Anyone used a Post Office travel money card?

[Loulabelle27]

My son is going abroad with school at half term. He's 16.
It's a full week away so he's going to a bit of spending money and at their age they're expected to look after it themselves which is fair enough. I was thinking of getting him a prepaid travel money card from the Post Office - I assumed this would be straightforward but it turns out you have to be 18 to have one. I rang the helpline and they said as long as he has the card and the pin he could use it, but it was against their terms and conditions so they wouldn't advise it. I'd rather not send him with $100 in cash and no way of replacing it if he lost it or had it stolen, but I've never used one before so I'm not 100% clear how it actually works. Has anyone used one and if so can you foresee any problems if I did this? thanks!

Does he not have a bank account with a debit card? I'd just send him with that personally, with the spending money paid into his account.

I've used one for years, use it every time I go away. Can't see why it would cause any problems. Plus it has a handy app that you can access to show the balance and you top it up from the app too so if he became short of funds you could easily add some more for him. It's basically just a pre paid MasterCard.

What Brianna said.
My 18 year old used one on a Paris trip a few years ago. Easy to apply for link it to an account so you can transfer funds when needed

My under 18 year olds have both used this. Worked fine in New Zealand and South Africa. We all have the app on our phones. They have the pin. Just use it for getting cash out as I'm the one who signed it. Not the cheapest way of dealing with other currencies but convenient.

I was wanting to avoid him having a fee for every transaction Rockchick; I don't know if some banks don't charge one for debit cards but his definitely does. Sounds like a prepaid card is worth a try then - thanks for your help everyone

Look at a Starling Teen account. I don't know what the difference is, but the standard current account gives totally free banking with no fees and the interbank rate, which is unbeatable, so I can't see them charging teens for the same thing.

www.starlingbank.com/current-account/bank-account-for-teenagers/

You can set it up in days with an app so if you start today, he'll be set by the end of the week.

Thanks Barbara, I've never heard of that but I'll have a look