HyperJar Pre-Paid Card Overdrawn?!?!?!

n_s_simpson

HyperJar promises to make sure that your children can only spend what's in their "jar".

Well my son used his card and it was authorised as expected. The vendor apparently didn't complete the transaction for several days and in the meantime my son successfully used his card elsewhere. The earlier transaction then completed leaving the card with a negative balance.

HyperJar said that my main wallet doesn't have enough to clear the negative balance so they want me to load more cash onto the card or my account will be suspended.

The amount of money is only small and that's not really the issue here. HyperJar's own website claims that this can't happen because authorised money is made unavailable to the card holder unless the vendor declines the transaction.

I've spoken to HyperJar via live chat and agent was unwilling to accept that this shouldn't have happened so HyperJar in my opinion should cover the debit.

Apparently this does happen sometimes so HyperJar's system in fact doesn't ensure that a child can only spend the money given to them. Thank God my case is only a small amount.

Anyone else had this happen to them?

Can anyone recommend an alternative?

wiseonesomeofthetime

Yes. It happened to me, several times, so I ditched them.

Apparently it's in the terms and conditions that if the child jar does not have sufficient funds it CAN be taken from your wallet, even if it puts you overdrawn.

In our case, the root cause was bus travel.

The bus company take £0.10 on boarding, but the remaining £1.90 per fare can be taken days later, by which time my kids both spent that pending cash.

They both have proper child bank accounts now. Starling 16+, and Nationwide FlexOne (after using Revolut<18 for a while, without issues.

For the record, HyperJar continued to send me snotty emails about being in debit, weeks after I had restored my wallet to a small credit. I made a complaint. Sent visual evidence of my balance, and they confirmed it was a technical issue and I received a £20 goodwill gesture. The app wouldn't let me transfer it to my bank though as it still considered me in debit, despite account now showing £20.20.

Managed to clear it via topping up my Iceland by full balance, then closed account.

Still had emails after closing it. Ignored them.

la531983

wiseonesomeofthetime said:

Yes. It happened to me, several times, so I ditched them.

Apparently it's in the terms and conditions that if the child jar does not have sufficient funds it CAN be taken from your wallet, even if it puts you overdrawn.

In our case, the root cause was bus travel.

The bus company take £0.10 on boarding, but the remaining £1.90 per fare can be taken days later, by which time my kids both spent that pending cash.

This will likely happen with any card, where the final amount is finalised later (see Oyster transactions).

Would also happen with offline transactions (those done on a plane for example)

Not sure what the OP could have expected to have been done here, and as said all other cards should do the same, in theory.

jimjames

la531983 said:

wiseonesomeofthetime said:

Yes. It happened to me, several times, so I ditched them.

Apparently it's in the terms and conditions that if the child jar does not have sufficient funds it CAN be taken from your wallet, even if it puts you overdrawn.

In our case, the root cause was bus travel.

The bus company take £0.10 on boarding, but the remaining £1.90 per fare can be taken days later, by which time my kids both spent that pending cash.

Not sure what the OP could have expected to have been done here, and as said all other cards should do the same, in theory.

More the claim by Hyperjar that it can't happen when it clearly can under a number of scenarios

born_again

jimjames said:

la531983 said:

wiseonesomeofthetime said:

Yes. It happened to me, several times, so I ditched them.

Apparently it's in the terms and conditions that if the child jar does not have sufficient funds it CAN be taken from your wallet, even if it puts you overdrawn.

In our case, the root cause was bus travel.

The bus company take £0.10 on boarding, but the remaining £1.90 per fare can be taken days later, by which time my kids both spent that pending cash.

Not sure what the OP could have expected to have been done here, and as said all other cards should do the same, in theory.

More the claim by Hyperjar that it can't happen when it clearly can under a number of scenarios

This issue is with the retailer & how they work the auth of the transaction. As explained above not all auths are for the full amount. Which can lead to this issue especially over a weekend or public holidays.

dino2020

Interesting point, though can see how easy it could happen with small travel fares etc.

However on an adult account, what would happen if the physical card or phone was stolen and they went of a spending spree, could they spend more than whats in the account ?

WillPS

dino2020 said:

Interesting point, though can see how easy it could happen with small travel fares etc.

However on an adult account, what would happen if the physical card or phone was stolen and they went of a spending spree, could they spend more than whats in the account ?

My instinct is to say that in this scenario, so long as the card was promptly reported as stolen it'd be on the issuer to sort it - however I'm less certain that's the case with a prepaid card. Hopefully someone else can confirm.