Need a current account and savings account that can't spend much in a day

Falesh

My nephew, 17, wants a current account that has a spending limit of something like £200 per day. This includes bank transfer, cash withdrawal, card payments, etc. A day or more notification for a limit is fine.

If this is not possible for a current account then one work around would be a savings account with a strict daily limit, or a day or two notice before being allowed to withdraw the money. When I looked a lot of the notice account allowed access, they just stopped paying interest. This wouldn't work for his needs.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Cheers!

Grumpy_chap

Falesh said:

My nephew, 17, wants a current account that has a spending limit of something like £200 per day. This includes bank transfer, cash withdrawal, card payments, etc. A day or more notification for a limit is fine.

If this is not possible for a current account then one work around would be a savings account with a strict daily limit, or a day or two notice before being allowed to withdraw the money. When I looked a lot of the notice account allowed access, they just stopped paying interest. This wouldn't work for his needs.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Cheers!

It is hard to see what is actually trying to be achieved here, in so far as bank accounts themselves don't actually spend money.  It is only the account users that do that.

Many accounts have limits on cash withdrawals etc. 
To have limits on total spend would likely be very difficult for a bank to make work in practice:

• A cheque can be written but not seen in the account for a few days.  How does the bank know what else will already have been drawn when the cheque lands?
• Card payments are not always seen in the account for a short period while they are "pending" as the system processes the transactions.  It would be easy to buy a £100 pair shoes and then pop down the road for a new outfit (shirt, chinos, jacket and accessories) in M&S that can easily total over £100, so what does the bank do?  Your nephew has the clothes for an evening out, but one of the shops can't have the money?
• Direct Debit can draw form the account and overlap other transactions

If the aim is to counter a lack of self-discipline, some financial education may need to be the solution in the long term.  Sadly, that may be through the realities of a negative overdraft experience (though that is not the best way).  

If this is to prevent him from overspending in total, then £200 daily is £6k per month - way more than most 17-year olds have available.  Such a limit would not prevent some scary financial outcomes.

Being a 17-yo lad, would such an account work, or would it be setting a challenge to bust the limits as often as possible?

Depending on what is actually the goal here, a Basic Bank Account may be an option but I am not sure that any offer the limits in the way suggested.

From a bank's perspective, I'd be wary of providing an account to someone with the request as it does rather give the impression of someone who will spend beyond their means and leave the bank with bad-debts.

born_again

Is there a particular need for this such as they are vulnerable?

Daliah

£200 max a day? For a 17 year old? 

I suppose school holidays did start early.

grumbler

Rich people - they all have their quirks...

Do banks still do basic accounts with cash cards? Barclays say "A basic bank account includes a Visa debit card or cash card", but even if a cash card is really available, the withdrawal limit is £300, not £200.

Jami74

Falesh said:

My nephew, 17, wants a current account that has a spending limit of something like £200 per day.

Why does he want his spending limited? What happens if he wants/needs to make a bigger purchase such as buying a car/car insurance/train season ticket/new computer?

When I looked a lot of the notice account allowed access, they just stopped paying interest. This wouldn't work for his needs.

Has he got lots of money to earn interest on? If he had a relative he trusted could they hold some of his money in a separate account of their own and transfer small amounts weekly, maybe by standing order, or as he needed it? And the bulk of his money could be put in an interest bearing notice account.

Falesh

He has a mental health issue that very rarely means he loses control of his actions. Once he emptied his account when in that state and the money was lost. Because of that he would like a limit on how much can be taken out as a form of protection. This is unlikly to happen again, but if it does £200 would be all that is lost, which is a sum that hurts a lot, but doesn't set him back to square one. He would like a spending limit high enough that he can still do things like christmas shopping without getting capped out too easily.

"Rich people - they all have their quirks..." He, nor I, are anywhere near rich. His usual weekly spend is extremely low. He's trying to save up for driving lessons and then a second hand starter car.

molerat

I think the only viable fool proof option is for someone else to manage his money via a pre paid debit card keeping it topped up to £200.

grumiofoundation

But doesn’t really solve the issue that ~£6,000 a month could still be spent? (Obviously depending on what/why the £200 daily limit is based from) 

molerat

grumiofoundation said:

But doesn’t really solve the issue that ~£6,000 a month could still be spent? (Obviously depending on what/why the £200 daily limit is based from) 

But that is not the problem, the limit is to stop a splurge in excess of £200 on any one day.

Sea_Shell

What's the long term plan here as he becomes an adult?

Are there any other long term "safeguarding" measures in place?

I don't know what legal measures (Power of attorney?) need to be in place if he can't be trusted (or be able) to manage his own financial affairs, both now and in the future.