How to edit a child loan

Change the loan terms when the original plan needs to be adjusted.

Loans in KiddyCash aren’t set in stone. Whether your child’s pocket money situation has changed, you’ve adjusted their chore responsibilities, or you simply set the repayment schedule too aggressively the first time, you can edit an active loan without cancelling it and starting over.

Before diving in, make sure you’ve already created the loan and know how to view its current status. Editing builds on that foundation.

What you can and can’t change

You can edit:

  • Loan amount — useful if you’re topping up or correcting an entry error
  • Repayment schedule — frequency (weekly, monthly) and amount per instalment
  • Interest rate — if you’ve decided to waive or introduce interest
  • Loan label and notes — helpful for tracking purpose (e.g. “School trip advance” vs “Bicycle savings”)

You cannot retroactively change payments already recorded. Historical transactions are locked for transparency — your child can see what was agreed and what has been paid.

Steps to edit a loan

  1. Open the loan directly. Navigate to your child’s loan using their unique loan URL — it follows the format https://kiddy.cash/family/kiddy/account/loan/:loan_id. Replace :loan_id with the actual ID shown in your loan list. This is the fastest way to land on the right record, especially if you’re managing multiple children.

  2. Tap the edit icon. On the loan detail screen, look for the pencil icon in the top-right corner. On web, this appears as an Edit loan button below the loan summary card.

  3. Adjust the repayment schedule. This is the most common change parents make. If your child earns a weekly allowance of KES 200 but the original instalment was set to KES 300, reduce it to something achievable. Unrealistic schedules tend to demotivate rather than teach responsibility — a lesson that applies whether you’re in Nairobi or Kampala.

  4. Update the loan amount if needed. If you’ve advanced additional funds — say, your child asked for an extra KES 500 after an M-Pesa top-up — you can add this to the principal here. The system will recalculate the remaining balance automatically.

  5. Review the interest settings. If you initially set interest to teach a concept, but your child is struggling, consider reducing it. Conversely, if they’re ahead of schedule and you want to introduce a small rate as a real-world lesson, this is where you do it. Research on how chores connect to financial literacy suggests that meaningful stakes — not punitive ones — build better habits.

  6. Save and notify your child. After saving, KiddyCash sends an in-app notification to your child’s wallet view showing what changed. Walk them through the update together. Transparency here matters — it mirrors how real loan amendments work and reinforces the trust that makes tools like this effective. This also ties into why chores still matter in modern family life: when kids understand the terms of an agreement, they’re more likely to honour it.

  7. Confirm the updated schedule. Return to the loan detail view and verify the new repayment timeline looks correct before closing. Check that the next due date has updated and the remaining balance reflects your changes.

A note on badges

Editing a loan doesn’t reset badge progress. If your child has already earned a “First repayment” badge, that stays. Badge milestones track behaviour, not loan configuration.