prepayed debit card with learning difficulties?

[clueless1967]

My younger brother, Graeme, who is in his 50's has Mosaic Downes Syndrome ( He has similar learning difficulties and phsyical challenges to "regular" Downes, but without the facial features you would expect.He lives with my parents, and has an active, busy life, attends lots of clubs / classes etc. Graeme has never understood money, but has always been very good at spending it! Keen to let him lead as normal a life as possible, my parents have bailed him out of countless overdrafts and credit card debts over the years, and whilst it has been expensive it was reasonably manageble and they avoided the power of attorney option.

Unfortunatly, in recent years, the advent of smart phones etc has meant Graeme has fallen prey to various online scams and "catfishing" date fraud to the tune of thousands of pounds, he has developed a habit of signing up for countless online subscriptions, and also has found some "friends" in the local town who take him to the cashpoint and " borrow" money from him.

In response we now have LPA in place, ( although not actioned yet ) and I was hoping to set up a prepayed debit card that we can load up once a month with his spending money for him to use in shops and cafes etc, but that cant be used for online transactions. The problem I have is that they all seem to allow the setting up of direct debits, and come with an App that has to be linked to a main bank account, and allows easy transfer in and out, which would still allow him to be exploited/ spend beyond his means.

Graeme isnt safe carrying cash, and doesnt like using it so I am at a loss as to how to strike the balance between financial security and independance. Anyone got a solution?

[class9F]

My son has a Fairfx card. The account is in my name and then his card is linked but has its own balance. It is managed using an app but as the account is in my name the app is on my phone. I top the card up weekly for his groceries and activities. There is a charge for ATM withdrawals so I have told him it doesn’t work at the cash point, it is possible to use online but I think you need a password to do that which again as the account is in my name I control, the card has his name on it and is used mainly contactless although periodically the pin needs to be entered. You can only spend what is in the card. We’ve only had the card for 6 weeks but seems to be working well and doing what we wanted it to.

[BenjiB in reply to class9F]

Did you need ID for your son to get a card in his name. My son needs a card in his name but doesn’t have any ID.

[class9F in reply to BenjiB]

No, I didn’t need any ID. My son doesn’t have any ID and I looked at lots of prepaid cards but most needed ID.

[BenjiB in reply to class9F]

Brilliant. Thanks. I’ll take a look.

[NSZMER]

I had daughters benefits paid to account in my name as appointee (Lloyds bank). Then I opened a joint account at Santander.daughter had a cash card and a debit card with them. I don't think she could set up direct debits, any regular payments were signed up in my name phone tv broadband so they were paid from the primary lloyds account. I transfered regular amounts on weekdays, ie £20 per day onto cash card by standing orders. Also transfered an amount for food shopping which she did on a Thurs, using her debit card.She would use this to order a takeaway or odd online purchases. I believe could only spend what was on card. occasionally she would ring me wanting extra and i would do an online immediate transfer. I could check her statements online and set up alerts which would send me texts if over x amount was spent. i also got sent 2 cards for my own independent funds in the joint account with different card numbers but I never put any money in for myself. I'd not done online banking prior to Covid but found both Lloyds and Santander easy to manage. Only downside is standing order regular transfers don't happen on bank holidays so I would have to remember to tell daughter cash would go in on the next banking day. I would at times get a text for extra cash to be transfered. Which would be available to her for immediate use. It worked well for us.

[Annabellelily Community friend]

What could be an idea here is a revolut card. While it does have an app and is easy to transfer money onto, your brother definitely won’t need to have access to the app to actually use the card. In the settings of the app, you can turn off the ability to use the card to make online payments and also turn off the ability to withdraw money from ATMs, so he’ll only be able to use it for in-person payments. You can also add a monthly spending limit.

However, it does cost about £5 to get the standard physical card, but this is a one-off payment. Wishing you and your family the best of luck