Has anyone figured out a safe way for their family member to have a debit card that you control?
My son will do impulsive things with money so we really need something secure.
You can give him a credit card that is under your account, with his name on and put a max on it. I used to have a card for my daughter (,she was not ill) under my AMEX account with her name on, with a top of $200 when she was in college. You can set it lower.
Thank you. I need to do some research.
I’ve got schizophrenia and I’ve got control over my credit cards I rarely overdraw any of my 3 credit cards. The only time my economics was in a mess was the time I drank alcohol a long, long time ago…
2 Likes
Thank you! I think as my son gets older he will have control of his credit cards. He’s only a teenager, and made some bad decisions in the past, so I’m feeling cautious. Lately he has been depositing 60 percent of anything he earns into his bank account, so he’s definitely maturing.
I use Cash App on my telephone to put money on a charge card for family members to use. I can put as little or as much as I want on the card through Cash App as often as I want. It declines without charge if there is too big of a charge attempted. I usually keep only $10 or $15 on it, and when it it used, I can see where it was used at (grocery store, liquor store, etc). I earlier set up the account attached to my bank account, so transfers onto it are instantaneous. My loved one can call me and ask for something that costs more than $15, or to please ask that I load the card with $10 if it is empty, whatever is needed. Then I access the app, send $10 and they can use it at the store in less than a minute. The card is in my name but it seems the stores accept it no matter who uses it, and I can even load it 4 times in one day if I need to with small amounts of money at no charge to me.
That sounds good. The main thing we need to avoid is subscriptions to things that are hard to get out of. I am going to look at Cash App.
1 Like
Our problem is that the person we are helping seems to spend any money that he has nearly immediately, but becomes annoyed if we try to encourage him to develop a budget, use a budgeting app, etc. On the one hand, he is an older adult, but on the other, he seems to have no money management skills. We don’t want to hurt his feelings or to offend him, but we are afraid that a court may appoint someone else to manage his benefits spending (he doesn’t have benefits now, but has applied for them), and that would be worse than our gentle reminders. It’s frustrating to give him ample cash to cover his personal expenses, like groceries, gas, toiletries, etc. (we pay his other expenses directly), then learn from other family members that he has asked them to pay for things like that. My spouse has become angry about this and has told me not to give him any extra money.