I noticed Apple promoting their iTunes Music Store Allowance feature that lets you fund your child’s iTunes habit without providing him or her a credit card (or at least the information from one). It got me wondering what other electronic/virtual allowance methods other parents provide: Second Life Linden Dollars? PayPal credit? Is the presumed mini-lesson in budgeting and economics lost when allowance is given in something other than traditioanl legacy cold hard cash? How’s virtual allowances working out in your home? I haven’t tested it out in mine yet.
MY son traded his allowance for a World of Warcraft account about eight months ago.
I haven't heard a peep of complaint from him since then. If he wants Real World cash, he just does some babysitting, or something.
About a year ago, we replaced our daughter's cash allowance with a visa buxx account (http://www.visabuxx.com/). This gives her a debit card that can be used in cash machines and any place that takes visa to spend her allowance.
It also makes it easy for us or others (grandma on birthdays, etc) to make a deposit in the account. So far it has been a worthwhile experiment but we do think that the setup and card replacement fees are a bit steep.