Bank card for cash and shop-sales only?

lizardwalker

A vulnerable relative (we have attorney access to all financial affairs) is repeatedly being telephoned and asked for bank details, which they provide. We play whack-a-mole cancelling the direct debits online. Not to mention the VISA payments. We cancelled all credit cards, now using just one Debit card where we blacked out the CVV.

Bank not interested in helping us prevent repeated fraud offering us no solution. Relative still wishes to be "independant" and judged to "have capacity", but short-term memory issues mean relative is unaware of this repeated behaviour. Still capable of doing food-shopping trips.

Is there a bank card that can be used to withdraw cash from ATMs and used to pay shop purchases, but not usable for "customer not present"? Preferably one that does not have the bank account details embossed on the front.

Aware there is a larger issue here: bank services for the elderly to prevent them being ripped off by persistent scams.

Robin9

On the telephone front - your relative is obviously on a list - look at the call blocking where you can block all but selected numbers.

Or you could you change her phone number

SnowTiger

lizardwalker wrote: »

A vulnerable relative (we have attorney access to all financial affairs) is repeatedly being telephoned and asked for bank details, which they provide. We play whack-a-mole cancelling the direct debits online. Not to mention the VISA payments. We cancelled all credit cards, now using just one Debit card where we blacked out the CVV.

[...]

Is there a bank card that can be used to withdraw cash from ATMs and used to pay shop purchases, but not usable for "customer not present"? Preferably one that does not have the bank account details embossed on the front.

Starling Bank?

https://www.starlingbank.com/

Only my account number is printed on my card, not the sort code. The card doesn't contain enough information to set up a direct debit.

Starling's app allows you to block certain types of payment, including online payments. I guess this would prevent all card not present transactions. Perhaps someone can confirm that?

Revolut, a pre-paid card, offers similar features. As far as I'm aware it's not possible to set up a direct debit on a Revolut account.

https://www.revolut.com/

[STRIKE]I'm not aware of any mainstream bank that offers the features you want[/STRIKE].

Checking through the banking apps on my phone I note Barclays Bank offers a feature to block remote purchases: Internet purchases, in-app purchases, mail orders and telephone purchases. But you cannot block direct debits. I think you're unlikely to find any bank that would offer that feature. Perhaps you could obfuscate part of the sort code or account number on the card?

lizardwalker

Thanks for the suggestion. We have tried the call blocking - but it requires action from the relative to allow the call through. Any such "new" systems are just impossible to implement and we had to revert after complaints from callers that no-one could get through.

Changing the 'phone number will, indeed, be our last resort. The effort will be considerable though: contact all relatives, friends, service providers. It only needs the fraudsters to get through once on random dial and we will be back at square one.

18cc

The Starling bank sort code is I would assume very easy to find

it might be better to open a NatWest account where the account number is not printed on the card. If your relative is happy not to know the account number then a direct debit cannot be set up of course

Also scratch off the CVV number on the back. the card can still be used for contactless and chip and pin but not knowing the account number and not knowing the CVV will limit its other functionality

If you also want to limit contactless then NatWest can give you the debit card with contactless disabled so the only way it can be used as chip and pin

18cc

Starling does indeed allow you quite a lot of control over the card for example you can turn off internet payments and only have ATM withdrawals or shopping

also if you put the Starling app on your mobile phone you can be notified in real-time of anything happening such as direct debits being set up or money taken etc

d123

18cc wrote: »

The Starling bank sort code is I would assume very easy to find

The Starling details aren’t embossed, it would be very easy to scrape the account number off.

And to confirm, you can also lock the card down to only allow card present transactions.

Cornucopia

Nationwide (and others) have savings accounts which come with a card that is for cash withdrawals only. (It still looks like a Debit Card, but it isn't).

In Nationwide's case, the card can only be used in Nationwide cash machines and branches, which may be too restrictive. Other providers' offers may be more flexible. Compared to some other solutions, it is free to operate, though.



I think this is a huge issue, and it's disappointing that all the Banks seem very reluctant to help.

badger09

Cornucopia wrote: »

Nationwide (and others) have savings accounts which come with a card that is for cash withdrawals only. (It still looks like a Debit Card, but it isn't).

In Nationwide's case, the card can only be used in Nationwide cash machines and branches, which may be too restrictive. Other providers' offers may be more flexible. Compared to some other solutions, it is free to operate, though.



I think this is a huge issue, and it's disappointing that all the Banks seem very reluctant to help.

But those cards can't be used to pay for shopping. It sounds like a prepaid card would be safest in these circumstances.

System

I would suggest Revolut.

It doesn't have GBP D/D facilities and has various settings to disable card functionality such Internet CNP transactions.

Terry_Towelling

It might sound daft but could you create a large notice and place it next to the phone to remind the relative not to give out any bank details when on the phone.

Alternatively, could one of you have your mobile phone number applied to the account and then enable text message warnings for any direct debit set-ups and any new payee set-ups?