Current Account for Someone Bad With Money

fango256

Hi,

Sorry if this has already been asked, i'm struggling to get to grips with the forums and would appreciate some guidance.

My wife is pretty bad with money, she consistently spends more than she can afford and in *many* occasions exceeds her #500 overdraft and racks up expensive fees. She recognises she is bad, but is 'unable' to keep track of her spending on a ongoing basis. She will buy lots of nice things (often presents for me) but then have no way of paying for it.

We have tried budgeting and various other techniques (using cash only) but she loses interest soon after starting. She is however keen to get better - just with little or no effort

I was wondering if anyone knows of a bank account that would prevent entering any form of an overdraft and simply reject any transactions with no fee? Or have any recommendation that might work just as well to prevent overspending?

Thank you in advance.

thatsean

Take a look at the basic bank account forum on here - plenty of suggestions of which are the good accounts. I use a Natwest Step and like the service, others will recommend Lloyds, B/lays and Co-Op for a variety of valid reasons.

The Natwest a/c for example includes a debit card, and the balance updates after auth has been granted for a transaction (vast majority of the time) so she really has no excuse to fail to budget.

One note though, many BBAs report to the credit reference agencies, so she'd better learn to keep her new account in order or it won't be doing her much good.

Is she able to clear the o/d on the current account?

izools

I would advise get a cash card account and limit herself to a weekly cash budget.

Take out what she needs for the week on a Sunday / Monday, give the card to you, and tough if she spends it before the week is up. It'll be hard going for a few weeks but as long as neither of you cave in it'll work out.

Getting her a different kind of account and doing nothing else won't tackle the cause of the problem

fango256

Thanks for all the great help. I will try persuading her to use the NatWest Step account - that was exactly what I was thinking and makes a whole load of sense for her.

gt94sss2

fango256 wrote: »

We have tried budgeting and various other techniques (using cash only) but she loses interest soon after starting. She is however keen to get better - just with little or no effort

I was wondering if anyone knows of a bank account that would prevent entering any form of an overdraft and simply reject any transactions with no fee? Or have any recommendation that might work just as well to prevent overspending?

Usually, I woiuld suggest having a Basic Bank account and/or using cash but if you have tried these techniques than I guess the new 'HSBC Bank Account Pay Monthly' might be suitable.

It launches next month and has a strict overdraft limit and even if you somehow go over there are nopenalty or return fees - the downside is that this account will come with a monthly charge

Regards
Sunil

HouseHuntr

fango256 wrote: »

Or have any recommendation that might work just as well to prevent overspending?

Thank you in advance.

Yes, find another wife who can count and doesn't spend what she doesn't have !

one_hot_minute

Perhaps you should get her signed up for a money management course, via your local CAB, Money Advice agency or Credit Union. They'll offer community based courses, educating on budgeting, store card danger, what is an APR etc etc?

Alternatively, look at the Save Xmas workshops the Office of Fair Trading and Transact are offering. They deal with how to save for special occasions or Nice Things (tm).

There's no point trying to find an account to suit her slapdash attitude to spending, she needs to work in resetting her attitude.

I'm a girl, I like nice things and treating people and I used to be quite similar re cash. My lightbulb moment was when it started to damage my credit rating and I wanted to switch my mortgage to a lower rate and couldnt. It catches up eventually.

Thankfully I now work for a not-for-profit financial organisation. They've been a godsend in teaching me the way of the world re being responsible for your own personal finances!

benoit

Ulster Bank do a version of the Natwest Step Account which is much more limited than Natwest's one, you can't set up DD's or Standing Orders & it is more like just having a basic cash card because it is so limited.