How to update a child payment card

Card settings rarely stay static. As your child grows, their spending patterns shift — a teenager in Nairobi managing their own school lunch budget needs different card limits than a seven-year-old getting a weekly KES 500 allowance. When those patterns change, updating the card keeps your oversight sharp without having to reissue it entirely.

Before making changes, make sure you’ve already issued the card and know how to view its current configuration. This guide picks up from there.

When to update instead of reissue

Update a card when you need to adjust limits, toggle spending categories, or change the linked wallet. Reissue only when the physical card is lost or compromised. Most day-to-day access changes — tightening a weekend spend cap, enabling contactless after school trips, restricting specific merchant types — are handled through updates.

Steps to update a child payment card

  1. Open the card management screen. Navigate directly to your child’s card at https://kiddy.cash/family/kiddy/account/payment-card/:payment_card_id, replacing :payment_card_id with the actual card ID shown in your family dashboard. This takes you straight to the card detail view without clicking through multiple screens.

  2. Tap “Edit card settings”. This button appears in the top-right corner of the card detail screen. If you don’t see it, confirm that your account role is set to Parent/Guardian — child accounts have read-only access to their own card details.

  3. Adjust spending limits. You’ll see fields for daily, weekly, and per-transaction limits denominated in KES (or your local currency if you’re outside Kenya). Change these independently. For example, you might keep the daily limit at KES 1,000 but lower the per-transaction cap to KES 200 to prevent a single large purchase.

  4. Review merchant category controls. The category toggles let you block or allow spend types — groceries, transport, entertainment, online purchases, and so on. If your child has just started commuting in Nairobi, enabling the transport category while keeping online purchases off is a common configuration at this stage.

  5. Update the linked wallet. If your family has multiple wallets (for example, a school fees wallet versus a general allowance wallet), you can reassign which wallet the card draws from here. Changes take effect on the next transaction — there’s no delay.

  6. Set or clear a transaction code requirement. Transaction codes add a second layer of approval for purchases above a threshold you define. Useful if your child is old enough to carry the card independently but you still want visibility on bigger spends. Toggle this on and set the threshold amount.

  7. Save and confirm. Tap Save changes. You’ll receive a push notification confirming the update, and your child will see the new limits reflected immediately in their wallet view.

What doesn’t change with an update

Updating card settings does not reset the card number, expiry date, or CVV. It also doesn’t affect pending transactions — any purchase already authorised will clear under the old settings. If you need those to change, that’s a reissue scenario.

A note on KYC and parental controls

KiddyCash ties card permissions to the KYC level of the parent account, not the child’s profile. If you’ve recently completed enhanced KYC verification, higher limit tiers become available automatically — no support ticket needed. See what’s new in onboarding in KiddyCash and a closer look at onboarding in KiddyCash for details on how verification levels map to card features.