Would you give your 12 yo a bank card?

[mamateur]

I'm just not sure what to do. We've just adopted a 12 yo and he gran (who he lived with previously) used to put his money in an account and give him the bank card.

That was in a provincial town. But we live in central london. His school uses a swipe card system for the canteen, etc.

I would rather give him a small amount of cash every week and then that's the most he can lose. But he's furious at 'losing' his bank card.

I wondered what other parents did..

Ds came home recently saying alot of his friends have bank card snow (also 12 and 13 year olds) so he's asked if we can put his money in an account with a card.

I think it's OK as long as they know the pocket money goes in and once it's used up it's gone. Depends how responsible you think your 12 year old is.

I had a halifax cardcash account (with bank card) when I was 12 - I was at boarding school and my parents used to put my pocket money in my account. I never once lost it (I left my card losing skills quiet until I hit adulthood )

DD1 was 12 recently and one of her 'privileges' now is a fixed amount in her account each month and a bank card. So far it's gone well, but if she loses it, it will be a real lesson for her to be more cautious.

She's supposed to pay for her lunch at school, plus personal stuff, toiletries, clothes but not shoes or coats, friends' presents, small school purchases etc with that money. The amount will not increase - when she's older I will expect her to get a Saturday job to supplement her income.

My mother gave me a few quid pocket money in cash once a week and 60p dinner money (long time ago) each day until I was 18, when I left home. It was a horrible, humiliating feeling and I really don't want my kids to go through that.

Dd got a fixed monthly allowance of £10 when she started Yr 7 (rising slightly every year). Her choice if she wanted to put it in the bank or keep it about her person. Small amount of cash every week sounds a bit young for this age, but whether I'd give them a bank card or not would depend on how much money I intended to put into that particular account.

My 11 yo has a 'bank' card - Nationwide Smart account, so has access to her own money.

None of mine have ever lost their card.

He has quite a bit of money saved from the past few months, granny gave him a lot more money that we will and didn't ask him to spend it on anything like lunch or toiletries etc. I would be worried that someone at school would find out and just take him to the cashpoint to get it. It's quite a rough school, intake-wise, although very well run, happily.

actually wierdly I still have the very same cardcash account - and use it for my day to day living, I do have a current account I opened a few years ago with them but I never got round to transferring all the stuff over to it.

I'm on issue 15 of the card now - 2nd issue was when I was 19

Smart Card account or similar is ideal. The child can use it to get cash out of hole-in-the-wall machines, but not to buy stuff in shops, and can't go into the red. Is an ideal bridge between cash-only and all the facilities of a current account. My DSs have had them since age 11.

If it is lost, then so long as you tell the bank quickly it is less of a prblem than losing cash.

I'd try to find a way of letting your DS keep a card, even if it is a ddifferent account from the one he is used to.

Well, he wouldn't need to take the card to school with him, would he?

Howabout getting him to move most of the money into an account which gets interest,and using the card for the day-to-day stuff?

DS has had a card account since that age, its more convenient than having to go into the bank/building society. Okus, if he's used to it, I definitely wouldn't take it away, when he hasn't actually had any problems iver it.