Visa Inc. Survey: Tooth Fairy Tightens Purse Strings
Foster City, CA – August 21, 2014 – Visa's annual Tooth Fairy survey shows that American children are receiving an average of $3.40 per lost tooth this year, down 8% from last year. For a full set of 20 baby teeth, American kids will be getting a slightly more modest, but still hefty, $68, down from $74 last year.
Visa created a free Tooth Fairy app and Facebook calculator to help the Tooth Fairy determine the appropriate amount children should receive for lost teeth. The app and calculator use Visa's 2014 survey data and factors in demographics such as gender, age, home state, family size, marital status, income and education levels to formulate how much money the Tooth Fairy is leaving in comparable households. The app is available for iPhones and iPads at the iTunes Store, and the calculator is available at: https://www.facebook.com/ToothFairyCalculator.
"The Tooth Fairy has had her wings clipped," said Jason Alderman, Visa's Vice President of Global Financial Education. "Less money might be a small disappointment for kids, but it's an ideal opportunity for parents to talk to their children about the importance of saving and budgeting."
Additional findings from the survey include:
- Fathers reported a far more indulgent Tooth Fairy, saying that the Fairy left 45% more than moms said she did: $4.20 vs. $2.90.
- The Fairy may be giving just what she has in her pocket; over 50% of kids will get either $1 or $5.
- 33% of respondents reported that the Tooth Fairy left a dollar.
- Only 3.6% said that the Tooth Fairy left $20 or more, down from 6% in 2013.
- Kids in Canada are receiving the equivalent of $2.60 in U.S. dollars on average this year with the exchange rate, the same amount the Tooth Fairy was leaving kids in the U.S. in 2011.
- The Tooth Fairy spoiled kids in the West the most, leaving $3.60. Kids in the South and Northeast will each receive an average of about $3.50. The Tooth Fairy was at her most thrifty in the Midwest, leaving an average of only $3.10.
The Tooth Fairy calculator and app are part of Visa's free, award-winning financial education program, Practical Money Skills for Life, which reaches millions of people around the world each year. Launched in 1995, the program is now available in 10 languages in more than 30 countries. At Practical Money Skills for Life, educators, parents and students can access free educational resources including personal finance articles, games, lesson plans, and more.
**The survey results are based on approximately 3,000 telephone interviews among adults aged 18 or older and approximately 1,000 among households with children under age 13, in cooperation with GfK Roper's Omnibus Service "OmniTel". The margin of error on a sample of 1,000 is +/-3 percentage points.
About Visa Inc.:
Visa is a global digital payments network that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions, and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable electronic payments. We operate one of the world's most advanced processing networks - VisaNet - that is capable of handling more than 47,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and assured payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa's innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: pay now with debit, ahead of time with prepaid or later with credit products. For more information, visit corporate.visa.com.
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