Cash card for 13 year old

[mrs2cats]

DS who's 13 has just been asking us about getting a cash card. The idea is that we pay pocket money into an account and then he withdraws cash or pays in shops with the card. I'm not sure what the benefits are and whether he really needs one but he says that it's so that he doesn't always have to worry about having cash on him. I do see the benefit from a budgeting point of view.

Anyway, I've been looking around and I can't seem to find many accounts that do free cash cards. I've looked at prepaid cards but they charge an ATM fee. I've heard of GoHenry and such but DH is reluctant to pay fees.
Barclays seems to do an account for 11 years+ with free card.

Does anyone have experience of this? Is it a good thing? Can a limit be set so that they don't go overdrawn?

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

TIA

Lloyds bank do an under 19s account with a card.

My DCs both have Halifax accounts with cash cards - they're 12 & 14. I think they're young saver accounts or something similar

As for using the cards, DS is so careful he hardly ever uses it, so there's no risk of him ever spending it all whereas DD would fritter it away on sweets & makeup so I keep her card unless she needs it! There's no overdraft facility so once it's gone they can't go overdrawn.

They put their birthday/Xmas money in the accounts, & we'd saved up £2 coins since they were born & put that in there too, so I keep a careful eye on the balances.

Dd has had the Barclays one since 11yo. £22 a month pocket money goes in. She can use it in shops, online and cash machines. She can't go verdrawn. I think its great.

my dc have all had accounts with Santander with cards.

Wow, it's obviously more popular than I thought! I'll have a good look. Seems like you can ensure they don't go overdrawn and that's reassuring.

Thanks!

My 12 year old has a Barclays account with a debit card, same as Viva's DD.

Have a look at Osper too.

Both my teens have NatWest accounts which come with debit/cashpoint cards.

Forgot to add - they also can't go overdrawn.

I have an adapt account from NatWest for my 13 yr old ds my friends daughter has a Santander 123

They are great it's loaded once a month with money for school meals and a little bit of pocket money

He never asks me for money he seems to manage it well it's been a real blessing I think it's a great idea!

DD got a current account, with card, at Lloyds when she was 13. We had to be interviewed by the branch manager to make sure that we weren't money launderers! As others have said, the card doesn't allow them to go overdrawn.

DS has an Adapt account at Nat West too. He can't go overdrawn and can use internet banking to check the balance and transfer over from his savings account if he needs to. He is also able to use the card to pay in shops.

Mine have had the Lloyds ones as well, which give a decent interest rate up to £2000.
DS1 just started uni and his account was converted automatically into a Student current account.

The way the card works makes it impossible to go overdrawn - the money in the account is checked immediately when they try to make a purchase, because it's not legal to give any kind of credit to an under 18. Not everywhere that takes cards will take them, but most places do, DS had one from abot 13 and found it very convenient, but I think the card machines at stations wouldn't take them back then. (but that was, eek, 8 years ago...)

Both my sons (now 14 and 13) have a RBS account with a cash card and also have on-line banking which is good for keeping an eye on the balance too. They can't go overdrawn.

I keep a record of their PIN number just in case!

Both my DC had accounts early on as they has paper rounds so the wages had to be paid into an account.

Both my dds have a natwest account with a debit card, they are 15 and 12.

Can't go overdrawn, their pocket money gets paid in weekly and they put birthday and Xmas money in too. They are not allowed to use online banking (think you need to be at least 16 for that) but they do get a weekly text with their balance and also a text if balance drops below a set point.

Mine all have Lloyds accounts with cash cards.

Ours are with HSBC. They automatically open both a current account and a savings account.

My oldest two DS have accounts with RBS. Pocket money gets paid in, there are no charges. It's great as they can now pay for their own on-line purchases. They can't go overdrawn.

My two have Barclays accounts with debit cards. As others have said they can't go overdrawn. You can only spend what's in the account.

My ds2 (13) has a barclays account and ds1(17) a santander one both with debit cards.

Halifax with us from 12 IIRC: cash card and online banking. Converted into a no-overdraft current account on her 18th.

Just convenient really.

We have synced our kids' accounts to our banking apps so we can keep an eye on their spending. They also have the app on their phones and we encourage them to check their balance regularly so they can see the impact that $1 here, $2 there has on their balance. We all bank at the same bank so, if they earn extra money (for example, when DS babysits for us), we just do an instant transfer via our phones. Piggy banks are long gone in this house!