Thanks to Square, Venmo, PayPal, and Google Wallet, "cold, hard cash" is slowly becoming obsolete. That's changed how purchases are made, and it's also starting to affect how children squirrel away savings and receive allowance.
The Kiwi bank ASB, along with ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand, teamed up on Clever Kash, an app and device that provides electronic saving with a physical interface. The idea is that parents often don't carry coins and bills and are doling out IOUs for pocket money for household chores—and kids aren't happy. "I don't like waiting for my money," quips a child in the promo video.
Using the accompanying Clever Kash app, kids swipe the money they've earned in the direction of the adorable elephant "bank" and it gets deposited into a real account. A screen on the elephant's belly registers how much money has accumulated over time.
"Our logic as we started to explore with our customers is that it's harder to teach their children about money if they can't touch it and feel it and see it," James Bergen, chief architect at ASB, says in the video. "Anything we could do to make that a richer, more tangible experience would be beneficial."
Parents will surely rejoice in the ease of use, ability to monitor their kids' money habits, and peace of mind knowing that Junior can't unknowingly blow their savings (since it's all accessed through mobile banking). It's nearly the same concept as an old-school piggy bank, but one thing that the Clever Kash kids won't experience is the sheer satisfaction of smashing one open to get at all those coins.
Clever Kash is currently a prototype, though you can sign up to buy one in the future on ASB's website.
[via Creative Review]