Visa Debit versus Visa Electron

ManicRuss

First of all I'm aware of the general difference between the Visa Debit and Electron: with the latter funds need to be available at the point of sale/purchase.

My daughter is about to get her first Visa Debit card and although she's generally sensible with money I'd rather her have an Electron as I still worry, perhaps a bit too much but that's a different story.

Anyway she's settled for the Debit card rather than a pre-paid etc one.

Although she doesn't have an overdraft on her bank account I know it's still possible go overdrawn with the Debit card as it occasionally doesn't check if all the funds are there - I accidentally found this out once by using the 'pay at the pump' facility when filling up my car, it allowed me to buy more petrol than the available balance should have allowed and of course I went overdrawn.

Now this wouldn't happen with an Electron or pre-paid card but she has made up her mind.

Obviously using a pay at the pump machine is different from buying something over the counter from a human etc but my question is are there any other situations/transactions where she might inadvertently be paying for something she doesn't actually have the funds for and subsequently end up overdrawn? Again she's pretty trustworthy with money but that doesn't stop me worrying.....

reclusive46

Visa Electron doesn't exist anymore (In the UK anyway).

Now there are two types of Visa debit cards. The full visa debit card that can work 'offline' (without contacting the bank or checking the balance) and the Visa 'online' debit card (Will only work if it can contact the bank). The chip and magnetic stripe tell the card machine what kind of card it is.

If your daughter is under 18 she will have definitely been issued an 'online' only card, so you have nothing to worry about, especially within the UK. (In some countries like Canada, the debit cards don't use Visa or MasterCard network, I.E. Interac in Canada, so terminals assume all Visa and MasterCards are credit cards, so they don't check for the code)

On a side note, Petrol pumps don't actually run offline, they just authorise £1 (They do actually contact the bank) and then put through the actual amount later on. Some banks do decline petrol pump transactions on their high risk customers though (including under 18s), for example Natwest and RBS.

Some banks (Santander and Lloyds come to mind) will sometimes allow childrens accounts to go slightly overdrawn unofficially with no overdraft fee (It's usually around at £10 max though) to stop transactions declining for a silly amount (I.e. Your daughter had 1p less than was needed for the transaction).

mgdavid

If your daughter is over 18 then it should be her choice. We all have to learn, sometimes the hard way. The longer sons and daughters are mollycoddled the harder it eventually is for them.