is a cash card a good idea for a carer to use for shopping?

johne1966

Hi all, I manage the finances of a house bound 87yr old neighbour, who I have become friends with over the past couple of years. He has a home help, organised though Age UK, once a week to do shopping for him, amongst other things. Currently I give cash to my friend on a weekly basis, for him to give to the home help for the shopping, but I would prefer for him to have a card (probably contactless, as easier to use) that he could give her, which I could load with the appropriate amount of money each week (~£40) and she used that. Then my friend doesn't need to worry about finding the right amount of cash and I can see, online, how/where the card was being used. Assuming it was not possible to go overdrawn on the card, then this seems a safer/simpler approach than handling cash, especially with some shops not accepting cash currently. Can you recommend a card that could be used like this? This has to be something which is official enough, for Age UK to be happy with this approach too - i.e. the handing over of a payment card.
It seems to me this must be a common situation, but I can't find any other threads about it - yes I have looked - apologies if I have missed something!
John

tacpot12

Caxton do a contactless Mastercard where you can load the card with a set amount and see the transactions via their online service. You can't spend more than has been loaded onto the card.

Caxton really aims at international travellers, but you have a card denominated in Pounds Sterling and use it in the UK. You can block the card using the online service, so if it is stolen or misused, you remain in control. 

I'm sure their will be other card services that do the same thing, but I only know about Caxton. I use it to send money to my daughter who lives in Denmark. She has a second card on the account with her name on it, and I just add money to the account when I want to send her money. It's worked well for us.  

born_again

One thing to remember is that a contactless card needs the pin entering every so often (security) So carer would need to know the number.
Do you have POA on your friend to be able to monitor & control their finance's, as you appear to be doing?

If the shopping is just at a supermarket, then what about one of their cards which you can load with credit, but you will not really be able to track spending without the receipt.

I'm sure there are other cards, but something like Pokit or GoHenry are cheaper to run. As other can have high monthly fee's

https://www.money.co.uk/prepaid-cards.htm

Even try speaking to AgeUk, as they may have something already in place to cover this.

johne1966

Thanks tocpot12, but looks like their Red Card (for free UK transactions) costs £5/month, which I was hoping to avoid.

Zanderman

Have you looked at FairFX?  They have a preloadable 'currency card' designed for travellers but don't be put off by that - it's also useable in the UK. 
They used to (haven't looked into this recently) offer subsidiary cards for friends and family - which you could side-load from the main card via the app.  I used this option to give an elderly family member a card she could use on trips out from her carehome.  Seemed to work fine, and iirc, no fees.
https://www.fairfx.com/currency-card/

johne1966

Thanks born_again. I don't have PoA, but we set up a joint bank account with Santander (his bank) and I have moved his household bills to that (DD) and I am using that, with none of his money going via my account. I am still getting his pension out as cash at PO, but hope to transition that to the join account soon. For a few months I had ~£1500 of his cash at my house, as a security measure, after the police had to break into his flat to allow paramedics to attend and resulting lack of security in his flat. He insists of leaving the door unlocked to prevent this happening again, even though there is a key safe, for which Care Link have the combination.
His main shopping is at Iceland, but occasionally other shops (e.g. getting stamps), so don't really want o go with a store card. Also I do everything online, so want to be able to track this online too.
I don't really mind the home help having the PIN, no greater risk than the cash she is handling now.
I am also asking AgeUK, so hope to get clarity from them, but fear they will just say no, because it is sharing of a "bank card", which seems a bit of a blinkered view, in our increasingly cashless society.

johne1966

Thanks couth, that looks ideal :-)
Don't know if it is limited to Derby & Derbyshire or can be used anywhere (my friend and I are in Brighton). I am asking my local Age UK contacts.

tehone

Get something like Hyperjar or Tally (both free) - you can load these with an amount of money, even give the carer the PIN in necessary, the apps will give you an additional record of the spending (as they will appear in the app), as well as the carer hopefully also getting a paper receipt.

Of you could get a Curve card and attach it to the card you have for the Santander account - upside no loading - downside possibility of larger spends than you want if you're not paying attention to the app, which will notify you of transactions in real time in app and via email (it allows you to freeze the card too)

dr_adidas01

You could open a starling account and then you can get a connected card that you can give to a person you trust, which you load with an amount of your choice and can be used to by that person for shopping or other items that are needed.

https://www.starlingbank.com/features/connected-shopping-card/

born_again

johne1966 said:

Thanks born_again. I don't have PoA, but we set up a joint bank account with Santander (his bank) and I have moved his household bills to that (DD) and I am using that, with none of his money going via my account. I am still getting his pension out as cash at PO, but hope to transition that to the join account soon. For a few months I had ~£1500 of his cash at my house, as a security measure, after the police had to break into his flat to allow paramedics to attend and resulting lack of security in his flat. He insists of leaving the door unlocked to prevent this happening again, even though there is a key safe, for which Care Link have the combination.
His main shopping is at Iceland, but occasionally other shops (e.g. getting stamps), so don't really want o go with a store card. Also I do everything online, so want to be able to track this online too.
I don't really mind the home help having the PIN, no greater risk than the cash she is handling now.
I am also asking AgeUK, so hope to get clarity from them, but fear they will just say no, because it is sharing of a "bank card", which seems a bit of a blinkered view, in our increasingly cashless society.

What you are doing it great, if only more people would do this to people in need.

Please have a look at POA as much to protect yourself as your friend. AgeUk should be able to provide you we some good advice.

JGB1955

I provided my father's live-in carers with a Cashplus card.  I had full oversight of transactions, topped it up as necessary and it was approved by the care company.  I think I only ever paid one fee for it - something in the region of £5.