Part of our Allowance hub.

What Happened to GoHenry? It Is Now Acorns Early

If you went looking for GoHenry recently and landed on something called Acorns Early, you are not confused. GoHenry was acquired by Acorns in April 2023, and in 2024 the GoHenry brand in the US was folded into a product called Acorns Early. The card, the app, and the name all changed. Here is what actually happened, what is different, and whether the paid plan still makes sense once you compare it against free options.

The short version of the rebrand

Acorns, the micro-investing company known for rounding up spare change, bought GoHenry to expand into family finance. In the US, GoHenry accounts were migrated to Acorns Early, which is now bundled inside Acorns' subscription tiers rather than sold as a standalone kids card. In the UK, GoHenry still operates under its own name. So if you are a US parent, GoHenry as a separate product is gone. If you are in the UK, GoHenry is still GoHenry for now.

What actually changed

• The name and card. GoHenry-branded debit cards were replaced by Acorns Early cards. Existing customers were migrated.
• The pricing model. GoHenry charged a flat monthly fee per child (around $4.99/month). Acorns Early is sold as part of Acorns' Gold subscription, which costs $12/month and bundles investing, retirement accounts, and the kids cards together.
• The bundling. You can no longer buy just a kids debit card from this company. You buy the whole Acorns suite and the kids feature comes with it.
• The chores and allowance tools. The chore-to-allowance automation that GoHenry was known for carried over into Acorns Early, including paid tasks and automatic allowance transfers.

Is Acorns Early worth it in 2026?

The honest answer depends on whether you want the rest of the Acorns ecosystem. At $12/month, the Gold plan is good value if you are already going to use Acorns for your own investing and want kids cards as a bonus. If all you want is a debit card and a chore tracker for your child, you are paying $144 a year for features you can get for free elsewhere.

That is the core tension. The number one objection parents raise about these apps is cost, and it is a fair one. A kids allowance card is not a complicated product. The teaching value comes from the conversations you have, not from the subscription.

Free alternatives worth comparing

Before committing to a paid plan, look at what free apps offer. Modak gives kids a free Visa debit card, chore assignment, and gamified rewards with no monthly fee. Greenlight and Acorns Early cannot recommend free competitors because they are selling subscriptions. We can, because we are not selling a card.

Free options come with trade-offs. They often monetize through interchange fees or optional add-ons, and customer support can be thinner than a paid service. But for a 7-year-old learning to count change against a digital balance, free is hard to argue with.

You may not need a card at all

For younger kids, a physical card can get in the way of the actual lesson. A child who hands over a $5 bill and gets change feels the money leave their hands. That tactile understanding is the foundation. Many parents start with a simple allowance system and a jar before they ever introduce a card.

If you want to set a fair allowance amount first, our allowance calculator uses the common dollar-per-year-of-age guideline and adjusts for your budget. To tie allowance to real chores, a printable chore chart does the same job as the in-app task feature without a subscription. And when your child wants to spend it all immediately, the wants vs needs sorter turns the decision into a teaching moment.

Age-by-age: what money skill to focus on

• Ages 5 to 7: Counting coins and bills, understanding that money is finite, waiting for something you want. Cash works better than cards here.
• Ages 8 to 10: Saving toward a goal, splitting money into save and spend, earning through chores. A chore chart and a savings jar cover this.
• Ages 11 to 13: Budgeting a fixed amount, comparing prices, tracking spending. This is where a debit card and app start to earn their keep. Try our budget planner to practice.
• Ages 14 and up: Larger sums, gift and birthday money, the basics of how saving grows over time. Use the birthday money calculator to show how a gift could grow if part of it is saved.

What to do next

If you were a GoHenry customer, your account is now Acorns Early and you are likely on the Gold plan. Check what you are paying and decide whether the bundled investing features justify the cost. If you only ever used the kids card, a free app like Modak or a no-cost allowance system will do the same job. The card is a tool. The habit you build with your child is the thing that actually lasts.

Make allowance effortless

Penny Time automates allowance, lets kids track their balance, and puts parents in control of every cash-out. Free for the whole family.

No credit card. No ads. No strings.