Visa Debit cards not for under 18s????

rev_henry

I am under 18 and currently bank with abbey. Before that I was with A&L and barclays, both of whom gave me Visa Debit cards. Now with abbey I only have an electron card, which is proving rather awkward as I can't buy petrol at automated pumps (asda, tesco etc) or train tickets in the station. I called abbey up and asked for a visa debit card and was told I couldn't have one on my account, I'd need to go in branch to change it to a current account, with which I could have one. I asked if I could get one of those being under 18, and the answer was 'well are you under 18?', 'yes', 'oh yes your birthday's in *** (erm so why did you ask), so you'll have to wait till then to get one.' I then pointed out that I had one before with barclays and A&L, to which he replied, 'they shouldn't have given you one, visa debit cards are for over 18s only!!'

Couldn't be bothered to get into the pointless argument of 'but A&L is the SAME COMPANY as you!' Look on their website! Everyone with the account I had gets a visa debit card! Are they commiting large scale rule breaking? I think not. So I muttered words to that effect, and said I would look for another bank, and ended the conversation.
I had a similar conversation with a guy in my local branch a month or so ago. Having waited 20 mins to talk to him he said the same.
So, abbey, why can't I have one? Why do A&L give them out?

Here endeth my rant... I chose abbey as they had the best interest rate (3%), starting to think its more trouble than its worth. If anyone has any suggestions of a suitable account for me I would appreciate it.

djb215

I have a Lloyds TSB Current account (the bog standard one) and have never had any problems. Had an under 19's account with them and upgraded it to a standard current account, AND I had a Visa Debit on my under 19's.

The rate of interest isn't the most joyous (I don't know what it is on mine) but i've always had great customer service from them no matter what!

Deffo only get accounts with Visa Debit cards, I have a NatWest Student account with Maestro debit card which has about £30 and I only use it to get the free railcard!

Maestro and Solo/Electron cards are rubbish, with Visa Debit you always have that bit more security.

HTH.

LemonGrove

I'm under 18 and have a Visa Debit with Lloyds with their Under 19's Current Account, so quite obviously it's Legal for under 18's to have them. I would recommend this account, as the interest rate is only half a percent lower than the Abbey one at 2.5%, and a monthly payment isn't required to get it either.

As for why the companies in the same chain have totally different policies on it I don't know, but who knows what Abbey are doing at the best of times!

username

As I understand it, Abbey only offer 2 types of debit card. An electron card, and a 3 in 1 (cashpoint, debit, cheque guarantee) 'full' Visa Debit card with cheque guarantee.

The Electron card has no cheque guarantee and every card transaction has to be authorised, therefore (technically) meaning you can't overdraw your account and therefore borrow from the bank (it is illegal to offer credit to U18s). It's also why your card doesn't work in train stations and petrol pumps, because they don't have the facility to authorise the transactions in real time. Such electron cards are given to U18s and those with a rocky credit history.

Lack of cheque guarantee means that you can't use it for purchases in shops (in whichever places still accept cheques); because in ye olde days when everywhere accepted cheques, you could technically run up an overdraft by writing out every single cheque in your book up to the maximum guarantee limit on your card and these would not appear until they were processed. Additionally, the 3 in 1 card does not require every card transaction to be authorised in real time, so it is possible to buy stuff on the card but not have the money in your account, so therefore a form of borrowing. Again, not allowed for U18s. Hence why they are waiting for you to come back when you are 18.

Now, here's the twist; A&L, Lloyds TSB and Barclays also offer another type of Visa Debit card which is the equivalent of the electron, a 2 in 1 (debit and cashpoint only), which has no cheque guarantee. They behave in the same way as the Electrons, in that they must go online to authorise the transactions, so technically you can't spend anymore than that's in your account. These banks also offer the 3 in 1 as with Abbey. If you've been with any of these banks then you will have got the 2 in 1 card.

To be honest, you're better of hanging fire and then going for the full Visa Debit with cheque guarantee etc, as these will generally work in 'offline' terminals, such as those on trains, planes, petrol pumps etc as you may encounter similar problems with your all-auth Visa Debit in the same places as the Electron.

rev_henry

Thanks username, that makes sense. But when I was at A&L I did manage to get an unauthorised overdraft once, by their imcompetence with managing my standing orders. As I understand, its not illegal to offer U18s credit, its just there's no legal power of getting the money back, so banks don't do it. Although when I said that to the callcentre drone at A&L she got rather agitated and threatened me with a bad credit rating if I didn't pay it back. But that's another story. Which I did make a thread about at the time.
Anyway, neither I nor my friends with the type of visa debit cards you talk about have ever had any problem using them in rail stations or auto petrol places, so I don't quite know how that works in that respect.
I thought, as you say, my old visa debit cards were all auth, until transactions occasionally took 2 or 3 weeks to appear, without my temporary balance (if you know what I mean?) going down until that time. The whole situation with all these difference types and apparently sub types of card seems a bit of a mess tbh.

And Lemon and djb, I think I will go to Lloyds, thanks for that.

before_hollywood

you only waited 20 minutes to speak to someone in the abbey?

where is this magical branch with nearly enough staff?

justontime

My 14 year old son now has a visa debit card on his HSBC account, he has certainly been able to use it to buy tickets at the railway station (from the machine and the kiosk).

LeeSouthEast

I had a proper visa debit when I was still at school with Barclays (I forget the exact age.. somewhere between 13 and 15!)... so their argument is rubbish.

rev_henry

I get the impression people here don't hold abbey in particularly high regard?! Well I went into Lloyds and opened an account with them today, so I should have a proper card this week. Thanks again people.

pimento

justontime wrote: »

My 14 year old son now has a visa debit card on his HSBC account, he has certainly been able to use it to buy tickets at the railway station (from the machine and the kiosk).

Yes my 14 year old nephew also has a Maestro (visa) card from HSBC, but my 17 year old son was refused one just last month. HSBC would only give him a Solo card.

Go figure!

System

Abbey have never offered the visa debit to under 18's as far as i'm aware (i./ve only ever had an electron from them)