Pockit pre-paid card - 99p monthly fee from March 2019

GlennTheBaker

I’ve just had an email from Pockit regarding “improvements” to their service - one of which is the introduction of a monthly fee of £0.99 effective March 2019. Bit of a shame as I have a couple of these into which my children’s pocket money, birthday money, etc. goes but will now be closing them and using something else instead.

omega27

Yes got the same, I use them for the children also. But the next best option seems to be Nimbl at £15/yr per card, then Osper & GoHenry. So might just have to stay with Pockit, unless anyone knows any others with lower fees?

eDicky

Why pay any such fees when bank accounts are free, including for children 11+..?

Or for a true prepaid account without fees (18+) there's loot.io

GlennTheBaker

Both I and Mrs Baker have just signed up for a Monese account each which comes with a free debit card and no fees for spending on the card (ATM withdrawals incur a £1 fee but won’t use that). We'll just use these for the kids in the same way we used Pockit.

There’s a referral bonus of £15 when topping up £50 and there’s a thread in the Referrers forum.

omega27

Pockit have confirmed that the charge is only for the main account & not the additional cards. 99p/month is very reasonable compared to the alternatives.

GlennTheBaker

omega27 wrote: »

Pockit have confirmed that the charge is only for the main account & not the additional cards. 99p/month is very reasonable compared to the alternatives.

It’s still 99p too much in my opinion when there are options that do not charge.

MABLE

I had an email from them a little while ago wanting to know where the funds were coming from to fund the account and lots of other intrusive questions. However it was closed over a year ago.

eDicky

Monese looks like it costs 0.35% just to add money, cash costs more:

https://monese.com/pricing

GlennTheBaker

Funds added by Faster Payment incur no fees

alternate

email mentions a cancellation fee. I assume that will not be the case if you reject these new terms and close but would need to confirm.

Anthorn

eDicky wrote: »

Why pay any such fees when bank accounts are free, including for children 11+..?

Or for a true prepaid account without fees (18+) there's loot.io

+1

My son dumped Gohenry due to the cost and went with the Santander 1|2|3 Mini Current Account for my 4 grandchildren. Children aged 13 and over get a contactless debit card or cash card while children under 13 have accounts held in trust and don't get a card. However in common with other accounts of this nature parents can give children aged 11+ full control of the account in which case they will get a card. My grandchildren love it because in their words it's a grown-up current account but they also say it's for rich kids lol

Opening the account is a bit cumbersome if you want to give children age 11+ and under 13 full control: You have to open the account with trust status and then remove the trust status.

https://www.santander.co.uk/uk/current-accounts/123-mini-current-account