What card for under 16?

movilogo

What are options for an under 16 child to use debit/credit card for low priced purchased like bus ticket, food in supermarket etc.?

Are there any prepaid cards which can be used in lieu of debit/credit cards in shops?  

Mnoee

This is a good starting point: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/cards-for-under-18s/

The basics are : No credit cards, kids accounts are free with a debit card, prepaid cards have finer controls for parents but have a fee. 

Ebe_Scrooge

That's excellent advice above.  Yep, you're not allowed to have any form of credit if you're under 18, so credit cards are a non-starter.  Any of the high-street banks will offer a basic account that comes with a debit card - obviously this gives kids free reign to spend as much money as they have available in their account.  Can be a good way of them learning (sometimes the hard way!) about the value of money, and budgeting.  But a pre-paid card obviously has a set limit that you can control - depends how much you trust the kids.

DullGreyGuy

Ebe_Scrooge said:
Yep, you're not allowed to have any form of credit if you're under 18, so credit cards are a non-starter.

Not exactly... you cannot be an account holder under 18 for a credit card but in principle there isnt an issue with a secondary cardholder being under 18 as additional cardholders arent party to the credit agreement however many card companies stipulate they have to be a minimum age.

Looking at an old thread Capital One didnt used to stipulate a minimum age, havent tested if this is still true or not. 

jon81uk

How old are they?
I got an account with HSBC when I was 12 I think, (this was 28 years ago) got a card I could use for cash machines and then debit card purchases. It also came with other benefits such as discounted CDs, money off at certain shops and other bits.
I then kept the same account, so when I got a Saturday job age 17 it went in there and it converted to an adult account when I was 18.

Thats probably the best option for a teen, let them open an account of their choice. The banks don't seem to offer the incentive packages like that anymore though!

mgfvvc

I got my kids an HSBC account because they paid the best interest when I was looking. It was an incredible palaver. If you are a customer, it's apparently OK, but a non-customer trying to open a childrens' account with them seems to be a huge challenge.

jon81uk

mgfvvc said:

I got my kids an HSBC account because they paid the best interest when I was looking. It was an incredible palaver. If you are a customer, it's apparently OK, but a non-customer trying to open a childrens' account with them seems to be a huge challenge.

Yes thats more of a concern nowadays compared to when I was a teenager, the banks want more proof of ID etc.

So the best answer for the OP might be to check what children or teenager accounts are offered by wherever they do their banking.

lr1277

Can you be a money mule with this type of account?

Even if you can’t with this type of account, you should warn your kid about being a money mule for somebody else.

mgfvvc

jon81uk said:

mgfvvc said:

I got my kids an HSBC account because they paid the best interest when I was looking. It was an incredible palaver. If you are a customer, it's apparently OK, but a non-customer trying to open a childrens' account with them seems to be a huge challenge.

Yes thats more of a concern nowadays compared to when I was a teenager, the banks want more proof of ID etc.

Proof of ID was the easy bit.

The website and call centre said I have to open the account in my local branch if I'm not a customer. The local branch's first response was "we can't open accounts it has to be done online". When I said I couldn't a more senior member of staff was called who said they couldn't open accounts at that branch and they would have to send all the documents to a bigger branch.

I forget all the details now, but it took at least 6 weeks to sort everything out.

you might think that opening accounts for new customers was a key competence for a bank in a competitive market but, in my experience, HSBC are spectacularly bad at it.

artyboy

mgfvvc said:

jon81uk said:

mgfvvc said:

I got my kids an HSBC account because they paid the best interest when I was looking. It was an incredible palaver. If you are a customer, it's apparently OK, but a non-customer trying to open a childrens' account with them seems to be a huge challenge.

Yes thats more of a concern nowadays compared to when I was a teenager, the banks want more proof of ID etc.

Proof of ID was the easy bit.

The website and call centre said I have to open the account in my local branch if I'm not a customer. The local branch's first response was "we can't open accounts it has to be done online". When I said I couldn't a more senior member of staff was called who said they couldn't open accounts at that branch and they would have to send all the documents to a bigger branch.

I forget all the details now, but it took at least 6 weeks to sort everything out.

you might think that opening accounts for new customers was a key competence for a bank in a competitive market but, in my experience, HSBC are spectacularly bad at it.

When I was serial-switching, HSBC was far and away the worst and slowest to have to deal with. Given they also seem to have a reputation of being the most picky of the mainstream banks, there's a sort of lingering arrogance that you should feel lucky to get an account with them!

With the now relative ease of moving/opening accounts elsewhere, no wonder they are having to bribe people to get them to put up with the pain of opening an account.

Anyway, rant over - to the OP, my kids have both had Santander 123 mini accounts for several years and no problems with them... in fact my elder one easily converted hers to a student account recently and got a useful railcard out of it...

crumpet_man

I use HyperJar for my child, really easy to setup and no need to supply any ID for the child.  Easy to send money to child (and take it back) freeze card, monitor transactions etc.

Only drawbacks are no cash withdrawal from ATM on child's card and HyperJar isn't a bank so the rules/protection is different.