Can I send a UK debit card to my friend to use abroad?

clueless_pirate

Hi all. Its been a minute since I've been here, so excuse my ramblings. I'll try to keep it short.

I pay my friends daughters rent & bills while she is in Greece at university (its complicated)

The Greek system is broken. So instead of sending the money via PayPal, I'm hoping that there is an account with ANY UK/Euro bank where I can open it here, but send the debit card to her to access the money from an ATM. Revolut is not an option, as any account linked to her would be taxable. I've had a quick look online (Wise, Barclays etc) but I'm not too proud to admit my lack of proper understanding if everything.

I understand this is a weird one, but it would save a bucket full of problems.

Cheers!

Nasqueron

If you open it in her name it will need ID

If you open it in your name and send her the debit card the bank will likely flag it all up as fraud and if she had the card stolen and you had to admit to the bank what you were doing they would probably reject the case.

An alternative approach would be a credit card with her as the secondary card holder if that would help and she could pay bills that way (perhaps not rent)

Why not just do bank transfer so she can take the money out locally?

Ballard

Would Western Union be an option?

I used it to send myself Pesos whilst in Argentina a few years ago as you got a far better exchange rate than using ATMs (although this was specific to Argentina).

Send the money and they can collect it from a Western Union place in cash within minutes. There is a fee that you’d need to factor in. In 2023 I paid £10.90 to send myself £200 of Pesos.

eskbanker

Can't she open a student account with a Greek bank?

https://wise.com/gb/blog/opening-a-bank-account-in-greece

flaneurs_lobster

Can we assume that the rent/bills have to be settled in cash so that a transfer to the payee's bank account would not be possible?

clueless_pirate

Thanks for the comments people.

The reason for trying to keep things registered with me is taxes.

If I send 100€ and my friend puts it in her bank, it gets taxed. If she then sends that same 100€ into her daughters account, it gets taxed again.

Tax there works like you are self employed. All incomings are calculated then a tax bill comes in January. Parents taxes are linked to their children until they're 25 or something. So we're being taxed twice on every transaction. So even if it leaves her account 5 minutes later to pay the rent, it counts as taxable income.

Western Union, PayPal, Revolut, etc are all now being taxed. If you sell one item on ebay its taxed as income. Like I said, the Greek system is broken since their financial meltdown.

Even a joint account would still be taxable.

And I dont want to be sending cash.

flaneurs_lobster

So you are looking to avoid the legitimate taxes that the Greek authorities choose to levy?

It's not broken, it's the system that someone who chooses to live/work/study in Greece has agreed to be subject to, or they break the law and move to a black, cash-only economy.

Wonder if the landlord would take payment in Crypto?

eskbanker

If I send 100€ and my friend puts it in her bank, it gets taxed. If she then sends that same 100€ into her daughters account, it gets taxed again.

Tax there works like you are self employed. All incomings are calculated then a tax bill comes in January. Parents taxes are linked to their children until they're 25 or something. So we're being taxed twice on every transaction. So even if it leaves her account 5 minutes later to pay the rent, it counts as taxable income.

I'd formed the impression that this was a UK resident temporarily studying in Greece, but it now sounds like your friend lives in Greece, rather than her daughter being an overseas visitor as such?

If your friend is already a Greek resident, then she should be familiar with local laws, including taxation, and if the Greek authorities have already clamped down on money transfers, it sounds like there won't be legitimate ways of circumventing their tax rules?

friolento

It is against the T&Cs of most UK or EU bank accounts to give your debit card to someone else. There are a couple of exceptions - Reolut and possibly Wise. But from what you say, for some strange reason this would attract greek tax (difficult to believe).

What stops your friend's daughter from having her own UK-based account and debit card? What makes her a tax resident in Greece?

clueless_pirate

Also yes, I can see that fraud or money laundering would get flagged up every time.

Emmia

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81981266#Comment_81981266

You'd save one lot of tax by not sending it to your friend first, why not transfer directly to her daughter? Or is the daughter unaware that you're actually paying?