Credit Card for son - can I set a spending limit?

malteaser_2

Hi everyone

I was wondering if anyone knew of a credit card which would allow me to give a second card off the account to my son who has just turned 18 but allow me to set a credit limit of say £500 for him. I want him to have a credit card when travelling for emergencies but don't want a high limit in case the temptation is there to spend!

Malteaser

nh

You can just ask the CC company for a £500 limit. But you won't be able to ask them for a £500 limit for your son, while you use the card for other things with, say, a £5k limit. It would have to be a card for just your son (even though he is the secondary cardholder)

Martinslovechild

I think that if he applied for a Barclaycard in his own name, then even if they offered a higher limit, you could request that this is reduced to, say, £500.

The other poster is correct - you can't carry a £10K card but your son have a £500 limit as a secondary card holder.

Magentasue

But if he's 18, a card in his name is under his control - isn't it? I bet if you tried to negotiate with a credit card company about HIS account, they'd mutter about data protection. They go from 17 year olds unable to get credit to 18 year olds targeted by credit providers overnight.

I looked this up, prompted by a scene from 'The Sopranos' - in the USA you can get a card for your offspring where you set the credit limit and can put it on hold etc. Essentially it works like a bank account because you have to top it up - then the funds are available. The beauty of it that they can use it like a credit card - ideal for emergencies. Don't think we have anything like that over here. ???

Margaret_Millne

What about opening a joint bank account in both your names, with debit cards.  Put some cash in it for emergencies, and negotiate a lowish overdraft limit just in case.  Ok, he would have access to the account, but could not exceed the overdraft limit - or at least not by very much.

For added safety, you could make it "both to sign" then he could not negotiate a higher overdraft limit without your say so.

MarkyMarkD

@MM - if the account is "both to sign" I don't think you could have debit cards on it, which rather messes things up.

@MagentaSue - I don't know of an exact match of the US situation, but you can do the same sort of thing for online purchases only using Cahoot's WebCard system.

If you set up a Cahoot credit card account, you can create a virtual credit card with its own specific limit, which can be used for online purchases. You could give the details of this card to your offspring for their online purchases. Might be a good way for presents etc. Probably breeches Cahoot's Ts & Cs to give them the information though, but it would be a mechanism for providing a fixed amount of credit to a teenager.

wirm

I applied for a capital one credit card, expecting to get a £500 credit limit you can imagine my suprise when I opened the letter to notice that it was £2500!

I think thats a tad much for an 18 year old student earning just over £5000 a year!

But as I am so tight with my money I have no worries about getting into debt cause I don't spend what I don't have!

Margaret_Millne

@MM - if the account is "both to sign" I don't think you could have debit cards on it, which rather messes things up.

@MagentaSue - I don't know of an exact match of the US situation, but you can do the same sort of thing for online purchases only using Cahoot's WebCard system.

If you set up a Cahoot credit card account, you can create a virtual credit card with its own specific limit, which can be used for online purchases.  You could give the details of this card to your offspring for their online purchases.  Might be a good way for presents etc.  Probably breeches Cahoot's Ts & Cs to give them the information though, but it would be a mechanism for providing a fixed amount of credit to a teenager.

Point taken MarkyMarkD. I actually have a current account in my sole name, which my son keeps the debit card for - I know, breaking T&C's - but it is actually his money anyway (from an inheritance), and I only keep a tiny amount in it for him - the rest is in a deposit account, also in my name. The current account also has a £250 overdraft limit for emergencies.

My son is 21 and actually likes it this way, as it stops him from overspending. As I say, it is his money, so he only has to ask if he wants any putting in the current account, but it makes him think whether he really needs it.