Bank Card - Autistic People

figrollfan24

Does anyone have any advice regarding getting a bank card for an adult with Autism? They are non-verbal, and don't have capacity to manage their own account/finances. They access the community with support staff, and historically have always used cash with staff supporting / managing this for them. However, the past few years more and more venues are going cashless meaning they are unfairly restricted from accessing preferred venues and leading to social isolation. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated!

Savvy_Sue

would a prepaid card fit the bill? No particular recommendations for this, and it would depend how often finances are checked and the card could be preloaded. 

springmagpie

Would something like Go Henry or Starling Spaces work. I use these for my daughter. I add money to the "spaces" so my daughter can them spend on the card

Emmia

springmagpie said:

Would something like Go Henry or Starling Spaces work. I use these for my daughter. I add money to the "spaces" so my daughter can them spend on the card

Go Henry is only for those under 18, under 18's with the account can use it after they turn 18 until the card expires.

Brie

What about having a debit card for an account with a very low balance?  That way you (or whomever is the responsible adult(s)) could check the account every couple of days, watch for odd behaviour/spends and top up the account as required. 

This is what a colleague was managing for an older cousin and by monitoring the account discovered the support staff had been skimming the funds regularly.  

elsien

In my experience, banks won’t  allow people who lack capacity around their finances to set up current accounts with associated cards due to the risks of them not being able to monitor what’s happening with their money. And legally no one else can access a bank account in someone else’s name if they lack capacity without a deputyship or power of attorney being in place. 

Prepaid card sounds like the best bet.

Cyclamen

Not quite the same situation but the same issue with cash not being accepted.

I have PA/Carers who go shopping for me at times.  For years I've kept a purse for carers with cash in it in a drawer at home and they use that.  But so many places don't take cash now. If I am with my team they just beep my card.. and hand it back .. its tricky if a pin number is needed as the handsets often dont come out the holders or have longer cables.

Having chatted with other friends they have pre-paid cards that they give to Carers to use.  The one suggested to me most was the tesco card. Also suggested revoult, monzo and starling.

I haven't got my act together and organised this yet but really should.. 

simongregson

The starling connected card is specifically for this, we use this for when carers take our son out. It is in the account holder name but you are allowed to give it to anyone who might spend money on your behalf, you move money from your account into a pot that they can then spend. Most account conditions do not allow you to give the card to someone else although in practice it's difficult to enforce this.

As you can just top up the pot with limited funds and have visability of all transactions on the app it works very well, as long as you are happy to have an app to operate the account. You also can't take out cash with it, but you could just give the carers some cash as you do already. In practice we have never needed to give them cash apart from when they forgot the card pin and it asked for it (it will every so often, but you are specifically allowed to give out the pin for this card to others).