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PrePaid credit card for Special Needs adult........any ideas please.
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Clive1056
Posts: 5 Forumite

in Credit cards
My son is 27 years old, with Special Needs ( learning difficulties and physical disability) and I am his Court of Protection appointed Deputy
(since 2004) and I am in possession of the COP Order (Property and Affairs). He has been awarded damages and is financially well off.
He is vulnerable with cash and has, in the past, been abused by several of his friends whereby they make him give them cash daily.
He currently uses an N26 prepaid MasterCard card and I have the App on my telephone so that I can monitor his spending. Unfortunately, due to Brexit, N26 (a German bank) are closing down their UK operations and will no longer operate in the UK as of 15th April.
I transfer £150.00 each Monday morning onto his card (by bank transfer) for his coming week’s spending money.
I have restricted the card so that he cannot make cash withdrawals at ATMs.
I have restricted his spending so that he can only spend £30.00 per day (in as many transactions as he likes).
He uses his card daily to buy breakfast, lunch, snacks, drinks, general nick nacks etc.
Often he uses his card in excess of TEN times a day.
He uses his card on multiple occasions every day of the week.
I am able to restrict usage of the card in the following ways:-
i) ATM withdrawals on/off
ii) Online payments on/off
iii) Payments abroad on/off
iv) Set limits on spending and payments
v) I can “freeze” and “unfreeze” his card if he thinks that he has lost it.
vi) The card is in his name (Which is very important to him as it means that he is "independent" of me).
Can anyone suggest a Card that I can try that will fulfill all (or most) of the above criteria. I've spoken to GoHenry, but I would need to apply for 4 cards ( at £2.99 each per month) as they have a limit of 20 transactions per 4 days. (Nowhere near enough for my son).
I need to submit yearly accounts to the Court of Protection so I'm really looking for something simple.
I can provide ID for him ( passport ) but he has no letters coming to him in his own name so proving his address is difficult (although he is on voters register).
There must be hundreds, if not thousands of carers that find themselves in this situation. The COP are unable to help, other than to suggest that I give him cash, which then makes him extremely vulnerable to abuse on a daily basis.
Any suggestions please ??????
He is vulnerable with cash and has, in the past, been abused by several of his friends whereby they make him give them cash daily.
He currently uses an N26 prepaid MasterCard card and I have the App on my telephone so that I can monitor his spending. Unfortunately, due to Brexit, N26 (a German bank) are closing down their UK operations and will no longer operate in the UK as of 15th April.
I transfer £150.00 each Monday morning onto his card (by bank transfer) for his coming week’s spending money.
I have restricted the card so that he cannot make cash withdrawals at ATMs.
I have restricted his spending so that he can only spend £30.00 per day (in as many transactions as he likes).
He uses his card daily to buy breakfast, lunch, snacks, drinks, general nick nacks etc.
Often he uses his card in excess of TEN times a day.
He uses his card on multiple occasions every day of the week.
I am able to restrict usage of the card in the following ways:-
i) ATM withdrawals on/off
ii) Online payments on/off
iii) Payments abroad on/off
iv) Set limits on spending and payments
v) I can “freeze” and “unfreeze” his card if he thinks that he has lost it.
vi) The card is in his name (Which is very important to him as it means that he is "independent" of me).
Can anyone suggest a Card that I can try that will fulfill all (or most) of the above criteria. I've spoken to GoHenry, but I would need to apply for 4 cards ( at £2.99 each per month) as they have a limit of 20 transactions per 4 days. (Nowhere near enough for my son).
I need to submit yearly accounts to the Court of Protection so I'm really looking for something simple.
I can provide ID for him ( passport ) but he has no letters coming to him in his own name so proving his address is difficult (although he is on voters register).
There must be hundreds, if not thousands of carers that find themselves in this situation. The COP are unable to help, other than to suggest that I give him cash, which then makes him extremely vulnerable to abuse on a daily basis.
Any suggestions please ??????
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Comments
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revolut offers those features.
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+1 for revolut.
The spending limit is monthly though but just transfer the 150 at a time. I think it only costs £5 upfront to get the card and then the rest is free. I use it as my card when I go abroad and have never had any issues with it.
If you want I can give you a referral link that gets some kind of benefit (i think you get a free card at the moment)
--edit I just realised you need to limit to to £30 a day... not sure if you can do it with revolut, i can't see an option. Try looking at Monzo perhaps?1 -
You could consider Starling - just set the overdraft slider to zero on the app.0
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I think a Rooster Money (aimed mainly at kids like gohenry) will do everything you require (if it does please do pm me for a referral code).
Or slightly different tack, get a Curve card (again feel free to ask for a referral code), give him that (it will link to any number of underlying cards, but set the restrictions on the curve card)0 -
N26 is a bank, not a prepaid card, there's no need to resort to a prepaid product.
Starling Bank or Revolut have those kind of controls on transaction types with the card and are used with the phone app in the same way as N26. Also Monzo, can freeze but less specific controls.Evolution, not revolution0 -
Thanks for the suggestions so far.......
The problem I have with these banks is one of supplying ID for my son. it's difficult to supply proof of address for him.....everything for the house (all bills etc) is in my name.
In theory, as I'm his Deputy (he lacks capacity for financial matters) he shouldn't have a Bank account in his own name.. All was working well with N26 until they decided to pull out of the UK.
I will take a look at the suggestions given above.........and put the results on here.0 -
A basic bank account might be suitable. Many banks have introduced freezes, etc.
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tehone said:I think a Rooster Money (aimed mainly at kids like gohenry) will do everything you require (if it does please do pm me for a referral code).
The 25 spends in 7 days will rule my son out .....he uses it on average 10 times each and every day !Maximum Card number of spends per day.........................
15
Maximum Card number of spends within 7 days.............
25
But Thanks for the suggestion. I'll keep trying. I'll be looking at Curve next !0 -
just give them walking about cash money, bus fare, snack ,money .I do not think a special needs adult should be issued with a credit or debit card. I can see a robbery waiting to happen.0
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Clive1056 said:The problem I have with these banks is one of supplying ID for my son. it's difficult to supply proof of address for him.....everything for the house (all bills etc) is in my name.Evolution, not revolution0
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