SMS confirmation messages for secondary credit card holder - how?

marinheiro

Me and my wife are emigrating and consolidating bank accounts to leave a single UK bank account remaining in the UK we can use for anything we still need to do in this country. Our main account for many years has been a joint account with the HSBC, so we thought that was the natural one to keep, but we didn't have credit cards with them. We asked if we could both have a credit card with them and were told yes, but one (mine) would be primary, and the other (secondary) one would be my wife's and we had to apply in writing to get that. We did, received the card, and followed instructions to activate it. That needs an OTP over SMS to her phone, but there is no way to enter her phone in the joint account personal details without deleting mine. I could activate it using my phone, but what happens after that? As we understand it at the moment, although she has the card, she cannot use it for any payment where an OTP is required without me hovering by with my phone. We have asked in the local branch and been told this is Mastercard's problem, not the HSBCs.

This appears to mean that with the HSBC/Mastercard combination, yes, she can have a card, but no, she cannot use it without my phone.

Is that correct? Is so, is there any UK bank which has a working system allowing both parties to a joint account to have a credit card associated with the account which they can actually use independently?

Brie

Depending on where you are moving to you might find it difficult to continue to have a UK bank account at all.  Most people resident in the EU have had their accounts closed as banking regulations do not allow someone in (for instance) Italy to have an account in the UK.  I don't know what the regs are for other countries like NZ or the US. 

And you'll also have the issue of having to maintain a UK phone number that can be accessed overseas.  When I'm overseas I can't/won't use my UK mobile as the charges are excessive (£5+ a day) and so I get a local sim to put in my phone.  And then I can't change my account to show that number as I need the original for the OTP to change it. 

Doesn't help with your original query but thought you'd like to know.  Maybe something better is available via Channel Islands or IoM? 

amanda1024

Credit cards are pretty much always individual rather than joint, such that any additional cards are 'secondary'. I think you have two options:
- both apply for individual credit cards in each of your names
- choose a credit card provider which uses an app rather than an SMS for 2FA, and both install the app
I'm not quite sure I understand the link between having an HSBC account and an HSBC credit card?

Nasqueron

amanda1024 said:

Credit cards are pretty much always individual rather than joint, such that any additional cards are 'secondary'. I think you have two options:
- both apply for individual credit cards in each of your names
- choose a credit card provider which uses an app rather than an SMS for 2FA, and both install the app
I'm not quite sure I understand the link between having an HSBC account and an HSBC credit card?

In the UK there is no such thing as a joint credit card however some countries definitely offer them including the US, OP would probably do best moving their HSBC account to a foreign based branch of the bank

[Deleted User]

Brie said:

Depending on where you are moving to you might find it difficult to continue to have a UK bank account at all.  Most people resident in the EU have had their accounts closed as banking regulations do not allow someone in (for instance) Italy to have an account in the UK.  I don't know what the regs are for other countries like NZ or the US. 

And you'll also have the issue of having to maintain a UK phone number that can be accessed overseas.  When I'm overseas I can't/won't use my UK mobile as the charges are excessive (£5+ a day) and so I get a local sim to put in my phone.  And then I can't change my account to show that number as I need the original for the OTP to change it. 

Doesn't help with your original query but thought you'd like to know.  Maybe something better is available via Channel Islands or IoM? 

HSBC UK are one of most flexible in terms of emigrants retaining existing UK accounts.
Not sure where you get the idea of (£5+ a day) as receiving OTPs via sms are free of charge worldwide. 

lr1277

Amex allow the primary and secondary card holder to have their own apps and you authorise transactions on your own app. Potential downside, the primary cardholder can see all their own transactions as well as those of the secondary cardholder. The secondary cardholder can only see their own transactions in their own app. As usual, the primary card holder is responsbile for paying for both their own purchases and those of the secondary cardholder.

Another advantage of Amex is that potentially you can transfer your credit history if you emigrate. Assuming you have a sufficiently long and good record. I have no idea what that entails. But if you move to a country that has direct Amex offices (and Amex is not provided through a bank), then Amex might let you get credit pretty quickly in your new country if they allow you to transfer your account from your current country to the new country.

You wll also have to decide if Amex is accepted widely in the country in which it will be used.

I suppose that means if you get an Amex at some point (either here in the UK or in your new country), then choose to return to the UK, you should be able to get up and running with credit quickly.

2nd edit: when paying the bill, the money has to come from a current account with the primary cardholder’s name. Doesn’t matter if it is a sole account or a joint account. The money cannot come from an account with somebody else’s name, like the secondary cardholder or a business account, even if the primary cardholder is the owner or a director.

Edited to remove a load of not thought through statements.

lon_don

[Deleted User] said:

HSBC UK are one of most flexible in terms of emigrants retaining existing UK accounts.
Not sure where you get the idea of (£5+ a day) as receiving OTPs via sms are free of charge worldwide. 

Second that. A friend of mine left the UK in 2016 (not brexit related), went to Asia, then to France, now in the US. He  says he has updated HSBC UK with each change of address and HSBC UK has been happy to keep him all these years. Obviously what has worked in the past might not work in the future and all that...

marinheiro

Thanks to everyone who answered, it's taken me a while to get back to this. Here are some belated comments:

Brie said:

Depending on where you are moving to you might find it difficult to continue to have a UK bank account at all.  Most people resident in the EU have had their accounts closed as banking regulations do not allow someone in (for instance) Italy to have an account in the UK. 

I went down my local high street (which still has 5 different bank branches!) and asked each bank. All of them said I could keep a bank account with them even if I was resident in the EU. I have the impression there was some panic about this some time ago which has now settled down? However, all the ones which have  EU-based branches also told me that there is now no connection at all between the UK branches and the EU branches, so it doesn't simplify anything to have both a UK account and a Portuguese account with (for example) the Santander, that would be effectively two completely different banks.

For background: we currently have several bank accounts between us, some with savings accounts we will be penalised for early closure, some with pensions being paid into, etc. We are trying to rationalise this to minimise the number of organisations that we have to notify that we have sold our house, are using a forwarding address, and aren't yet resident in Portugal. So we intend to end up with one UK bank account and associated cards we will keep until the move is complete and possibly after that too. At the moment as @[Deleted User]  and @lon_don commented, the HSBC seems to be the best bet in the sense that their setup just works, which makes it particularly annoying that we can't have effectively working credit cards that are backed by the same account. 

Having written that, I've just realised that I don't know if MasterCard will let us keep credit cards based on a non-UK address either. Obviously once we are fully settled in Portugal we will have accounts, cards etc based there, the problem is just for the transition.

jon81uk

There is no such thing as a joint credit card or a credit card backed by an account.
Either apply for one credit card each or get a credit card for the first person and the other is a secondary card holder.