The way I would have done it:<p>1) Parents are charged via typical merchant mechanism to fill their account with &quot;credits&quot; worth $0.99 each, costing $1.00, and can optionally allow the app to automatically top-up their account when low.<p>2) The service sends cash in a registered mail envelope at a frequency configurable by users, with mailing fees paid for by credits.<p>Then the business can function and grow a user-base, and by holding the balance, the company can build up a lot of cash-on-hand which will enable them move onto the bank integration they originally wanted. Bonus: receiving legitimate mail and getting cash in hand are very exciting experiences for a kid.