Recommend A/C with debit card & NO overdraft

janineo

Hi,

I'm trying to help my sister out of her debt.
I've basically taken temporary control of her accounts from her and done things like transferred a personal loan to 0% credit cards.

I've also set up a second current account for her. They are both Nationwide accounts - one into which her wages get paid, and to which she has no access, and a second, cash-card only account which she can take money out of from the ATM. It does have a £300 overdraft though.

I've set up regular transfers between the two so she has in effect a 'weekly allowance'. This allowance is for her free spending as any bills get paid from the wages account.

She accepts that she's very bad with money - she tends to see overdrafts & credit cards as money she can spend. She is getting better though.

The problem is that she ends up taking £50 or £100 out of the ATM at a time so she doesn't get stuck somewhere without any cash. This is not always a good idea as she now has cash in her purse to spend when she might not otherwise.

What I'd like to do is get her an account that won't give her an overdraft, and won't allow a debit card transaction to take place if she doesn't have the money for it, but will allow her to buy stuff in shops and over the Internet if she does have the money.

I'm trying to teach her to use money more sensibly, and as she's going in on a 3 way split with our other sister & boyfriend on a mortgage, now would be a good time.

However, I don't know of any accounts that do that. If you buy something on a Nationwide debit card and you don't have the money it tends to allow it and then bounce the transaction later and charge lots at you for doing it, making the situation worse.

Can anyone suggest a suitable account for me?

Sorry for the long ramble,
Many Thanks,
Janine

Sillychuckie

I too was looking for something like this long ago and never found anythiing. Banks want your money so allow the transactions to go ahead, and then charge.
Perhaps if you visited your bank manager at a branch and stated you wanted the £0 to mean £0, they could do something to help you.
As for a product that advertises itself as £0 meaning "no more cash/spending for you", I'm not aware of one. You need to speak to the bank and get it down in writing.. that way, should they attempt to charge you for something later, you have evidence to show that they agreed they were going to prevent the transaction in the first instanace.

grumbler

You can ask Nationwide to remove overdraft from the account with a cash card. After this she won't be able to draw more than she has on the account.

Majority of banks provide basic accounts with Solo or Visa Electron debit cards (Nationwide don't). These cards can be used for purchases, but are supposed not to allow transactions exceeding current balance. In theory you cannot get overdrawn with these cards. However, in practice this can happen particularly with small retail transactions.

I think at the moment a cash card without overdraft limit is the best option for your sister.

janineo

Thanks for the recommendations.
I've tried taking the overdraft off the account before, and she managed to go overdrawn anyway, and then get charged for it. But that was when it was still a debit card account, so I might give it another go as it's only a cash card account now.

One other idea I had was getting one of those pre-paid meastro cards instead.
Does anyone know if they are any good? Are they worth the annual and loading charges?

Cheers,
Janine

david_hellier

I would suggest a National Savings ordinary account: no overdraft and a cash card. Easiest to open at a Post Office with a passport.