Save, Spend, and Give Online with Virtual Piggy

5 min read

Are you currently teaching your homeschooler the value of a dollar by learning how to save, spend, and even give online?  I would like to introduce to you Virtual Piggy.  Virtual Piggy, is the “safest” alternative for children to do just this.

How does Virtual Piggy work?

  • Parents sign up with their preferred method of payment such as a credit card, for future purchases.  You also provide a shipping address.
  • After the sign-up process, parents are able to create accounts for each of their children.  There are extensive parental control options such as; approved merchants, transaction limits, and levels of transaction approvals.
  • Children will never have access to financial and shipping information through Virtual Piggy.
  • Children will be allowed to view Virtual Piggy merchants.  This can only be achieved by using username and password.

Why is credit card information needed upon registration? 

This just verifies that a parent actually registered the account.  What if you don’t have a credit card?  This was my concern as my family doesn’t use credit cards.  If you have a Paypal account, this will work upon sign up as well.

As far as parental control goes for Virtual Piggy, here are your options:

  • Parents can set monthly allowance amounts, saving targets, and charity goals.
  • If you want to require approval on every purchase your child makes, you can set this option.
  • Parents can set a maxmimum limit per transaction.

Sounds interesting doesn’t it?  I definitely would like to look into Virtual Piggy for my girls.  This sounds not only practical, but educational as well.  At this point, however, you might be wondering what steps Virtual Piggy takes to make saving, spending, and giving online “safe.”  This was my original concern as well.  Here is what I learned:

“Parents credit card information is kept under Virtual Piggy’s “PCI-DSS level 1 Certified Security,” which is the highest level available.  Children never have access to parent accounts because the information is stored under the parent’s account.”

“Children only need their username and password to checkout.  Children will never be able to use a parent’s credit card, or provide personal information like name, age, birthdate, contact info, or home address.”

This is definitely a unique program don’t you think?  Virtual Piggy’s goal is to teach financial responsibility to children in this fast paced world we live in.  After all, kids are tech savvy these days right?  This online program will teach children how to make their own financial decisions within a set budget you as the parent create.  Parents and children are able to discuss money management by utilizing Virtual Piggy.  Children will get a chance to balance their spending and be allowed to see their purchase history.  This is so very important, especially since everything is one-click purchasing anymore.  Who wants a surprising charge on their bill?  I know that I don’t.  Right now, my girls are learning the importance of online safety.  We recently did a unit study on that alone.  Virtual Piggy, I think, will help alleviate those stresses and concerns.

This year, our two oldest daughters (9 and 6), are learning how to budget out their allowances and earnings towards Christmas gifts.  Because they are so young, we won’t be doing a whole lot as of yet, but they are never too young to start learning the importance of a budget.  Do you currently manage a wish list with your kids for the holidays?  Check out Virtual Piggy’s Wishlist program.  If you sign up for an account with Virtual Piggy, between now and December 7th, 10 lucky kids ages 6 and up, will be eligible to win all the products they enter on their wishlist, up to $500!  What an awesome incentive!

We currently teach our girls to save their money in their trusty piggy banks.  Very basic, but it’s a start.  They are learning about giving and donating to those in need.  Just recently, all three girls placed money into the offering bucket at church.  They felt so good about that.  What a great financial learning experience right there.  Now, I would like to take it up a notch with Virtual Piggy, I think this would be a great homeschool learning experience for them.

Virtual Piggy also has a Member Value Program (MVP) you may be interested in learning about.  After signing up for an account, when you join the MVP program, you can take advantage of amazing deals and offers from partner merchants such as:

  • O’Neill
  • Sephora
  • Toddland
  • Playdin
  • Fanlala

and much more!  Again, another awesome incentive when you sign up for Virtual Piggy!  This program is available until January 15th, 2013!

To learn more and even follow Virtual Piggy visit:

For troubleshooting within Virtual Piggy or registration, please email support@virtualpiggy.com

For questions regarding the Win Your Wishlist promotion, please email events@virtualpiggy.com

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post from Splash Creative Media on behalf of Virtual Piggy. All opinions are my own.

This post was written by:

Lindsey Clair

Lindsey Clair is a homeschooling mother of three daughters. She has been married fourteen years to her best friend Ron where he is currently a Solutions Engagement Supervisor for the State of Michigan at UPS. Lindsey possesses a degree in Child Development. She hopes to pursue a degree in Marketing and Advertising in the near future. She is currently a professional blogger and freelance writer for multiple sites and enjoys working from home while homeschooling her children. Lindsey is also a musician. She currently plays the piano and flute and sings. She was formerly the children’s director at her parents church as well as on the praise and worship team. Lindsey and her family are currently in a new transition with another church and waiting on what their next move will be. Lindsey’s hobbies include reading, shopping, blogging, and hanging out with family and friends.

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