need to put a block on going overdrawn

baron777

hi 
i look after the finances for my brother, who is very bad with money, and basically when he gets paid he gives me his money, i pay all his bills, and give him whats left, in cash, but once a week (so split it into 4), so its easier for him to manage.
the last time he has his bank card he ran up a £200 overdraft, and he didnt understand that he had to pay it back, i have explained this to him, and what an overdraft is but he has learning difficulties, so have switched bank to first direct to pay off this now. 

what i want to do is give him his bank card back and just bank transfer him money every week, but i am worried about if he is still able to withdraw cash and spend on the card, even without an overdraft, banks will still allow this, wont they? and then just hit you with massive charges, for going overdrawn.

is there a way, a block can but put on this extra spending, after the money has run out in the account.

thanks

colin

Neil_Jones

Phone up the bank and ask for the overdraft to be removed.

You will only be able to spend (or withdraw) money that is actually in the account.  Note that this may cause embarrassment or otherwise when the money in the account is less than the value of the item you want to pay for, so the card transaction will decline.  This may have other unintended knock on consequences if he think the payment has gone through and it hasn't...  Only you know what might happen in that situation so...

Neil49

You could consider him having a pre-paid debit card which you could load up with funds for him. 

I think some have monthly charges but take a look at Tesco Pay+ which doesn't have any charges and MSE consider an option. There is a review somewhere on this site

molerat

A normal debit card / bank account always comes with the risk of going overdrawn, not as much as it used to be as the vast majority of transactions are now authorised but there is still a small chance.  A pre paid card is the only guaranteed way.

eskbanker

baron777 said:

hi 
i look after the finances for my brother, who is very bad with money, and basically when he gets paid he gives me his money, i pay all his bills, and give him whats left, in cash, but once a week (so split it into 4), so its easier for him to manage.
the last time he has his bank card he ran up a £200 overdraft, and he didnt understand that he had to pay it back, i have explained this to him, and what an overdraft is but he has learning difficulties, so have switched bank to first direct to pay off this now. 

what i want to do is give him his bank card back and just bank transfer him money every week, but i am worried about if he is still able to withdraw cash and spend on the card, even without an overdraft, banks will still allow this, wont they? and then just hit you with massive charges, for going overdrawn.

is there a way, a block can but put on this extra spending, after the money has run out in the account.

thanks

colin

Is this arrangement formalised, via deputyship or whatever, to the extent of his bank being able and willing to discuss his account with you, in full knowledge of his vulnerability?

baron777

eskbanker said:

baron777 said:

hi 
i look after the finances for my brother, who is very bad with money, and basically when he gets paid he gives me his money, i pay all his bills, and give him whats left, in cash, but once a week (so split it into 4), so its easier for him to manage.
the last time he has his bank card he ran up a £200 overdraft, and he didnt understand that he had to pay it back, i have explained this to him, and what an overdraft is but he has learning difficulties, so have switched bank to first direct to pay off this now. 

what i want to do is give him his bank card back and just bank transfer him money every week, but i am worried about if he is still able to withdraw cash and spend on the card, even without an overdraft, banks will still allow this, wont they? and then just hit you with massive charges, for going overdrawn.

is there a way, a block can but put on this extra spending, after the money has run out in the account.

thanks

colin

Is this arrangement formalised, via deputyship or whatever, to the extent of his bank being able and willing to discuss his account with you, in full knowledge of his vulnerability?

no it isn't its just informal, i think i'll go down the route of getting a pre-paid card, that was suggested by the other posters
thanks for the replies.

eskbanker

baron777 said:

eskbanker said:

baron777 said:

hi 
i look after the finances for my brother, who is very bad with money, and basically when he gets paid he gives me his money, i pay all his bills, and give him whats left, in cash, but once a week (so split it into 4), so its easier for him to manage.
the last time he has his bank card he ran up a £200 overdraft, and he didnt understand that he had to pay it back, i have explained this to him, and what an overdraft is but he has learning difficulties, so have switched bank to first direct to pay off this now. 

what i want to do is give him his bank card back and just bank transfer him money every week, but i am worried about if he is still able to withdraw cash and spend on the card, even without an overdraft, banks will still allow this, wont they? and then just hit you with massive charges, for going overdrawn.

is there a way, a block can but put on this extra spending, after the money has run out in the account.

thanks

colin

Is this arrangement formalised, via deputyship or whatever, to the extent of his bank being able and willing to discuss his account with you, in full knowledge of his vulnerability?

no it isn't its just informal, i think i'll go down the route of getting a pre-paid card, that was suggested by the other posters
thanks for the replies.

It's probably still worth looking into deputyship anyway, as the practice of you controlling all of his money via your accounts isn't ideal, despite this being with the best of intentions, etc, so putting things on a more formal footing would probably protect both of your interests.

WillPS

Neil_Jones said:

Phone up the bank and ask for the overdraft to be removed.

You will only be able to spend (or withdraw) money that is actually in the account.  Note that this may cause embarrassment or otherwise when the money in the account is less than the value of the item you want to pay for, so the card transaction will decline.  This may have other unintended knock on consequences if he think the payment has gone through and it hasn't...  Only you know what might happen in that situation so...

While offline transactions are still a thing no amount of intervention on the part of the bank can completely stop insufficiently funded card transactions from sending an account overdrawn, although the cases where payments are processed offline are now few and far between.

macy08

You could try a Chase account as payments are declined if not enough money in the account. They do not currently offer overdrafts.

Olinda99

I also believe Starling bank will not allow you to go overdrawn if the overdraft  slider is set to zero in the app

eskbanker

WillPS said:

Neil_Jones said:

Phone up the bank and ask for the overdraft to be removed.

You will only be able to spend (or withdraw) money that is actually in the account.  Note that this may cause embarrassment or otherwise when the money in the account is less than the value of the item you want to pay for, so the card transaction will decline.  This may have other unintended knock on consequences if he think the payment has gone through and it hasn't...  Only you know what might happen in that situation so...

While offline transactions are still a thing no amount of intervention on the part of the bank can completely stop insufficiently funded card transactions from sending an account overdrawn, although the cases where payments are processed offline are now few and far between.

I thought that some debit cards were issued for online (authorisation) use only, such as those with basic bank accounts where the bank is effectively promoting them as unable to go overdrawn.