Bank Account With Transaction Limit?

enell

Hi all.

Recently my mother had a very close shave and nearly fell for a text based phishing scam. Thankfully her bank spotted the problem, and their fraud prevention team contacted her and put a stop to things just in time.

For this reason, we went to her bank and asked that they set a transaction limit - i.e. she can use her debit card/banking app etc. as normal, but if a transaction exceeded a certain amount they would 'step in' and seek further verification.

They have informed us that all they can do in this regard is all or nothing - either she will have to speak to them for all transactions, or she can spend as she wishes with no checks (apart from, of course, any that their algorithms identify as potentially problematic).

Does anyone know of a bank that offers what I've described? We're keen that she retains her autonomy, but want an extra safety net given her close call.

Many thanks in advance.

mebu60

Santander. The default is £5k. I've upped mine to the maximum but presumably it could also be reduced if that works. It's not an intervention though, it is a block at the limit but you can go online to increase it if you know you have a large payment to make then reduce it again afterwards. 

tacpot12

Another mention for Santander. I have my limit set to £2,000. Increasing it via online banking only requires me to confirm that it was I who requested the increase - they sent an One-time Passcode to my phone. This might serve to trigger your mother into talking to you about any payment she needs to make that is above the limit. You could ask her to promise to always ask you if she wants to increase the limit for any reason. 

This close call might be enough to make her more wary next time. 

eskbanker

enell said:

Recently my mother had a very close shave and nearly fell for a text based phishing scam. Thankfully her bank spotted the problem, and their fraud prevention team contacted her and put a stop to things just in time.

[...]

We're keen that she retains her autonomy, but want an extra safety net given her close call.

Just to be clear, if her bank intervened, this presumably signifies that she authorised a payment that they challenged and ultimately stopped, i.e. she did fall for the scam, not 'nearly' fell for it.  Apologies if that seems pedantic, but minimising such incidents can be counter-productive....

UKX69

NatWest allows you to amend your daily transfer limits between £0 - £20,000 per day in multiples of £500 in online banking.

Rob5342

Monzo let you set a daily transfer limit after which an extra security check is required. You hsve a choice of three controls, two of which are having another monzo customer verify it or scanning a qr code. The intention is to provide extra security if your phone is stolen but if she used you as the contact and you kept the qr code then it would do what you want. 

enell

eskbanker said:

enell said:

Recently my mother had a very close shave and nearly fell for a text based phishing scam. Thankfully her bank spotted the problem, and their fraud prevention team contacted her and put a stop to things just in time.

[...]

We're keen that she retains her autonomy, but want an extra safety net given her close call.

Just to be clear, if her bank intervened, this presumably signifies that she authorised a payment that they challenged and ultimately stopped, i.e. she did fall for the scam, not 'nearly' fell for it.  Apologies if that seems pedantic, but minimising such incidents can be counter-productive....

You're right, she did fall for it - not pedantic at all. I should really have said that the scammers were nearly successful.

Zanderman

HSBC allow transaction limits to be set using the app. Minimum allowable is 1000.

eskbanker

williscreg said:

Barclays and HSBC  have robust fraud protection systems and real-time notifications. She could set notifications for transactions exceeding a certain amount, so she receives a prompt message for any significant expenditure.

OP is looking for prevention rather than detection, i.e. enforcing a limit rather than notifying when it's exceeded.

[Deleted User]

Although definitely not involving a scam, I was really apprecative of a notice on screen when I was about to withdraw ( £30) from my bank's cash machine  'warning' that I was about to withdraw cash from my credit card.  I immediately cancelled the transaction.

I then realized that my very recently renewed credit card looked very similar to my 'regular' debit card.  Without realizing it I had put my credit card in instead of my debit card.  The credit card cash withdrawal, if not cancelled, would have incurred a charge.

I use the same PIN for both cards so may need to change the credit card PIN to be different from my debit card one.

I was really glad of the cash machine 'warning' notice.

enell

Thank you all for your suggestions, it's very much appreciated.

As eskbanker has said, what I was really hoping for is prevention - anything that can be overridden by my mother is problematic, because if she gets confused and/or is pressured etc. she can just change her settings.

It looks as if what I wanted isn't available without going down the power of attorney route, which is not something I think is necessary.

Thanks again.