Despite 88% of adults supporting required financial education classes in school, just 22.7% of high school students do not have access to classes about personal finance or managing credit, according to Next Gen Personal Finance.
To fill the void in youth financial education, uncommn, owner of the Dollar Dog Kids Club® and the preferred web development partner for innovative credit unions seeking to control their online presence, has partnered with Kiddie Kredit to offer the service at a discount to its credit union clients that use Dollar Dog. Kiddie Kredit is a mobile app designed to educate children on the credit system based on their chores. As a child completes tasks assigned by a parent or the credit union within the user-friendly app, their "kredit" score increases.
“I wanted to build the app I didn’t have when I was a kid,” Kiddie Kredit Founder Evan Leaphart explained. “I learned about credit the hard way, which kept me from landing a dream job and other things in my 20s. I wanted to partner with uncommn and Dollar Dog because we are looking to mix the old with the new for credit unions. We respect the brand that has been built and want to forge a path forward that allows for familiarity (Dollar Dog) and new technology (Kiddie Kredit).”
Leaphart added that credit unions’ mission is aligned with his company’s, but also a 2020 study found that 60% of kids whose parents bank at a credit union ultimately bank somewhere else when they become adults. “We MUST reverse that trend,” Leaphart said.
uncommn President/CEO Bo McDonald wholeheartedly agreed. “Credit unions must continue to find new ways to be relevant to the next generation of credit union members and meet them where they are,” he said. “That’s why I’m so excited to announce our new partnership with Kiddie Kredit. When we engage credit union members early using the technology they expect and providing gamified financial education, which Dollar Dog and Kiddie Kredit do masterfully, credit unions build trust with their members, earn their respect as a trusted partner, and we do it in new and innovative ways that grab and hold their attention.”
Leaphart concluded, “This partnership is about evolution and two companies sharing a similar mission to put kids on a path to financial wellness through credit unions.”