How to Pause a Child Loan

Pausing a loan lets you temporarily suspend repayments and interest accrual without losing any of the loan’s history or configuration. This is useful when a child’s circumstances change — say, their weekly allowance is redirected during school fees season, or you’re travelling to Nairobi for a few weeks and want to hold things steady until you’re back. Pausing is not the same as cancelling: the loan remains intact and can be resumed at any point.

Before You Pause

Make sure the loan is in Active status. Loans that are already completed, defaulted, or pending approval cannot be paused. If you need to adjust terms before pausing — for example, changing the repayment schedule or the interest rate — do that first via editing the loan, then come back here.

Steps to Pause a Loan

  1. Open the loan. Navigate directly to the loan using its unique URL: https://kiddy.cash/family/loans/{loanId} Replace {loanId} with the actual ID shown in your loans list. You can also reach this page by going to Family → Loans and tapping the loan card.

  2. Confirm the loan is Active. The status badge at the top of the loan detail page will show Active in green. If it shows anything else, pausing will not be available.

  3. Open the loan actions menu. Tap the three-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner of the loan detail page. You’ll see options including Edit, Pause, and Delete.

  4. Tap “Pause Loan”. A confirmation sheet slides up summarising the loan — borrower name, outstanding balance, next repayment date, and any accrued interest. Review these carefully, especially if the child has a pending repayment due within 24 hours. Payments already scheduled via M-Pesa or from the child’s KiddyCash wallet will be held and not processed while the loan is paused.

  5. Set an optional resume date. You can leave this blank to pause indefinitely, or pick a specific date. If you set a resume date, KiddyCash will automatically reactivate the loan on that date and notify both you and the child via the app.

  6. Confirm the pause. Tap Pause Loan in the confirmation sheet. The loan status changes to Paused immediately. The child’s wallet will reflect that no deductions are pending, and their loan badge will update accordingly.

What Happens While a Loan Is Paused

  • Repayments stop. No automatic deductions are made from the child’s wallet or linked M-Pesa number.
  • Interest accrual behaviour depends on your loan settings. If you configured the loan with simple interest and no grace period, interest continues to accrue during the pause. If you want to freeze interest too, edit the loan and toggle Freeze interest during pause before confirming.
  • The loan record is preserved. All transaction history, repayment logs (including any KES amounts already paid), and the original loan terms remain unchanged.
  • The child can still see the loan. It appears in their wallet under Loans → Paused with a clear status indicator, so there’s no confusion.

Resuming a Paused Loan

To resume manually before any scheduled resume date, return to https://kiddy.cash/family/loans/{loanId} and tap Resume Loan from the same three-dot menu. The next repayment will be recalculated from the resume date forward.

If you haven’t set up a loan yet, see how to create a loan for a child to get started.