How Does FamZoo Work?

As the registering parent, you pick a unique family name along with sign-in names and secure passwords for each member of your family.

The Virtual Family Bank

Once registered, you can quickly set up your own private virtual family bank. It’s like financial training wheels for your child: a hands-on way to learn financial basics by trial and error in a forgiving environment without the expense, risk, and complexity of a real world financial institution.

Within your virtual bank, you can create any number of spending, savings, and charitable accounts for any number of children. Each account holds virtual dollars. In other words, the current balance in an account represents an IOU between you and your child. Your real money stays where it is until you are ready to make a purchase on your child’s behalf or distribute it to your child in whatever form you find most convenient: cash, debit card, or a transfer to a real bank account.

When real money does change hands, you adjust the virtual account balance accordingly. Your child might hand you a birthday check or babysitting wages, which you would then credit to their FamZoo account. Or if you’re out shopping and your child wants to make a purchase with their FamZoo funds, you buy the item and then debit their FamZoo account. Enter amounts on our web site or from your cell phone if you’re on the go.

If you create a FamZoo allowance for your child, the designated accounts are automatically credited on a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis. For example, you may wish to split a weekly allowance so that 80% flows to a spending account, 10% to a savings account, and 10% to a charitable giving account. FamZoo allowances are easy and convenient: no need to remember to hand out the allowance and no chance for the money to get lost or to be spent without your knowledge.

As parents, you are the managers of your family bank. You define its policies to encourage behavior that is consistent with your family’s unique set of values.

Family Checklists

You can create family checklists to keep track of all kinds of things. Here are just a few examples:

• Keep your personal ToDos on a private checklist. Send yourself reminders when items are due.
• Have your child enter homework assignments on a checklist that is shared with you. Get notified whenever your child checks one off (even when you’re on the road).
• Create a checklist of chores that is tied to your virtual family bank. Credit your child’s account whenever a chore is completed (or perhaps debit the account whenever the chore is evaded!)
• Make a checklist for grocery items. Share it with the rest of the family so everyone can add items as needed. Send it to a mobile phone so your spouse can swing by the store on the way home.