Meet Mark Brant, CEO at nimbl: A Debit Card Helping Kids Form Good Money Habits

nimbl, part of the ParentPay group, is an award-winning prepaid Mastercard® contactless debit card and mobile app developed for 6–18-year-olds. It has a range of features that help young people to save, spend and build essential money management skills they’ll need for later on in life.

The mobile app allows parents to monitor and guide their child’s spending, provide instant top-ups, automate pocket money, send digital gift payments, and decide how much can be spent and where, with bespoke spending controls. Parents also receive alerts through the app to notify them of their child’s spending activities which, as a parent, I can testify can be very handy!

We all want our children to become confident, responsible adults, and nimbl creates a safe environment for children to learn from their own personal experiences and to develop good money habits from an early age.
 
 
nimbl card vs cash - nimbl
 

What impact have you seen from the pandemic?

 
Above all, the past year has confirmed that digital spending is here to stay. It has been clear for some time that the future is cashless, but the pandemic has certainly acceler-ated children’s induction into the digital world. In the face of shops being closed and lockdown restrictions which have been particularly hard on the youngest generation, parents have told us that their children have developed a greater appreciation of the value of money and learned some important saving skills on the way.

The pandemic has also allowed us more opportunity to get a better understanding of our customer base. Working on the inaugural Brand Hotlist alongside Mastercard, has been extremely useful for Research and Development purposes and will help shape how we make changes for the brand going forward.

It is always rewarding to see children using their nimbl cards to develop good money habits for life, and now that shops have reopened and children and teenagers have more freedom to get spending again in-person they can apply the habits learnt over the past year.
 

 

What do you think makes nimbl unique?

 
Our security and safety features really set us apart and give parents peace of mind. For instance, our micro-savings function can be used to automatically transfer a set amount of your choosing every time your child spends with their nimbl card. It makes savings goals much simpler to stick to and has certainly come in handy for children cashing in on lockdown windfalls, thanks to homeschooling financial rewards and top-ups from grandparents!
 

What do your customers like most about nimbl?

 
It’s safe, easy and fun to use – for kids and parents alike. Grandparents are fans and we’ve seen a real increase in their generation using nimbl to send gifts of money to grandchildren, particularly over the past year when they haven’t been able to see them face-to-face.

We’re proud to have been nominated as the Best Children’s Financial Provider in this year’s British Bank Awards and that is testament to the quality of our product and the excellent customer service we provide.
 

What can we hope to see from nimbl in the future?

 
nimbl was the first of its kind to introduce the functionality of micro-saving, encouraging young people to save, not just spend, and we will remain pioneers at the forefront of this market. As part of this aim, we hope to roll out more features specifically helping chil-dren to get a better understanding of saving vs spending tied in with a re-design of our current mobile app in the near future. We also recognise the increasing popularity of Apple and Google Pay and are looking into how we can bring this on board.

Watch this space!