it also points to a deeper issue: the difficulty of teaching financial concepts when money becomes invisible.
“Overspending online can be a slippery slope for anyone, but it’s especially true for kids in an era where nearly everything is just a click away,” said Brad Stroh, co-founder and co-chief executive officer at Achieve, which commissioned the research. “Parents are busier than ever and struggle to keep up with monitoring their kids’ purchases. However, it’s important that they have a game plan to teach their kids financial awareness so they understand the value of money early on.”
Teaching Kids About Digital Money vs Cash
The survey found a disconnect between what parents hope to teach and what children understand. Among parents surveyed, 72% feel their child doesn’t fully understand the value of a dollar. This becomes more challenging with digital transactions, as 44% of parents admitted it’s harder to teach kids the value of digital money compared to physical money.
When children see parents tap a card or click a button to purchase items, the connection between spending and losing money becomes less obvious than when cash visibly changes hands.
Most parents still use traditional allowances to teach money management. The survey found 57% give children regular allowances, with 73% paying in cash. Children receive about $119 per month on average, though 14% receive more than $250 monthly.
Budget management remains difficult even with set allowances. Only 12% of parents said their kids never exceed their allowance, indicating that overspending continues regardless of established spending limits.
When unauthorized purchases happen, parents respond in different ways. The survey found 56% address the situation by talking with their children about what happened. Other consequences include taking away devices (23%), requiring children to pay back the money (20%), and freezing or restricting bank account access (11%).
Parents want their children to understand money better. Two-thirds (66%) said they’d be more relaxed about their children’s spending if kids showed they understood money’s value. But teaching these lessons proves difficult, with 61% of parents wishing a financial expert could teach their child healthy spending habits.
“There’s no single ‘right way’ to teach kids to have a healthy relationship with money, but the key is for parents to have a thoughtful, tailored and consistent approach to their kids’ financial education,” said Stroh. “Starting conversations with kids about money early on will set them up for a more successful financial future.”
As online shopping continues growing and payment methods become easier to use, parents may need to develop new approaches for teaching financial responsibility. The challenge involves not just individual families, but also schools, financial companies, and technology firms that influence how young people interact with money.
Making digital spending feel as real as cash transactions will likely require better tools for parents to monitor purchases, clearer conversations about money, and educational methods that help children understand the actual impact of clicking “buy now.”
Survey Methodology
Talker Research surveyed a nationally representative sample of 2,000 American parents with a child aged 18 and under living at home. The survey was commissioned by Achieve and conducted online between April 14 and April 23, 2025. Participants came from traditional online access panels and programmatic methods, with quality controls eliminating rushed responses, inappropriate content, automated responses, and duplicate entries. The survey was only available to individuals with internet access, so results may not apply to those without internet access.
