Managing online purchases with the Rooster Card – Ultimate guide

Whether that’s buying something from Amazon, purchasing digital game currencies, or selling unwanted clothes and toys, online payments are here to stay, and giving our children the right skills to navigate this safely is important.

Every family is different, so there’s no universal approach for introducing online spending into kids’ pocket money routines; if you’re looking for a guide on how you could manage this, you’ve come to the right place.

Card for ages 6-17. Parent/guardian must be 18+ and a UK resident. £19.99/yr or £1.99/mo. Other fees may apply. T&Cs apply.

As soon as your child’s Rooster Card has arrived and has been activated in the Rooster Money app, they can use it for online purchases. But first, they’ll need to check there is enough money in their Spend Pot. Your child can login to the app and check their Spend Pot balance themselves, or you can check it on the Parent dashboard.

If their account needs topping up, parents can boost the account with funds from the Parent Account. If your child has money in a different Pot and they’d like to spend it, they’ll need to move it to the Spend Pot. Both methods of topping up the Rooster Card make the funds available on the card immediately. However, if you want to make sure they’re not dipping into their savings or other Pots, you can lock the Save Pot so your child will be able to add money in, but not take any out!

Our Pocket Money Index is an annual study of where and how kids are spending, and it shows that although most transactions are still happening in shops, lots of kids are choosing to spend their pocket money online.
In 2025, Tesco topped the list as the brand with the highest number of transactions and most money spent. The most popular places to spend online, however, were Apple, PlayStation, and Xbox. For more information and stats, check out our handy 2024/2025 PMI Essentials Guide for parents.

The Rooster Card can be also used to pay for any subscriptions or recurring payments your child might have. Sometimes companies will authorise your child’s card when they first sign up to a subscription. This will result in your child’s CVV being used, so they may need to generate a new one for the subscription payment itself.

If your child doesn’t have enough money in their Spend Pot for a subscription and the payment is declined, we’ll send you a push notification. We encourage both you and your child to turn on push notifications from the Rooster Money app so we can keep you posted on any card activity.

If their card gets declined, the first thing to do is check if online spending is turned on in your child’s card settings. You can find this in your family dashboard in the Rooster Money app. If online spending is enabled and a payment is declined, check there is enough money in your child’s Spend Pot to cover the payment and you’ve requested a new CVV. As mentioned above, if the CVV has expired, you’ll have to request a new one or the payment won’t go through. You can read our full list of reasons why a payment might be getting declined to find out more.

Of course, with the ability to shop online comes certain safety considerations, and we can take the opportunity to teach our kids about spending safely and staying safe online. Some top tips include:

The Rooster Card comes with enhanced security features so parents can guide their children in learning these lessons, for example, a purchase notification can help you scrutinise purchases and parent access to the app means you can undertake a number of the card administration features such as Freezing/ unfreezing the card if it gets lost.

For more info on managing online gaming purchases with the Rooster Card, check out our articles on Using the Rooster Card on Roblox, Using the Rooster Card with Microsoft and Xbox, and Using the Rooster Card with PlayStation.